Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.

Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer.

"There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups.

But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces against this decline in mortality," Brawley said. He warned that over the next decade, that trio could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer in the U.S.

Overall, deaths from cancer began slowly dropping in the 1990s, and Monday's report shows the trend holding. Among men, cancer death rates dropped by 1.8 percent a year between 2000 and 2009, and by 1.4 percent a year among women. The drops are thanks mostly to gains against some of the leading types — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers — because of treatment advances and better screening.

The news isn't all good. Deaths still are rising for certain cancer types including liver, pancreatic and, among men, melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer.

Preventing cancer is better than treating it, but when it comes to new cases of cancer, the picture is more complicated.

Cancer incidence is dropping slightly among men, by just over half a percent a year, said the report published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Prostate, lung and colorectal cancers all saw declines.

But for women, earlier drops have leveled off, the report found. That may be due in part to breast cancer. There were decreases in new breast cancer cases about a decade ago, as many women quit using hormone therapy after menopause. Since then, overall breast cancer incidence has plateaued, and rates have increased among black women.

Another problem area: Oral and anal cancers caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, are on the rise among both genders. HPV is better known for causing cervical cancer, and a protective vaccine is available. Government figures show just 32 percent of teen girls have received all three doses, fewer than in Canada, Britain and Australia. The vaccine was recommended for U.S. boys about a year ago.

Among children, overall cancer death rates are dropping by 1.8 percent a year, but incidence is continuing to increase by just over half a percent a year. Brawley said it's not clear why.

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Wall Street edges up at open after Alcoa results

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks opened slightly higher on Wednesday after Alcoa got the earnings season under way with better-than-expected revenue and an encouraging outlook for the year.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> gained 36.93 points, or 0.28 percent, to 13,365.78. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> rose 2.64 points, or 0.18 percent, to 1,459.79. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> advanced 7.35 points, or 0.24 percent, to 3,099.15.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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Record Heat Fuels Widespread Fires in Australia

Lukas Coch/European Pressphoto Agency

Firefighters battled a grass fire in Oura, near Wagga Wagga, Australia, on Tuesday. On Monday, Australia’s hottest day on record, the national average was 104.59 degrees.

SYDNEY, Australia — Australia on Wednesday was grappling with an unprecedented heat wave that has sparked raging bushfires across some of the country’s most populated regions — pushing firefighters to their limits, residents to their wits’ end and leaving meteorologists tracking the soaring temperatures into uncharted territory.

Four months of record-breaking temperatures stretching back to September of last year have combined over the past week with widespread drought conditions and high winds to create what the government had labeled “catastrophic” fire conditions along the heavily populated eastern and southeastern coasts of the country, where much of the population is centered.

Data analyzed on Wednesday by the government-run Bureau of Meteorology indicated that national heat records had again been set — Tuesday was the third hottest day on record at 40 Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and the mean national temperature average was the highest in history, breaking a record set just the day before, on Monday. Meteorologists have taken the extraordinary step of adding two new colors to its temperature charts to extend their range to 54 degrees Celsius (129 Fahrenheit) from the previous cap of 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) to account for the climbing temperatures.

“If you look at yesterday, at Australia as a whole, it was the hottest day in our records going back to 1911,” said David Jones, manager of climate monitoring prediction at the Bureau of Meteorology. “From this national perspective, one might say this is the largest heat event in the country’s recorded history.”

With the record-breaking heat, firefighters were struggling to contain the huge bushfires in Australia’s most populous state, New South Wales, which have swallowed around 500 square miles of forest and farmland since they erupted on Tuesday. Fires on the island state of Tasmania off the country’s southern coast have destroyed more than 300 square miles since Friday.

No deaths have been reported in connection with the fires, although about 100 people remain unaccounted for since a fire destroyed around 90 homes in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart, last week.

Thousands of head of cattle and sheep are believed to have died already in the fires, which have torn through some of the country’s most productive agricultural and farming regions. Some 10,000 sheep alone are believed to have died in New South Wales, according to the state government’s Department of Primary Industries.

Despite a brief respite from the searing heat in some coastal areas on Wednesday, the government has warned that the hot spell was only just getting started as the so-called “Dome of Heat” began moving up the eastern seaboard away from Sydney, where it was expected to deliver more blistering weather to Brisbane, Australia’s third largest city.

NASA published alarming photographs of the enormous fires, which have grown so large that they are visible from outer space, allowing them to be photographed from the International Space Station on Tuesday. The intensity of the bushfires and the unrelenting nature of the heat have already led some climate scientists to criticize what they see as an indifference to the realities of man-made climate change, which is widely believed to be the driving factor behind these events.

