The Lede: Latest Updates on the Pope’s Resignation
Label: World
Tia Mowry-Hardrict: Cree 'Gets a Little Jealous' of Aden
Label: Lifestyle
Bret Hartman/AP
Tia Mowry-Hardrict and her twin sister Tamera Mowry-Housley couldn’t be closer, but the siblings have to work a bit harder to get their little boys on that same level.
“I will be honest, Cree [20 months] gets a little jealous [of his 3-month-old cousin],” Mowry-Hardrict, 34, tells PEOPLE Tuesday at Blushington in West Hollywood.
“When I was trying to feed Aden, Cree started crying. I have to just slowly introduce Aden into our world. It’s kind of hard on Cree, but he loves Aden. We really, really enjoy having him around.”
Luckily, the mommies give their kids plenty of opportunity to get acquainted.
“My sister and I try to see each other once a week,” Mowry-Hardrict, who teamed up with Puffs and Dress for Success’s Virtual Kiss program, says. “We actually just had a play date. We went to the Grove and hung out.”
Being a mom is tiring for the actress, who is working on a new sitcom, Instant Mom, but there are a few things that manage to keep her energized.
“I just look at my son,” she says. “When I’m away from him, I really feel it. I’m exhausted, I feel like a zombie. I’m like, ‘What am I going to do?’ But when I see him and I see the smile on his face, it just gives me this instant burst of energy.”
Adds Mowry-Hardrict, “I’m very into holistic living and very healthy eating, so I don’t run to coffee or caffeine. I think it drops you rather quickly. Instead I juice with my husband [Cory Hardrict] every single morning. I have kale, celery, ginger, a little bit of garlic, parsley and cucumber. I drink half in the morning and half in the afternoon. And that’s my energy drink.”
Luckily, her new hairdo also saves her from wasting any additional energy.
“I think it’s very practical for me because I am a mom,” she says. “Now I can just get in the shower and put some conditioner in my hair. I have curly hair, so this makes it easy to just go. But I also have a great stylist who can just [style] my hair in so many different ways. It does take a while when you want to do a straight look. But when I want to go au naturel, I just get out of the shower, and boom — I’m done.”
Clearly, motherhood is working for Mowry-Hardrict, because she’s already planning for more little ones.
“Cree’s almost two, and I really, really want him to be close with his sibling,” she says. “So I would say I’m having more kids sooner rather than later.”
– Dahvi Shira
What heals traumatized kids? Answers are lacking
Label: HealthCHICAGO (AP) — Shootings and other traumatic events involving children are not rare events, but there's a startling lack of scientific evidence on the best ways to help young survivors and witnesses heal, a government-funded analysis found.
School-based counseling treatments showed the most promise, but there's no hard proof that anxiety drugs or other medication work and far more research is needed to provide solid answers, say the authors who reviewed 25 studies. Their report was sponsored by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
According to research cited in the report, about two-thirds of U.S. children and teens younger than 18 will experience at least one traumatic event, including shootings and other violence, car crashes and weather disasters. That includes survivors and witnesses of trauma. Most will not suffer any long-term psychological problems, but about 13 percent will develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress, including anxiety, behavior difficulties and other problems related to the event.
The report's conclusions don't mean that no treatment works. It's just that no one knows which treatments are best, or if certain ones work better for some children but not others.
"Our findings serve as a call to action," the researchers wrote in their analysis, published online Monday by the journal Pediatrics.
"This is a very important topic, just in light of recent events," said lead author Valerie Forman-Hoffman, a researcher at RTI International, a North Carolina-based nonprofit research group.
She has two young children and said the results suggest that it's likely one of them will experience some kind of trauma before reaching adulthood. "As a parent I want to know what works best," the researcher said.
Besides the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, other recent tragedies involving young survivors or witnesses include the fatal shooting last month of a 15-year-old Chicago girl gunned down in front of a group of friends; Superstorm Sandy in October; and the 2011 Joplin, Mo., tornado, whose survivors include students whose high school was destroyed.
