White House: Implement Euro Debt Deal Quickly

The White House on Tuesday said Greece's decision to hold a referendum on a European debt plan underscores the importance of moving quickly to implement the deal.

For weeks leading up to the announcement of a European debt agreement, the White House said the United States has confidence in the ability of European countries to find a solution to their fiscal woes.

At Tuesday's news briefing, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney did not deviate from that message, but said the referendum announcement by Prime Minister George Papandreou underscores the importance of moving ahead to work out the details and implement the European agreement.

"The decision made by the Greek prime minister, rather the announcement he made, just reinforces the notion that [Europeans] need to elaborate further and implement rapidly the decisions they made last week," he said.

Asked whether a Greek vote could place the European deal in jeopardy, Carney said only that President Barack Obama, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and other administration officials remain engaged with their European counterparts.

Carney added he is not aware of any direct outreach by the White House to the Greek government, and that he could not speak for others in the U.S. government.

All eyes on the G20

At an event here in Washington, experts discussed the potential impact of the Greek referendum on the G20 summit this week in Cannes, France, which President Obama will attend.

Heather Conley, Europe Program Director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the Greek decision will dominate the G20 summit.

"The G20 summit will certainly be fully overwhelmed by the European crisis, while quite frankly it is now going to be overwhelmed by this decision on holding this Greek referendum," she said.

Conley said European leaders were left "scrambling," with negative effects on stock markets. She also pointed to other developments, including the bankruptcy of brokerage firm MF Global with its unpredictable effects, and a weak European growth forecast as worrying events that will be on the minds of G20 leaders.

World financial markets fell sharply in the wake of the Greek announcement, which came as European capitals were absorbing a forecast of lower economic growth along with figures putting unemployment at an 11-month high.

President Obama's first meetings when he arrives in Cannes for the G20 summit will be with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The French and German leaders are expected to meet on Wednesday with officials from the International Monetary Fund and Greece to discuss the Athens' decision to put the European debt deal to a vote.

VOA News

Red wine antioxidant could give metabolism a boost

Results of a small study show that obese men who take a small daily dose of the supplement resveratrol -- found as a natural compound in red wine -- appear to improve their metabolism as much as if they were on a strict low-calorie diet.

Animal studies have previously found that resveratrol reduces insulin resistance and protects against the bad effects of a high-fat diet. This is similar to what happens when people restrict the number of calories they take in, which has been shown to delay the onset of age-related diseases, the Dutch researchers say.

"Now we have shown for the first time that resveratrol works in humans. It opens the avenue for more research to see if it could be helpful in people with type 2 diabetes," said lead researcher Patrick Schrauwen from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

"This is very positive news," he added. "We need further studies, but I would advise people to use resveratrol."

The study is published in the Nov. 2 issue of Cell Metabolism.

For the study, Schrauwen's team gave resveratrol to 11 obese, but otherwise healthy men. The men took 150 milligrams of the supplement a day for 30 days. To get that much resveratrol from wine would mean drinking over two gallons of wine a day, he noted.

The researchers found resveratrol acted much like a low-calorie diet in terms of reducing energy expenditure and improving metabolism and overall health.

Changes included a lower metabolic rate, reduced fat in the liver, lower blood pressure and lower blood sugar. The men also had changes in the way their muscles burned fat, the researchers found.

In obesity, it's not clear whether burning fewer calories is a good or a bad thing, Schrauwen noted. It suggests, however, that cells were functioning more efficiently, as they do on a calorie-restricted diet, he said.

There were no serious side effects seen among the men taking resveratrol, he added.

Resveratrol is widely available, but more work is needed to see if it has the potential to help obesity and delay aging, the researchers pointed out.

The study was funded by Top Institute Food and Nutrition, which Schrauwen described as a nonprofit consortium of universities and the food industry in the Netherlands.

Dr. David L. Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said "resveratrol, an antioxidant compound concentrated in grape skin -- and thus red wine -- had previously been shown in animal studies to influence gene expression in a manner closely resembling that of calorie restriction."

This change of gene behavior is not just about weight loss or even metabolic improvements; calorie restriction has long been associated with extending lifespan, he said.

"No study long enough has ever been done in humans to show this pertains to us -- but all the signs suggest that it should," Katz said.

Now a human study showing that resveratrol mimics effects of calorie restriction in men as well as mice is "stunning," he said.