“Those of us who spend our days trawling — and contributing to — the scientific literature on climate change are becoming increasingly gloomy about the future of human civilization,” Elizabeth Hanna, a researcher at the Australian National University in Canberra, told The Sydney Morning Herald. “We are well past the time of niceties, of avoiding the dire nature of what is unfolding, and politely trying not to scare the public.”

Dr. Jones, the government climate scientist, echoed that opinion.

“This event is turning out to be hotter, more spatially expansive and the duration is quite remarkable,” he said in an interview. “And that suggests climate change.”

At least 141 fires continued to rage in New South Wales on Wednesday, with 31 of those fires burning out of control. The deputy commissioner of the state’s Rural Fire Service, Rob Rogers, told reporters that it was a bad sign that the fires could not be contained during the brief drop in temperatures.

“We’ve got a huge swath of New South Wales that potentially is going to get new fires again this afternoon,” Mr. Rogers said. “It will be an absolute battle to get containment on most of those fires before the return of the hot weather on the weekend.”

Tuesday’s new high adds to a growing list of records the Bureau of Meteorology has recorded during this extended heat wave: the first time the country has recorded seven consecutive days of temperatures above 39 degrees Celsius (102 degrees Fahrenheit); the year with the most record hot days in Australia since national records began in 1910, and nationwide average temperatures on each of the first eight days of 2013 that were among the top 20 hottest days on record here.

Dr. Jones warned that there was no sign that temperatures would stay down even as the heat wave appeared to slightly recede in Sydney on Wednesday.

“We expect it to stay very hot across inland Australia for the next week,” he said. “Beyond that it’s hard to say.”

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European businesses slow to go online: study

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European businesses are not doing enough to use the internet to grow their customer base and promote products, Belgian database and marketing firm Email-Brokers said after studying 13 million websites.

Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have the highest proportion of companies online but even in these countries 40 percent of business have no internet presence, it found.

The European Commission has estimated that companies which exploit the full potential of the internet create, on average, more than twice as many jobs.

“It is one of the ways to create employment and economic growth and it is not Star Trek, it exists today,” Email-Brokers head William Vande Wiele said.

Britain and Liechtenstein were the most advanced in terms of e-commerce – defined as being able to process orders and payments, with 16 percent and 17 percent, respectively, of business sites offering it, compared with 6 percent in Belgium and 9 percent in Austria, Germany and the Netherlands.

Vande Wiele said many corporate websites were badly designed, and did not provide basics such as adequate contact information or company details.

In Belgium, 91 percent of all corporate websites did not meet such basic standards, compared with about 20 percent in Luxembourg and France, the study concluded.

“Sites which do not comply with such minimum standards do not inspire confidence and before buying something online a user will need a minimum level of confidence,” Vande Wiele said.

Many websites are not kept up to date, the study also found, with more than 80 percent of business sites in Belgium, Greece, Italy and Spain not updated for more than a year.

(Reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Dan Lalor)

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George Clooney, Meryl Streep & More Announced as Golden Globe Presenters

By Tim Nudd

01/08/2013 at 09:55 AM EST

George Clooney and Meryl Streep

Jon Kopaloff/FilmMagic; Dave Hogan/Getty

It's almost time to party!

George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Garner are among the stars who will present at the Golden Globe Awards this Sunday, as Hollywood's official award season kicks off at the Beverly Hilton.

The trio will also be joined as presenters by Smash's Debra Messing, according to a Tweet from the Today show, whose network, NBC, is airing the Globes.

More presenters were announced on the Globes website. They include Jennifer Lopez, Amanda Seyfried, Kristen Wiig, Jeremy Renner, Will Ferrell, Kerry Washington, Nathan Fillion and Jason Statham.

The awards, held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are being co-hosted by Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.

Lincoln received the most nominations this year, with seven, followed by Argo and Django Unchained with five each, and Zero Dark Thirty, Les Misérables and Silver Linings Playbook with four each.

The 70th Golden Globe Awards will air live on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2013, on NBC at 8 p.m. ET (5 p.m. PT) from the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down

WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.

Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer.

"There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups.

But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces against this decline in mortality," Brawley said. He warned that over the next decade, that trio could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer in the U.S.

Overall, deaths from cancer began slowly dropping in the 1990s, and Monday's report shows the trend holding. Among men, cancer death rates dropped by 1.8 percent a year between 2000 and 2009, and by 1.4 percent a year among women. The drops are thanks mostly to gains against some of the leading types — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers — because of treatment advances and better screening.

The news isn't all good. Deaths still are rising for certain cancer types including liver, pancreatic and, among men, melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer.