Some may do fine with no treatment; others will need some sort of counseling to help them cope.
Studying which treatments are most effective is difficult because so many things affect how a child or teen will fare emotionally after a traumatic event, said Dr. Denise Dowd, an emergency physician and research director at Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo., who wrote a Pediatrics editorial.
One of the most important factors is how the child's parents handle the aftermath, Dowd said.
"If the parent is freaking out" and has difficulty controlling emotions, kids will have a tougher time dealing with trauma. Traumatized kids need to feel like they're in a safe and stable environment, and if their parents have trouble coping, "it's going to be very difficult for the kid," she said.
The researchers analyzed 25 studies of treatments that included anti-anxiety and depression drugs, school-based counseling, and various types of psychotherapy. The strongest evidence favored school-based treatments involving cognitive behavior therapy, which helps patients find ways to cope with disturbing thoughts and emotions, sometimes including talking repeatedly about their trauma.
This treatment worked better than nothing, but more research is needed comparing it with alternatives, the report says.
"We really don't have a gold standard treatment right now," said William Copeland, a psychologist and researcher at Duke University Medical Center who was not involved in the report. A lot of doctors and therapists may be "patching together a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and that might not add up to the most effective treatment for any given child," he said.
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Online:
Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org
Stock rally stalls as investors seek catalysts
Label: BusinessNEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks slipped on Monday on lack of catalysts to move the market higher after a six-weeks-long advance that has taken the S&P 500 index near record highs.
The benchmark index is up more than 6 percent so far this year after a steep rally in January that has stalled as the S&P and Dow industrials near multiyear highs.
Google Inc
But the decline was offset by gains in Apple , up 1.4 percent at $481.73 after a New York Times report that the iPhone maker is experimenting with the design of a device similar to a wristwatch.
"It's really the valuation and indications that the economy is improving that have pushed the market higher. We would have to see a probable correction before heading higher and that could come from weak economic data in the future," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management.
The Federal Reserve's Vice Chair Janet Yellen, seen as a potential successor to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke next year, said the Fed is still aggressively stimulating an anemic U.S. economic recovery that has failed to bring rapid progress on employment.
On Tuesday, President Barack Obama will describe his plan for spurring the economy in his State of the Union address. He is expected to offer proposals for investment in infrastructure, manufacturing, clean energy and education.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was down 24.96 points, or 0.18 percent, at 13,968.01. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was down 1.56 points, or 0.10 percent, at 1,516.37. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was down 5.00 points, or 0.16 percent, at 3,188.93.
Upbeat U.S. and Chinese data last week helped the S&P 500 extend its weekly winning streak to six.
Opposition has grown to the $24.4 billion buyout of Dell Inc
Dell shares hovered near $13.65, the buyout offer price.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc
(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)
India Ink: More Than Two Dozen Killed in Kumbh Mela Stampede
Label: WorldALLAHABAD, Uttar Pradesh — As many as 30 people were killed Sunday in a stampede at a train station here as millions gathered for a Hindu religious festival.
The stampede erupted on a platform of the main railway station in Allahabad as religious pilgrims passed through it on their way to the festival, Kumbh Mela on the banks of the Ganges River.
Sunday was one of the busiest days of the 55-day festival; 30 million people were expected to take a dip in the Ganges River to cleanse themselves of sin.
About 30 bodies, covered in blue sheets and pieces of cloth, were visible on the train platform on Sunday evening. Several appeared to be children.
The stampede was set off by railway delays, shoddy infrastructure and overcrowding, several witnesses said.
Train services were severely delayed during the early evening, witnesses said, leaving growing numbers of passengers stranded in the small station.
The police initially said that panic spread after a railing broke on a footbridge over the tracks in the Allahabad station, sending a few people tumbling to their deaths. The tightly packed crowds rushed to get off the footbridge, and others were trampled. They later retracted this statement and attributed it to a rush on the steps leading to one of the platforms.
“People tripped over the steps leading to platform 6,” Lalji Shukla, deputy inspector general of Allahabad police, said in an interview.