"Of course, we do not know what the long-term effects of resveratrol supplementation in humans will be. Perhaps effects wear off with time. Perhaps adverse aspects of altered gene expression show up late. We have leapt before without looking carefully enough, and should proceed with caution and care," Katz said.

"But for now, we have the first clear evidence that a natural compound can exert the same profound effects on metabolism, weight and genes in humans," he explained.

"There is at least reason to hope a meaningful anti-aging effect could be appreciated as well," Katz said. "I rarely get excited by any one research paper. I am excited about this one."

USA Today

Report: Syria, Arab League reach agreement on unrest

Syria and the Arab League have reached an agreement on a plan aimed at finding a solution to the months-long unrest in the country, state media reported Tuesday.

"The Syrian government have not submitted an official response to the Arab League regarding the paper submitted," Ahmed Bin Heli, deputy secretary general of the Arab League, told CNN. "An official response will be announced in tomorrow's meeting in the Arab League headquarter."

That meeting is to take place at the Arab League's headquarters in Cairo, according to Syrian state television and the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

The Arab League has called on Syria's government to end all violence against citizens, remove tanks and military vehicles from the streets of the country and release political prisoners, an official with the Arab organization said Monday.

The Arab countries made the proposal to Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, on Sunday in a meeting in Doha, Qatar. The Arab League also proposed a dialogue between Syrian officials and opposition members in Cairo starting Wednesday.

The proposals included a time frame for compliance, the Arab League official said.

The Syrian delegation left Qatar without responding to the Arab League letter, according to the Qatari national news agency.

Eleven people died in unrest on Tuesday, said the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, which organizes and documents protests. Four of the dead were in Homs, three in the suburbs of Damascus, three in Idlib and one in Deir Ezzor, it said.

More than 3,000 people have died in Syria since unrest broke out in mid-March, according to the United Nations. CNN cannot independently confirm individual accounts of violence because Syria's government restricts the activity of journalists.

In early October, China and Russia teamed up to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have condemned the Syrian response to the protests and called for an immediate end to the government clampdown on the opposition.

Meanwhile, Syrians aiming to write a new constitution for the strife-torn country met Monday for the first time, according to state news reports.

President Bashar al-Assad last month announced the formation of a committee to draft a new constitution within four months, SANA reported at the time. The October 15 announcement was one of several moves the government has made to defuse protests, but they have not calmed the situation within the country.

CNN

House of Lords will be able to vote on key NHS clause

Peers will be able to vote on the government's controversial plan to hand over its "constitutional responsibility" to provide NHS services to an unelected quango on Wednesday.

The government is attempting to convince Liberal Democrats to back a measure proposed by a former Tory lord chancellor, Lord Mackay, which would allow the health secretary to take control of the health service only in the event of "emergency, failure or breach". But an amendment by Lib Dem rebel Lady Williams, which revives the original "duty to provide" NHS services, is likely to find significant support in the upper house.

In a letter to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, Labour's health secretary Andrew Burnham asks for support to "stand firm with us" behind the Williams amendment, which has been backed by Labour's health spokesperson in the upper house, Baroness Thornton.

With peers beginning line-by-line scrutiny of the coalition's NHS bill on Wednesday, the government has been attempting to rebut detractors of all political persuasions influenced by the powerful Lords constitutional committee. The committee warned last month about the "extent to which the chain of constitutional responsibility as regard to the NHS [will be] severed".

The second reading of the bill saw a record turnout for the modern House of Lords, with the largest numbers of peers voting since the 1993 Maastricht Treaty debate. In a letter to Conservative peers, obtained by the Guardian, the Tory chief whip in the upper house admits that "the health bill could have been lost".

An examination of the division lists by the union Unite shows many of the Tory peers who turned up to support the bill do not routinely attend House of Lords votes. Many work for companies that could benefit financially from the reforms or as lobbyists.

Examples include Lady Cumberlege, a former Tory health minister who runs her own lobbying firm, Cumberlege Connections, which works with major pharmaceuticals interests. She has recorded votes on just 22 days this year, but has voted in every division on the health bill.

Another is Lord Coe, who appears on the division list on only five days this year, but the government relied on him to get the bill through its second reading. He is a director of an IT supplier to the NHS.

Public relations millionaire Lord Bell, Tory billionaire donor Lord Ashcroft, Lady Bottomley and Tory lobbyist Lord Chadlington also supported the bill.