Preventing cancer is better than treating it, but when it comes to new cases of cancer, the picture is more complicated.

Cancer incidence is dropping slightly among men, by just over half a percent a year, said the report published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Prostate, lung and colorectal cancers all saw declines.

But for women, earlier drops have leveled off, the report found. That may be due in part to breast cancer. There were decreases in new breast cancer cases about a decade ago, as many women quit using hormone therapy after menopause. Since then, overall breast cancer incidence has plateaued, and rates have increased among black women.

Another problem area: Oral and anal cancers caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, are on the rise among both genders. HPV is better known for causing cervical cancer, and a protective vaccine is available. Government figures show just 32 percent of teen girls have received all three doses, fewer than in Canada, Britain and Australia. The vaccine was recommended for U.S. boys about a year ago.

Among children, overall cancer death rates are dropping by 1.8 percent a year, but incidence is continuing to increase by just over half a percent a year. Brawley said it's not clear why.

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Wall Street dips as earnings season begins

A $20,000 diamond ring found in a tanning salon in St. Charles, Mo., appears to be at the center of a legal dispute over "finders keepers." The St. Louis Post-Dispatch attempts to explain murky statutes revolving around found property versus stealing. After Bonnie Land found the expensive ring and agreed to return it weeks later, she was arrested. She subsequently sued the ring's owner for $66,500 alleging breach of contract as Land wasn't given the posted $3,000 reward money.

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Videos of Chávez Promote Stability During Illness

Meridith Kohut for The New York Times

In Caracas on Saturday, Venezuelans showed support for President Hugo Chávez, who is in Cuba after an operation.

CARACAS, Venezuela — They run around the clock on state television, highly polished videos of President Hugo Chávez hugging children, kissing grandmothers, playing baseball and reciting poetry. As supporters around the world hold up hand-lettered signs that say, “I Am Chávez,” the president’s voice is heard in one of them shouting, “I demand absolute loyalty because I am not me, I am not an individual, I am a people!”

In reality, officials say, Mr. Chávez lies in a Cuban hospital bed, struggling through complications from cancer surgery while his country heads toward a constitutional showdown over his absence.

Mr. Chávez’s fragile health has thrown Venezuela into political uncertainty. After being re-elected in October, he is supposed to be sworn in for the start of his new term on Thursday, but the charismatic leader who has dominated every aspect of government here for 14 years may be too ill to return in time, much less continue in office for the next six years. Top government officials insist that the swearing-in is just a formality. The opposition, meanwhile, says the Constitution requires that Mr. Chávez be present or, in his absence, that a process begin that could lead to new elections.

The government’s television barrage seems intent on reassuring loyalists — and anyone who might raise questions — that Mr. Chávez is still very much the head of the nation. By keeping his image front and center, analysts say, the government can bolster its position as the caretaker of his legacy, mobilize its supporters for the battle over interpreting the Constitution and build momentum for itself in elections should Mr. Chávez die or prove too sick to govern.

“They have combined the mechanisms of left-wing struggle with the best marketing team there is,” said J. J. Rendón, a political consultant who opposes the government.

He compared the saga over Mr. Chávez’s illness to a telenovela, one of the popular Latin American soap operas, with its unexpected plot twists that keep viewers on edge. “They are always prepared for different scenarios,” he said of the government.

During past trips to Cuba for cancer treatment over the last year and a half, Mr. Chávez worked to maintain his customary visibility back home, heading televised cabinet meetings, making phone calls to government-run television programs and posting on Twitter.

But this time is different. He has not been seen or heard from since his surgery on Dec. 11.

To fill the void, the government montages combine elements of campaign ads and music videos, sometimes with the feel of a religious revival broadcast.

They are Mr. Chávez’s greatest hits, showing him on the campaign trail or in scenes from happier times during his many years in office, a nostalgic and emotionally charged way for his supporters to connect with their absent leader. Set to rock, rap or folk music, they mine parallels between Mr. Chávez and his hero, the Venezuelan independence leader Simón Bolívar, and resonate with the religious devotion with which some of his followers regard him.

In one, Mr. Chávez is seen reciting a favorite poem exalting Bolívar. Another shows glowing pictures of Mr. Chávez while choirlike voices sing, “Chávez is the triumphant commander, Chávez is pure and noble love.”

“There is a process of converting Chávez into a myth with religious roots,” said Andrés Cañizalez, a communication professor at the Andrés Bello Catholic University.

The television spots, he said, are part of “a political strategy to keep alive this idea that Chávez is not just a political leader but he’s the father of the country, he’s a patriarch, he’s a figure who protects us, who takes care of everything for us, something more than a president.”