“I can’t believe God punished us this way,” said one pilgrim, Santos Singh. “My 15-year-old son got injured. I wish the police were more responsive.”
At least an hour after the incident occurred, there were still no medical workers on the scene.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed shock at the episode and said in a public statement: “I am deeply shocked to learn of the unfortunate incident at the Allahabad Railway station today, in which precious lives have been lost and many pilgrims to Kumbh Mela among other people have been injured.”
Mr. Singh directed the Ministry of Railways to provide all “necessary assistance” to those who were involved and promised compensation for the families of the dead or injured.
Raksha Kumar reported from Allahabad, and Heather Timmons and Malavika Vyawahare from New Delhi
Chris Brown Crashes Car During Paparazzi Chase
Label: LifestyleBy Alison Schwartz
02/10/2013 at 12:40 PM EST
The best urban contemporary album nominee walked away uninjured after crashing his black Porsche into a wall during a paparazzi chase, reports the Associated Press.
Beverly Hills police say the accident occurred Saturday around noon when Brown, 23, lost control of his vehicle while driving to an L.A. charity event.
After Brown was reportedly cut off by photographers, "the occupants jumped out, with cameras, and aggressively approached his vehicle," Brown's rep said in a statement, via Entertainment Weekly. "In an effort to remove himself from the situation, he began to back down an alley, at which point he was cut off by two additional vehicles."
According to his rep, his car was totaled because of the "aggressive pursuit by paparazzi" but "he is okay." The Porsche was towed away from the scene.
However, the photo agency responsible for the photographers on the scene are refuting Brown's story, saying that the paparazzi didn't arrive until after the accident. Chris Doherty, owner of INF, the photo agency, tells TMZ that his photographers "had nothing to do with the Chris Brown crashing" and that it's simply "convenient for him to blame us."
Lt. Lincoln Hoshino said authorities will investigate the incident, although he didn't know whether any of the involved parparazzi have been identified, according to the AP.
It's been just four years since Brown first caused a stir during Grammy weekend as a domestic violence drama began to unfold between him and on-again girlfriend Rihanna right before the 2009 awards ceremony. Now, fans will wait and see if the two attend this year's show together.
A call to Brown's lawyer by the AP was not immediately returned.
After early start, worst of flu season may be over
Label: HealthNEW YORK (AP) — The worst of the flu season appears to be over.
The number of states reporting intense or widespread illnesses dropped again last week, and in a few states there was very little flu going around, U.S. health officials said Friday.
The season started earlier than normal, first in the Southeast and then spreading. But now, by some measures, flu activity has been ebbing for at least four weeks in much of the country. Flu and pneumonia deaths also dropped the last two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported.
"It's likely that the worst of the current flu season is over," CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.
But flu is hard to predict, he and others stressed, and there have been spikes late in the season in the past.
For now, states like Georgia and New York — where doctor's offices were jammed a few weeks ago — are reporting low flu activity. The hot spots are now the West Coast and the Southwest.
Among the places that have seen a drop: Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Allentown, Pa., which put up a tent outside its emergency room last month to help deal with the steady stream of patients. There were about 100 patients each day back then. Now it's down to 25 and the hospital may pack up its tent next week, said Terry Burger, director of infection control and prevention for the hospital.
"There's no question that we're seeing a decline," she said.
In early December, CDC officials announced flu season had arrived, a month earlier than usual. They were worried, saying it had been nine years since a winter flu season started like this one. That was 2003-04 — one of the deadliest seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths.
Like this year, the major flu strain was one that tends to make people sicker, especially the elderly, who are most vulnerable to flu and its complications
But back then, that year's flu vaccine wasn't made to protect against that bug, and fewer people got flu shots. The vaccine is reformulated almost every year, and the CDC has said this year's vaccine is a good match to the types that are circulating. A preliminary CDC study showed it is about 60 percent effective, which is close to the average.
So far, the season has been labeled moderately severe.
