Vast Throng in Bangladesh Protests Killing of Activist

Pavel Rahman/Associated Press

Mourners in Bangladesh on Saturday carried the coffin containing the body of Rajib Haider, an organizer who was killed.

NEW DELHI — Tens of thousands of people resumed mass demonstrations in Bangladesh’s capital on Saturday, intensifying their demands for more severe punishment for war criminals from the country’s 1971 liberation war, while also demanding justice for the slaying of a blogger who had been a leading organizer of the protests.

The coffin bearing the body of Rajib Haider, an architect and blogger, was carried through the crowd in a public funeral at Shahbagh, a major intersection in Dhaka, the national capital. Bangladeshi television showed thousands of people kneeling in prayer, chanting slogans or waving banners bearing Mr. Haider’s image. The crowd were estimated at more than 100,000 people.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Mr. Haider’s family on Saturday to express her condolences. Mr. Haider’s body was discovered Friday night near his home, after he had been savagely stabbed. His family has told the Bangladeshi news media that they believed that he was killed for his role in the protests and his outspoken criticism of the fundamentalist Islamist political party Jamaat-e-Islami.

“Haider’s killing occurred at a time when the youngsters have awakened and united the whole nation,” the prime minister told Bangladeshi reporters during her visit to the family’s home. “Let me promise that we will not spare the killers.”

Saturday was the 12th consecutive day in which crowds of protesters have poured into the Shahbagh site for demonstrations. The movement began Feb. 5, when a coalition of bloggers called for protests against a verdict by the special tribunal prosecuting people accused of committing atrocities during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

The tribunal had handed down a life sentence to Abdul Quader Mollah, a Jamaat leader, after convicting him of murder, rape and torture. Protesters, however, demanded that he be sentenced to death, given the severity of his crimes. Many suspected that some sort of political deal had been reached to spare Mr. Mollah’s life.

The bloody legacy of the 1971 war continues to cast a shadow over Bangladesh: an estimated three million people were killed and many of those suspected of committing atrocities have never been prosecuted. Besides the protests in Dhaka, demonstrations have spread to other major cities and towns across the country.

By the weekend, protest organizers had agreed to reduce their round-the-clock demonstrations to only seven hours a day. But they reversed that decision after the killing of Mr. Haider, and the crowds quickly swelled with college students, workers and other citizens.

Meanwhile, followers of Jamaat-e-Islami have staged often violent protests against the government, which the party has accused of manipulating the tribunal as a way to go after political rivals.

The presiding justice of the tribunal has resigned over irregularities that arose over its proceedings.

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Lawyers lick their chops as new study links cell phones to lower brain cancer survival rates

For the past 10 years, a diverse group of epidemiologists has tried to nail down an association between mobile phone use and brain cancer. This has not panned out. Several recent, large-scale European studies have indicated there is no correlation. However, every now and then a research paper still tries to approach the topic from a new and unusual angle and manages to keep the issue alive for awhile longer.

[More from BGR: Verizon’s Galaxy S IV detailed in purported benchmarks]

The February issue of Neuroepidemiology has one of those clever exercises that gives American class action lawyers a glimmer of hope. Oncologists Hardell and Carlberg opted to analyze the survival rates of glioma patients after the diagnosis had been made. This is an interesting twist to the usual theme of simply trying to find a higher frequency of gliomas among heavy cell phone users.

[More from BGR: After using Microsoft’s Surface Pro, going back to the first Surface is agonizing]

The pool of patients was picked from 1997-2003, the period when mobile handset usage had become so prevalent in Sweden that a large percentage of patients used them regularly. In the highest tertile of cumulative wireless phone use, hazard ratio for glioblastoma was 1.2. This means that patients using wireless phones had 20% higher chance of dying.

Oddly, the study claims that mobile phones and cordless phones had a similar effect on survival rates. This is an interesting note because the radiation profiles of late ’90s GSM phones were not similar to cordless phones.

The study has some of the usual flaws that most papers claiming a link between mobile phones and brain cancer possess. The choice to pick the “highest tertile” of heavy wireless phone users for the key finding seems oddly arbitrary. Why not the highest quartile or highest quintile, both of which are far more commonly used in medical studies? Could it be that the statistical results for those slices are weaker?