Many of Mr. Chávez’s followers already speak of him in religious terms, as a godlike presence, and the campaign seems intended to feed those perceptions.

María Eugenia Díaz contributed reporting.

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Conn. lawmaker apologizes over Facebook post

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut lawmaker has apologized after saying in a Facebook post that shooting victim and former Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords should “stay out of my towns.”

Giffords last week visited Newtown, Conn., where a gunman killed 20 young children and six adults at an elementary school last month. The Democrat, who met with families of the victims, was critically wounded two years ago in a deadly mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz.

The Hartford Courant posted images Sunday showing Republican state Rep. DebraLee Hovey‘s Facebook comments. In one dated Friday she says, “Gabby Giffords stay out of my towns!!”

Hovey released a statement Monday saying her comments were insensitive and that she apologizes if she offended anyone.

Hovey had said in another post that the visit was political.

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Downton Abbey: 5 Best Moments from Season 3 Premiere

TV Watch

TV News

By Aaron Parsley

01/07/2013 at 09:35 AM EST

Dame Maggie Smith and Shirley Maclaine on the set of Downton Abbey

Nick Briggs

Downton Abbey is back!

Sunday's two-hour premiere was full of developments – upstairs, downstairs and outside of the Crawleys' sprawling country home. As Mary and her fiancé Matthew prepare for their wedding, Lord Crawley gets word that his wife Cora's fortune has disappeared thanks to a bad investment in a Canadian railroad company. At the same time, Matthew has learned that he may become the heir to his late fiancée's father's inheritance. And so just when the problem of finding a practical heir to Downton is resolved, the future of the estate is once again in question. Anna is as loyal a wife as ever, working to free Bates from spending life in prison; Lady Edith continues to pursue the much older Lord Anthony; and housekeeper Mrs. Hughes may have cancer!

But that's just the tip of the iceberg that sank the Titanic. Here are the best moments from the season 3 premiere:

1. You May Kiss the Bride: After Matthew tells Mary he could never in good conscience keep Lavinia's father's fortune, she reveals her own father's financial troubles, hoping that he'll change his mind to save Downton. But he does not back down, and, after accusing him of not caring, she runs away in tears – the night before their wedding. Later, Matthew goes to her bedroom to smooth things over. Because it's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding, they talk with a door between them and then share a kiss with their eyes closed. But Mary peeks – will it bring bad luck? Well, her horse-drawn carriage did make it to the chapel and the pair returned safely from their honeymoon in the south of France.

2. Branson, You're Welcome: An expectant Lady Sybil returns from Dublin with her husband Thomas Branson, Lord Crawley's former chauffeur. And he doesn't receive a warm welcome. That he doesn't have proper dinner attire and speaks his mind about Irish politics at the meal table does not help his cause. But when uppity guest Larry Grey (a former suitor of Sybil's) drugs Branson's drink, making him appear drunk at dinner, two men come to his rescue: Lord Anthony accuses Grey, and Matthew – very democratically – declares he wants Branson to be his best man at the wedding.

3. Dowager's Secret: Though she says of her unsavory son-in-law, "I shall make sure he behaves normally because I shall hold his hand on the radiator until he does," the Dowager Countess reveals at dinner that she was the one who paid for Branson's passage from Dublin to Downton because she wanted Sybil and her husband to be present for the wedding. It's a sign that Downton's most traditional resident is coming around to the idea that her granddaughter has found love with a former servant.

4. Martha Saves the Day: The much-anticipated arrival of Lady Mary's mother, Martha Levinson, from New York was all Downton Abbey fans could have hoped for. Whether spewing progressive American superiority or going head-to-head with Lady Violet, Martha ignited Downton. But it was her quick thinking when the stove went out before a dinner party that was her best moment. Instead of sending Downton Village's most distinguished guests home without dinner, she suggested an indoor picnic, inviting everyone to eat what they want, where they want. Then she sang a tune! Her song: "Let Me Call You Sweetheart."

5. Thomas vs. O'Brien: They shared cigarettes and schemed together to bring down Bates in the past, but in season 3 Downton's most mischievous couple, valet Thomas Barrow and lady's maid Sarah O'Brien, are at odds since the arrival of a new footman, O'Brien's nephew Alfred. After Thomas embarrassed Alfred by wrongly advising him on how to clean Matthew's dinner jacket, and thereby burning it, O'Brien returned the favor by hiding Lord Crawley's shirts, forcing the most distinguished man in the county to dress in black tie rather than white, which according to Martha, made him suitable for a nothing more than a barbecue.

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