Like others, Lehigh Valley's Burger was cautious about making predictions. "I'm not certain we're completely out of the woods," with more wintry weather ahead and people likely to be packed indoors where flu can spread around, she said.
The government does not keep a running tally of flu-related deaths in adults, but has received reports of 59 deaths in children. The most — nine — were in Texas, where flu activity was still high last week. Roughly 100 children die in an average flu season, the CDC says
On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.
According to the CDC report, the number of states with intense activity is down to 19, from 24 the previous week, and flu is widespread in 38 states, down from 42.
Flu is now minimal in Florida, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
___
Online:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/
Analysis: Accounting risk clouds big U.S. business bets in China
Label: BusinessNEW YORK/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Tales of shady business practices abound in China - fake revenues, phony invoices, sham factories - but until recently, the problem seemed confined mostly to Chinese companies.
No longer.
Concern is growing about risks to U.S.-based multinationals in a country where American audit regulators are locked out by the Chinese government and bribery and fraud are routine.
Questions about transparency and integrity weigh heavily on China, the world's second-largest economy, as it assumes greater economic leadership and responsibility. These doubts test its ability to adhere to international standards.
Stories of business deception - confirmed by corporate sleuths, former business executives, court filings and experts on accounting in China - are commonplace.
There was the Chinese company that billed itself as a high-tech television screen manufacturer, but had a factory that turned out to be a man selling fireworks from a shack.
Or there was the Chinese biodiesel plant that sat idle for months, then sprang to life one day - when investors showed up for a tour - only to fall silent again.
Last month, there was the scandal at a Chinese unit of Caterpillar Inc
On January 18, Caterpillar disclosed "deliberate, multi-year, coordinated accounting misconduct" at the Siwei unit of ERA Mining Machinery. Caterpillar said it would write off most of the $654 million it had paid to acquire ERA only months earlier.
Caterpillar's Siwei stumble was not the first for a U.S. multinational in China, but the scope of the problem stood out.
Caterpillar has provided few details, but it has disclosed inventory discrepancies, inflated profits and improperly recorded costs and revenue at Siwei.
Caterpillar declined further comment.
Part of Caterpillar's problem may have been inadequate due diligence work prior to the ERA acquisition. Companies often try to keep fees down for this type of work, but in China that may be asking for trouble, says Paul Gillis, an accounting professor at Peking University in Beijing.
Acquiring firms typically do some of their own due diligence while also relying on deal advisers, legal experts and auditors. Due to the risks in China, efforts should be beefed up to uncover fraud, Gillis said. "When you start cutting corners on audits ... you're enabling those who commit fraud."
GOING FOR GROWTH
Of course, it is not as if the United States has not had its own share of egregious accounting frauds over the years. In 2001-2002, a series of major scandals involving the likes of Enron, WorldCom and Tyco shook the U.S. economy.
Legislation followed that strengthened oversight of auditing and accountability of companies' top officers. That has not stopped U.S. accounting fraud, but it has made it easier to identify and deter some of the most egregious behavior.
In China, where large U.S. corporations are making some very big bets, a new frontier of accounting risk is opening up.
Lured by an economy growing much more quickly than the United States, U.S. companies have directly invested $54 billion in Chinese businesses, factories and property, most of it in the past decade, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data.
Despite a cooling off of China's growth last year, demand from its massive consumer class is still lifting revenues at companies that range from coffee seller Starbucks Corp
The Caterpillar experience and the growing catalog of smaller instances of deception and abuse have some experts wondering if U.S. companies' Chinese results can be trusted.
Though China is shifting to a market economy, much business is still done on a handshake, China experts say. State secret laws hinder investigations by outsiders. Audits done in China of U.S. corporate units there cannot be inspected by U.S. regulators because the Chinese government refuses to allow them.
A former executive at a large, U.S.-based multinational active in China recalled the firm's auditor being fired for trying to correct improper accounting at a joint venture in China. Managers there were trying to book sales early, sometimes for unassembled products, to avoid a coming tax increase, said the executive, who asked not to be named. He said he had the auditor reinstated and the accounting changed.