Ironically, the study admitted there was a survivor benefit for heavy wireless phone users diagnosed with astrocytoma grade I-II. The scientists speculate that this could be due to “exposure-related tumour symptoms leading to earlier diagnosis,” which seems to mean that phone use saved some patients by causing the cancer to develop in a way that made early detection easier.

This is a fairly impressive feat of mental acrobatics.

Research papers trying to nail down the link between mobile phones and cancer keep popping up, mostly in journals with an impact factor under 0.5. Neuroepidemiology is a serious publication, possessing an impact factor of 2.3. This is still far below the heavy hitters like Science and Nature, which float  serenely at impact factor levels topping 30.

It is likely that unless a major study lands in one of these leading scientific journals, large class action lawsuits against major phone vendors will not be launched. The phone-glioma link remains the Holy Grail of the litigation industry though, because first small studies suggesting an association between mobile phone usage and cancer started popping up in late ’90s. If convincing statistical evidence is ever found, lawyers can claim that the phone industry has been aware of the issue for more than a decade and could have taken stronger measures to inform consumers.

It is possible that even if the link exists, the extra risk may be so small that teasing it out from statistical noise and other factors will always be impossible. What complicates the dark quest of class action wizards is that these days, practically everyone uses mobile phones and cancer incidence levels keep shifting due to other environmental and dietary factors.

For now, the $ 100 billion litigation frenzy remains a vague sketch on a legal notepad.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries Divorce Is Headed to Trial

By Ken Lee

02/15/2013 at 03:45 PM EST

Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian

Seth Browarnik/StarTraks

Kim Kardashian had a good day in court Friday in her ongoing divorce battle with Kris Humphries.

A judge ruled that their case – in which Humphries alleges that Kardashian committed fraud by never intending to be married – is ready for trial.

"[Humphries] has had more than adequate time to prepare," L.A. Superior Court Judge Stephen Moloney stated during the Friday hearing. A trial date of May 6 was set. Neither Kardashian nor Humphries were present in court on Friday.

The NBA star's attorney, Marshall Waller – who had filed papers Thursday to be removed from the case – has long claimed difficulty in gathering evidence from various TV studios that work with Kardashian.

Kardashian, whose baby with Kanye West is due in July, has denied Humphries's claims, saying she's been legally "handcuffed" to him ever since they split.

"We want a trial because that's the only way this will end," Kardashian's lawyer Laura Wasser previously told PEOPLE. "There was no fraud. They have no case."

Legal experts say Humphries's chances of winning an annulment based on fraud is a long shot.

By facing off in a trial, Kardashian could potentially win her goal of being divorced from Humphries before her baby's due date.

Both Kardashian and Humphries were ordered to appear in person for an April 12 hearing for a last-ditch attempt to settle the case.

"Every case is capable of settling before trial," Waller told PEOPLE at an earlier hearing.

Read More..

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

Read More..

Wall Street declines with slide in Wal-Mart shares

Finola Hughes has called the upcoming 50th anniversary of "General Hospital" a "really sweet" moment."I think the fact that we, at 'GH,' are doing so well right now, and to enter into our 50th anniversary on such a high, it feels really sweet," the actress, who plays Port Charles Police Chief Anna Devane, told Access Hollywood, when asked about the daytime drama's impending anniversary.

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Indian Troops Kill Pakistani Soldier in Kashmir Border Clash

NEW DELHI — Indian troops have shot and killed another Pakistani soldier at the de facto border between the two countries in Kashmir, adding to an unusually tense period in the disputed region.

A statement released Friday by the Indian Army said that Indian soldiers saw an intruder at 3 p.m. on Thursday in the Nowshera sector of the so-called Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistani-held parts of Kashmir. The Indian soldiers challenged the intruder, who “opened indiscriminate fire,” wounding two soldiers, the statement said. The soldiers returned fire and later found a dead Pakistani soldier in uniform, it said.

On Friday at 10 a.m., Pakistani commanders called their Indian counterparts and asked for the body to be returned, according to the Indian statement.

“Acceding to this request,” the statement said, “the dead body was returned to Pakistan Army personnel in the same sector in the evening with military respects.”

A Pakistani military official sent a text message to reporters on Friday saying that the soldier had accidentally crossed the boundary, The Associated Press reported.

The A.P. report said the Pakistani military later issued a statement accusing the Indian troops of killing the soldier after he had explained his mistake.

“We condemn such an inhuman and brutal act of killing our soldier after he had identified himself and explained his position,” the statement said, according to The A. P.