Trade unions called on Lady Williams and her fellow Liberal Democrat peers "to show the country that the peers are not in the pockets of big business".

Unite's national officer for health, Rachael Maskell, said: "It is an indelible stain on parliamentary democracy that, while the vast majority of the electorate don't want their NHS privatised, a cabal of unelected peers, riddled with vested financial self-interest, can be mobilised to thwart the wishes of voters."

The Guardian has also investigated the spread of private equity into the world of social care following the collapse this year of Southern Cross, the UK's biggest care home operator. It reveals that more than 200,000 people in Britain are being cared for by companies backed by private equity firms, some of whom are prominent Tory donors and have links with Conservative politicians.

Ryan Robson, a founder of private equity firm Sovereign Capital, which runs care for more than 7,000 adults and arranges foster care for 1,700 children, has given the party more than £250,000 in the past five years. Robson stood as a Tory parliamentary candidate in the 2010 election.

His fellow investor John Nash and his family have donated a similar amount to the Tories. Until last year, Nash was chair of Care UK, which runs 73 nursing and residential care homes. Care UK is now backed by Bridgepoint, a private equity firm that has former Tory chairman Lord Patten sitting on its European board.

The coalition is committed to expanding non-state provision in the £23bn social care sector despite warnings from the National Audit Office that there is "no formal mechanism for dealing with a provider failure of the size of Southern Cross".

Ministers have committed to a "discussion" of the issues raised by increasing private sector involvement – and put forward suggestions such as requiring companies to put up cash as a condition of an operating licence and giving councils the power to intervene in the management of homes if they come under the threat of closure.

Guardian

Leader of Tunisian Islamist Party Eyes Prime Minister Role

Members of the Islamist party leading in the vote-counting in Tunisia's historic election say the party intends to name one of its top leaders as its candidate for prime minister.

Media reports on Wednesday say the Ennahda party will propose its secretary general, Hamadi Jebali, as the next head of Tunisia's government.

Tunisian election officials have said they will announce later Wednesday when they will issue the final election results from Sunday's polling.  Preliminary results indicate the moderate Ennahda party has captured the most seats in the 217-member assembly.

An election official said Tuesday release of the final results will largely depend on voting-counting in the remaining precincts, especially in the Tunis area.

The Ennahda party has already begun talks on forming an interim unity government with two center-left rivals, the Congress for the Republic and the Democratic Forum for Labor and Liberties.

Ennahda candidates have cited as a model the secular, pluralist democracy in Turkey, where the ruling (AKP) party also has an Islamist identity. 

Election observers predict that women could capture nearly one-third of the seats in the constituent assembly, a far larger proportion than in any Arab country.

Tunisia's landmark election was widely considered free and fair.  The vote came a little more than nine months after Tunisians overthrew longtime President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

VOA News

Secrets of long life sought in DNA of the elderly

NEW YORK – George Eberhardt turned 107 last month, and scientists would love to know how he and other older folks like him made it that far. So he's going to hand over some of his DNA.

He's one of 100 centenarians taking part in a project announced Wednesday that will examine some of the oldest citizens with one of the newest scientific tools: whole-genome sequencing, the deciphering of a person's complete collection of DNA.

Scientists think DNA from very old healthy people could offer clues to how they lived so long. And that could one day lead to medicines to help the rest of us stay disease-free longer.

By the time you reach, say, 105, "it's very hard to get there without some genetic advantages," says Dr. Thomas Perls, a geriatrics expert at Boston University.

Perls is helping find centenarians for the Archon Genomics X Prize competition. The X Prize Foundation, best known for a spaceflight competition, is offering $10 million in prize money to researchers who decipher the complete DNA code from 100 people older than 100. The contest will be judged on accuracy, completeness and the speed and cost of sequencing.

The contest is a relaunch of an older competition with a new focus on centenarians, and it's the second sequencing project involving the elderly to be announced this month.

Genome pioneer J. Craig Venter says the centenarian project is just a first step in revealing the genetic secrets of a long and healthy life.

"We need 10,000 genomes, not 100, to start to understand the link between genetics, disease and wellness," said Venter, who is co-chairing the X Prize contest.

The 107-year-old Eberhardt of Chester, New Jersey, played and taught tennis until he was 94. He said he's participating in the X Prize project because he's interested in science and technology. It's not clear his genes will reveal much. Nobody else in his extended family reached 100, and he thinks only a couple reached 90, he said in a telephone interview.