Dealings with a Chinese joint venture did not end well for California-based RAE Systems Inc, which makes chemical detection monitors. It had to pay nearly $3 million to the U.S. government to settle complaints in 2010 that it did too little to stop bribery at a Chinese joint venture.
'RED FERRARI' TEST
Despite well-known risks in China, auditors there often are not inquisitive enough or alert to possible fraud, some experts say.
Auditors in China may pore tirelessly over documents and yet "fail to spot the red Ferrari parked on the doorstep and fail to ask who it belongs to, how it was paid for," said Peter Humphrey, founder of ChinaWhys, a Shanghai-based anti-fraud consultancy that has investigated white-collar crime and fraud at scores of multinational firms in China.
China experts said it is difficult to do business there without encountering demands for gifts or kickbacks.
Transparency International, a corruption watchdog, surveyed business executives who said Chinese firms in 2011 were second only to Russian companies in being most likely to pay bribes abroad.
But six U.S. companies, including technology group IBM
Retailer Wal-Mart Stores
There have been plenty of other red flags. For example, U.S. regulators have deregistered dozens of Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges after fraud probes, and some major U.S. investors have been caught flat-footed.
Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson suffered big losses after a disastrous bet on Chinese forestry company Sino Forest. Sino Forest was rocked by allegations in 2011 that it falsified its timber assets and later filed for bankruptcy.
Chinese software company Longtop Financial Technologies
The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which is responsible for regulating auditors of U.S.-listed companies, has been trying to get access to China to inspect audits there. But China has resisted because of sovereignty concerns.
Being unable to inspect in China "continues to create a gaping hole in investor protection," James Doty, chairman of the Washington, D.C.-based PCAOB, said in a statement.
The PCAOB recently reached deals with France and Finland to inspect in those countries, adding to its growing list of cooperation agreements with 16 nations.
The SEC has hit a wall trying to get documents out of China to investigate fraud. In December the commission began legal proceedings against the Chinese affiliates of five of the world's biggest audit firms - Deloitte
Meanwhile, investment in China continues. Over the past five years, U.S. companies and investment groups have announced or completed about $25 billion of whole or partial acquisitions in China, according to Thomson Reuters data.
(Additional reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles, Ernest Scheyder in New York, Clare Baldwin in Hong Kong; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Dan Grebler)
Russian Protest Leader Put Under House Arrest
Label: World
MOSCOW — A Moscow district court ordered Sergei Udaltsov, a prominent opposition leader, to be placed under house arrest on Saturday, in one of the most assertive legal measures to date against a leader of the anti-Kremlin protests that began more than a year ago.
Mr. Udaltsov, the leader of the radical socialist Left Front movement, faces a charge of conspiracy to incite mass disorder, under a statute that can bring a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. According to Saturday’s ruling, he may not leave his house, use the Internet, receive letters or communicate with anyone outside his family and legal team until April 6, the current date for the end of the investigation of his case.
The ruling seemed to signal a new stage in the government’s effort to bring criminal cases against well-known critics of President Vladimir V. Putin. Though most of the well-known protest leaders have served short sentences for administrative violations, and several are the subject of criminal inquiries, none had yet been held on criminal charges.
Mr. Udaltsov, a passionate public speaker and the great-grandson of a prominent Bolshevik, has stood out among the Moscow protesters, many of them middle-class Russians who distance themselves from calls for revolution. He was also one of the few to focus early on economic issues relevant to Russians outside large cities.
Speaking with journalists outside the courtroom, Mr. Udaltsov said he had broken no laws and called the decision “a political order against me because my public actions anger the government.”
“All the reasons being offered as evidence were already perfectly clear to them in October, when I was first placed under a travel ban,” Mr. Udaltsov said. “Nothing has changed.”
During Saturday’s hearing, prosecutors also claimed that Mr. Udaltsov had threatened to attack his wife, Anastasia, and that she at one point had fled to Ukraine with their children. A judge refused to allow Ms. Udaltsova to testify in court on Saturday, but she told the Novaya Gazeta daily newspaper that the accusation was “a total lie.”