Last month, three Pakistani soldiers and two Indian soldiers were killed at the border, and one of the Indian soldiers was beheaded. The killings heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed countries to their worst since they agreed to a cease-fire in 2003. The two countries have been in conflict over Kashmir almost since their founding in 1947.

Border skirmishes are not the only immediate problem in Kashmir. Last weekend, Indian authorities executed Mohammed Afzal, known as Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who was convicted of participating in a 2001 attack on India’s Parliament. Many in Kashmir believe that Mr. Afzal did not receive a fair trial, and have expressed outrage over the timing and circumstances of his execution.

Indian officials put a curfew in place following the execution. Nevertheless, as many as 25 protests have flared around the Indian-held parts of Kashmir, and there have been at least 110 arrests. The region is predominantly Muslim, and curfew was tightened Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, and many of the major mosques in Srinagar, the main city, were closed Friday.

The week before the execution, a Kashmiri girls’ rock band decided to disband after threats against the members were posted on social media sites and a top Muslim cleric asked that they stop performing.

Hari Kumar contributed reporting.

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Broadcasters blame zombie hack on easy passwords

(Reuters) – Poor password security paved the way for hackers to broadcast a bogus warning on television networks, saying that the United States was under attack by zombies, broadcasters said.

Cyber security experts said the equipment the hackers broke into remained vulnerable to further breaches, and that hackers could potentially take control of the equipment to prevent the government from sending out public warnings during an emergency.

Following the attacks Monday on a handful of TV stations, the government ordered broadcasters to change the passwords for the equipment that authorities use to instantly transmit emergency broadcasts through what is known as the Emergency Alert System, or EAS.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would not comment on the attacks, but in an urgent advisory sent to TV stations on Tuesday, the agency said: “All EAS participants are required to take immediate action.”

It instructed them to change passwords on equipment from all manufacturers used to deliver emergency broadcasts to TV networks, interrupting regular programming. The FCC instructed them to ensure that gear was properly secured behind firewalls and to inspect their systems to ensure that hackers had not queued “unauthorized alerts” for future transmission.

VULNERABLE

The attacks come in the wake of warnings by officials and outside security experts that the United States is at risk of a cyber attack that could cause major physical damage or even cost lives. President Barack Obama has told Congress that some hackers were looking for ways to attack the U.S. power grid, banks and air traffic control systems.

While the zombie hoax appeared to be somewhat innocuous, the relatively easy incursion showed that hackers might be able to wreak havoc with more alarming communications.

“It isn’t what they said. It is the fact that they got into the system. They could have caused some real damage,” said Karole White, president of the Michigan Association of Broadcasters.

White and her counterpart in Montana, Greg MacDonald, said they believed the hackers were able to get in because TV stations had not changed the default passwords they used when the equipment was first shipped from the manufacturer.

But Mike Davis, a hardware security expert with a firm known as IOActive Labs, said hackers could still get past new passwords to remotely access the systems.

Davis said he had submitted a report to the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or US-CERT, about a month ago that detailed the security flaws.

“Changing passwords is insufficient to prevent unauthorized remote login. There are still multiple undisclosed authentication bypasses,” he told Reuters via email. “I would recommend disconnecting them from the network until a fix is available.”

Davis said he was able to use Google Inc’s search engine to identify some 30 systems that he believed were vulnerable to attack as of Wednesday morning.

A spokesman for US-CERT said he could not immediately comment on the matter.

MANY WAYS IN

Stuart McClure, chief executive of cyber security firm Cylance Inc., said he had investigated cases in which hackers accessed EAS systems via a different method: breaking into hidden accounts built into the systems by manufacturers so that service technicians can easily access them for repairs.

“You cannot give a separate pass code to everybody. Nobody is going to remember it. You have to share the secret,” said McClure, who previously ran a unit at Intel Corp’s McAfee security division that investigated cyber attacks.

He declined to discuss the cases he had worked on, saying that would violate client confidentiality.

Broadcasters and security experts warned that attacks on the Emergency Alert System could undermine the government’s ability to communicate with the public in times of crisis.

“While EAS may not control nuclear power or hydroelectric dams or air traffic control, it can be used to cause widespread panic,” McClure said.

Indeed, far worse than broadcasting zombie jokes, hackers who are able to gain control of the equipment could prevent authorities from warning the public about actual emergencies, McClure added.

Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Dan Watson said that the “zombie” breach did not have any impact on the government’s ability to activate the Emergency Alert System.