So why does he think he lived so long? He credits 70 years of marriage to his wife, Marie. She in turn cites his "intense interest in so many things" over a lifetime, from building radios as a child to pursuing a career in electronics research.

But scientists believe there's more to it, and they want to use genome sequencing to investigate. Dr. Richard Cawthon of the University of Utah, who is seeking longevity genes by other means, says it may turn up genetic features that protect against multiple diseases or that slow the process of aging in general.

Protective features of a centenarian's DNA can even overcome less-than-ideal lifestyles, says Dr. Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. His own study of how centenarians live found that "as a group, they haven't done the right things."

Many in the group he studied were obese or overweight. Many were smokers, and few exercised or followed a vegetarian diet. His oldest participant, who died this month just short of her 110th birthday, smoked for 95 years.

"She had genes that protected her against the environment," Barzilai said. One of her sisters died at 102, and one of her brothers is 105 and still manages a hedge fund.

Earlier this month, Scripps Health of San Diego announced a different genome project involving the elderly. The Scripps Wellderly Study will receive the complete genomes of 1,000 people age 80 and older from a sequencing company.

A complete genome reveals not only genes but also other DNA that's responsible for regulating genes. It's "the full monty," showing DNA elements that are key for illness and health, says Dr. Eric Topol, who heads the Wellderly Study.

Participants in that study have an average age of 87 and range up to 108, and they've never had diabetes, heart disease or cancer, or any neurological disease.

"Why are these people Teflon-coated?" Topol asked. "Why don't they get disease?"

The ability to turn out lots of complete genomes is "the new-new thing" in trying to find out, he said.

"There's been too much emphasis on disorders per se and not enough on the people who are exceptionally healthy," to learn from their genomes, Topol said. "Now we have the powerful tools to do that."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Hacker group Anonymous performs 'vigilante' attack on online child porn hub

'Hacktivist' group Anonymous has fired the first shot in what it claims will be a war against Internet child pornography.

The renegade hacking collective - which has been criticised by law enforcement agencies in the US and the UK - shut down the largest host of such illegal material on the Web.

Anonymous has posted reactions from chat users said to be paedophiles furious at its actions, which include a British user who claims to have hosted a site which earned him £600 a day.

'What are the ****s that brought down Lolita City?' he said, 'My site is bankrolled by the Russian mob.'

In a statement issued on the internet, Anonymous said that it had warned Freedom Hosting to take the sites down but the company failed to do so.

Anonymous hackers then disabled its servers and would continue to do so until the material was removed.

The group claims at least 40 websites have been shut down, accounting for more than 100GB of content which depicts children being abused.

It also infiltrated the user database and has published the account details of 1,569 paedophiles online.

The attack is a change of tack for Anonymous which has previously attacked companies such as Mastercard, Visa, and Paypal in response to the card companies' refusal to process donations to Wikileaks.

Its latest operation began on October 14 and targeted child porn on the ‘darknet’ - anonymised sites designed to protect users' identities, which are invisible to normal web users.

Anonymous hackers detected the links to the pornography and removed them but they were up again within five minutes.

They then discovered that 95% of the links were being hosted by Freedom Hosting and so shut down the firm’s servers.

Freedom Hosting switched to their backups but Anonymous closed them down again.

In an online statement Anonymous said that it was appalled by any the company for ‘openly supporting child pornography and enabling pedophiles to view innocent children, fueling their issues and putting children at risk of abduction, molestation, rape, and death’.
It read: ‘For this, Freedom Hosting has been declared #OpDarknet Enemy Number One...

‘...we will continue to not only crash Freedom Hosting's server, but any other server we find to contain, promote, or support child pornography.’

The operation was accompanied by the Twitter hashtag #OpDarknet to encourage other hackers to take part.

In a statement posted on YouTube, a computerised voice from Anonymous added: ‘Many of us have lingering traumatic images of the material that these pedophiles were hiding on the darknet.

‘Anonymous took a pledge to defend the defenseless and fight for the fallen…the darknet is a vast sea of many providers.

‘However, we fully intend to make it uninhabitable for these disgusting degenerates to exist.’

Anonymous grew out of 4chan, a notorious message board for hackers from around the world.

It became famous in 2008 after taking on the Church of Scientology over a leaked video of Tom Cruise promoting the belief which Anonymous members kept reposting to the Internet.

It has no leaders and anyone can suggest an individual or an organisation to target.

Daily Mail