Mr. Udaltsov has been accused of attacking the police and rioting at an anti-Putin demonstration that ended in clashes last May, and of attempting to organize anti-government riots in cities across Russia.
He has been under a travel ban since October, but prosecutors said that he had gone outside Moscow and continued to lead public rallies while under investigation. A statement from investigators charged that Mr. Udaltsov “has not lived at his registered address for a long time, his mobile telephone is often switched off, making it difficult to summon the accused to investigators.”
The statement also said Mr. Udaltsov “does not inform the investigation of his factual location.”
Saturday’s ruling came at the request of Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee, which has recently revived several stalled criminal investigations against Russian opposition leaders including Aleksei Navalny, a popular blogger and corruption whistle-blower accused in December of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a business swindle.
Mr. Udaltsov, in his closing arguments, told the judge that if he was placed under house arrest, he would like the state to afford him a 13-room apartment, a cook and a maid — a reference to the house-arrest conditions reportedly granted to a Defense Ministry official currently facing corruption charges.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: February 9, 2013
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Sergei Udaltsov’s family ties. He is the great-grandson of a prominent Bolshevik, not the grandson.
Mama June's Weight Loss Wows Readers, While Kate's Baby Bump Draws Love
Label: LifestyleBy Andrea Billups
02/09/2013 at 01:35 PM EST
Mama June (left) and mama-to-be Kate
Pacific Coast News; TOP STAR PICTURES
From Here Comes Honey Boo Boo's Mama June, who lost 100 lbs. by simply running around filming her show, she says, to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville's admission that she charged her vaginal reconstruction surgery to her ex-husband's credit card, readers responded.
Check out the articles with the top reactions on the site this week, and keep clicking on the emoticons at the bottom of every story to tell us what you think!
Yes, a royal baby is indeed on the way, and the world watched this week as photos emerged of pregnant Kate stepping out with a small bump. Although the stylish Duchess of Cambridge covered up with a Tartan-print cape over black leggings and riding boots, it was clear that her figure was changing as her pregnancy continued after early weeks of severe morning sickness that had sent her to the hospital. She is due in July.
Our readers expressed anger over Kim Kardashian's ongoing divorce fight with estranged husband Kris Humphries as she pleaded with a judge to declare her marriage over because she is pregnant with another man's baby and doesn't want to be wed when her child arrives. She also told the judge she feared financial entanglement if the case lingered, including purchase of a new residence. Humphries is seeking an annulment of their 72-day marriage based on claims of fraud.
Readers were wowed by a much-smaller Mama June. The Here Comes Honey Boo Boo matriarch says she's dropped more than 100 lbs., as she dashes from place to place shooting her popular TV show – and not through diet or exercise. "They have me running around and going different places ... I guess it's paying off," she told TMZ of her weight-loss strategy.
Oh no she didn't! Her husband Eddie Cibrian may have cheated on her and left her for another woman, but outspoken The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville, 40, opened up in her new book, Drinking & Tweeting that she got him back in an usual way: using his credit card to charge a $12,000 vaginal rejuvenation surgery. Readers laughed out loud at Glanville, who dishes plenty of other family dirt in her book. She and Cibrian have two children, Mason, 9 and Jake, 5. He is now married to country star LeAnn Rimes.
Readers felt sadness for Emma Bunton, who lost her beloved chocolate Labrador Phoebe after the dog went missing on a daily walk. The Spice Girl, 37, Tweeted that she and fiancé Jade Jones were "devastated," by the loss of their pet, who had been microchipped. "To all the amazing people who supported us at this horrible time, our precious Phoebe has been found and it's terrible news," Bunton Tweeted Wednesday. Bunton and Jones, who are parents to two sons, also thanked those who helped them in their search, including Dog Lost, a database for lost and found dogs in the U.K.
Check back next week for another must-read roundup, and see what readers are reacting to every day here.
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