‘BODIES ARE RISING’

The “zombie” hackers targeted two stations in Michigan, and several in California, Montana and New Mexico, White said.

A male voice addressed viewers in a video posted on the Internet of the bogus warning broadcast from KRTV, a CBS affiliate based in Great Falls, Montana: “Civil authorities in your area have reported that the bodies of the dead are rising from the grave and attacking the living.”

The voice warned not “to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are extremely dangerous.”

Bill Robertson, vice president of privately held electronics manufacturer Monroe Electronics of Lyndonville, New York, told Reuters that equipment from his company had been compromised in at least some of the attacks after hackers gained access to default passwords.

Monroe publishes the default passwords for its equipment in user manuals that can be accessed on its public website.

Robertson said that he believed attackers had been able to access the devices over the Internet because television stations had not properly secured the equipment behind fire walls, which is what Monroe recommends.

“The devices were not really locked down right. They were exposed,” he said.

He said that the company was working to beef up security on the equipment and might update its software to compel customers to change default passwords.

(Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Patrick Graham and Bernadette Baum)

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Leah Hostalet Helps Find Kidney Transplant Matches on Facebook

This Valentine's Day, kidney transplant recipient Jerry Wilde is celebrating life with his family thanks to a devoted friend, a generous stranger – and Facebook.

When the kidney he had received through a transplant in 1992 developed a cancerous tumor and was surgically removed, Wilde was put back on dialysis and was told that just eight percent of people with his blood type could be his donor. Dozens of friends, family and colleagues were tested to see if they were a match, but to no avail.

"The waiting period for my blood type on the transplant list was long, between two and a half and three years," says Wilde, 50, a professor of educational psychology at Indiana University East. "I didn't think I'd survive that long. I thought, 'Well this just isn't going to happen. I'm just going to wither away.'"

But when Leah Hostalet, Wilde's friend and former student, saw a status update from Wilde in November of 2011 that he was in search of a kidney donor, she wanted to help.

On November 18 she set up a Facebook page, Find a Kidney for Jerry, which included his blood type and other pertinent medical information. Becky Melton – a total stranger to Wilde – saw the page that would change both their lives.

"I was looking for purpose in my life. It just struck me," says Melton, 28, who was scrolling through Facebook when she saw Jerry's page, "I thought, 'I want to do this. This is my guy. I am going to give him my kidney.' "

Melton, a loan processor in Richmond, Ind., and Wilde exchanged information. On December 14, Melton found out she was a match, and texted Wilde a photo of herself holding a sign with a picture of two kidneys on it. The sign read: "We're a match!" Wilde still gets choked up thinking about that day.

"I was standing in the living room in shock," he says. "I had never met this person. It's like, who does this for a complete stranger?"

On February 24, 2012, the transplant took place and Wilde has been healthy ever since.

From left: Becky Melton, Jerry Wilde and Lea Hostalet four months after his transplant

Courtesy Leah Hostalet

Though thrilled for her friend, Hostalet, a 33 year-old mom of three in Brownsburg, Ind., didn't feel her efforts were done.

"I felt drawn to this cause for some reason, and I felt like there was more I could do," she says.

Her solution? Find a Kidney Central, a hub for kidney donation pages that now is home to 161 people who are in need of a new kidney. In the year the page has been up and running it has linked donors for 38 transplants, and has grown from a bulletin board of information into a vibrant support community for those waiting for transplants.

"Everyone who is in need is so supportive of one another," says Hostalet, "The community feel to the page brings me such joy."

Pairing Kidneys Everywhere

The efforts have created a good will cascade effect: Leona Jones of Bedford, Ind., found and utilized Find a Kidney Central. In July, Jones got a call from her transplant coordinator, who had been contacted by Susan Yost, a woman who had seen Jones's page and wanted to donate her kidney. Though Yost and Jones were not a match, they agreed to participate in a paired donation program at IU Health University Hospital.

They were then connected to Peggy McCormick and her nephew Lucas, who needed a second transplant after his first transplanted kidney started to fail. Peggy donated her kidney to Leona, and Susan was a match for Lucas and donated a kidney to him.

"It was just like everything fit," says McCormick, 58, of donating her kidney to Jones. "It was a match made in heaven."

Doctors told McCormick that it was a miracle that Leona was matched.

"Two days before the transplant we all met," says McCormick. "After we had our preliminary labs done they got us all together in a room. There was a lot of hugging and crying."

Adds Jones, "It was very emotional ... I didn't know these people, and for someone to give up part of their body to you, it's indescribable."

From left: Peggy McCormick, Leona Jones, Susan Yost and Lucas McCormick

Courtesy Peggy McCormick

Hostalet has become a passionate advocate for kidney donation, and spends upwards of 28 hours a week on Facebook helping people set up their own pages and spreading information about her site.

Dr. Bryan Becker, transplant physician and former National Kidney Foundation president, calls Hostalet's work exceedingly important.

"Living kidney donor transplantation is a tremendous way to treat kidney failure with a better likelihood of a good outcome," he says.

Lifelong Bond

As for Wilde and Melton, the two say they share a lifelong bond. Melton is a graduate of IU East, and Wilde had a scholarship named after her, The Becky Melton Scholarship, which is given to a student who exemplifies the spirit of giving.

Hostalet, Melton, Wilde and Wilde's daughter met for dinner one night before the surgery. After dinner, Melton posted the following status on Facebook: "I just met four members of my family that I didn't know."

Hostalet says she is continually inspired by those who post to the site.

"Just seeing their strength, moving forward every day even though they're dealing with this extreme struggle in their lives, it makes me want to keep searching for them. I want to keep educating people as to how difficult dialysis is on the body, and the need for living donors."

As for her next steps, she says, "My plans are to keep this page running and spread as much awareness as possible. I'll take it wherever it leads me. I feel like I'm meant to do this."

Those who are interested in registering as an organ donor on Facebook can do so here.
More Heroes Among Us:

• Scott Neeson Left Hollywood to Save Kids in Cambodia's Slums

• Woman Who Lost her Legs in Tornado Starts Foundation to Help Others

Know a hero? Send suggestions to heroesamongus@peoplemag.com. For more inspiring stories, read the latest issue of PEOPLE magazine

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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

Read More..

Wall Street flat near multi-year highs, M&A helps

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Thursday as investors found few reasons to keep pushing prices higher with major averages near multi-year highs, though a flurry of merger deals kept indexes steady.

Wall Street has rallied lately, with the S&P 500 briefly hitting its highest intraday level since November 2007 in Wednesday's session. Still, there are few obvious catalysts to continue the rally, and while the S&P is on track for its third straight day of gains, none of those daily gains was more than 0.2 percent.

Shares of H.J. Heinz Co jumped 20 percent to $72.40 after it said Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital will buy the food company for $72.50 a share, or $28 billion including debt. Berkshire's class B shares rose 1.3 percent to $99.22.

Also supporting the market was data showing the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected in the latest week. The CBOE Volatility index <.vix> fell 1.4 percent, dropping to 12.8.

"While I'm not bearish, I don't see many upside motivations at these levels," said Donald Selkin, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York, who cited the low level of the VIX as a sign the market was overbought.

"We need to digest some of our gains to go higher, but people are so eager to buy on the dips that we're not even seeing dips anymore. People are just chasing the market higher."

Equities have struggled to break above their current levels, where they have been hovering for almost two weeks. The S&P 500 is up more than 6 percent so far this year.

Stocks fell earlier after a report the euro zone's gross domestic product contracted by the steepest amount since the first quarter of 2009. In addition, Japan's GDP shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, crushing expectations of a modest return to growth.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 10.21 points, or 0.07 percent, at 13,972.70. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 1.21 points, or 0.08 percent, at 1,521.54. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 1.12 points, or 0.03 percent, at 3,197.99.

Constellation Brands soared more than 38 percent to $43.93 after AB InBev's deal to take over Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo was revised to grant Constellation perpetual rights to distribute Corona and other Modelo brands in the United States. U.S. shares of AB InBev gained 5.1 percent to $92.72.

American Airlines and US Airways Group said they plan to merge in a deal that will form the world's biggest air carrier, with an equity valuation of about $11 billion. US Airways shares fell 9.1 percent to $13.32.

Weakness in Europe contributed to a 5 percent drop in revenue from the region for Cisco Systems , which nonetheless beat estimates as it reported its results late Wednesday. The company's shares slid 1.3 percent to $20.87.

General Motors Co reported a weaker-than-expected fourth-quarter profit, also citing bigger losses in Europe alongside lower prices in its core North American market. The stock was off 2.8 percent at $27.88.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)

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