News - ‘Hidden’ smoking costs revealed
Thursday, November 15th, 2007Smokers spend 676 a year on their habit, before the cost of cigarettes is even taken into account, a study says.
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Archive for the 'Viagra Soft' Category
Newsmakers of the week: October 13
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007
ISABELLE DINOIRE FRED GOODWIN MRTHA LOUISE JOSEPH KAISER JAMMIE THOMAS DIDA TOKITSUKAZE KIMBERLY BELL
Originaly from: page
A POIGNANT LIFE WITH A NEW FACE
Ever since she underwent the world’s first face transplant in 2005, Isabelle Dinoire has endured a long, strange recovery. She required the groundbreaking surgery after her dog, Tanya, bit off her nose and mouth. Now, in a new memoir, Dinoire describes a strange new existence. She can speak and eat, but kissing eludes her. She recounts discovering a small hair growing on her new chin and realizing that the donor must have been brunette. Before the dog attack, Dinoire had been facing feelings of suicide and had taken a large dose of sleeping pills (when she awoke she found her face bloody from Tanya’s attack). Then she learned that the donor had killed herself, and that gave Dinoire a feeling of sisterhood. Today she has a new dog to replace Tanya. The animal is affectionate enough, but some instinct always prevents it from licking the new part of her face. And Dinoire has finally gotten over initial disgust at living inside someone else’s skin: “Sometimes, I put my hand to my face to check that it’s still there.”
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THE BIGGEST BANKER OF THEM ALL
The bosses at two Canadian banks toasted their acquisitions of regional U.S. financial institutions last week. But they were mere tiddlers compared to the Royal Bank of Scotland’s CEO. Fred Goodwin, 49, was about to close the biggest banking deal in history. Along with Belgian-Dutch and Spanish banking partners, he was poised to spend US$101 billion snagging the giant Dutch bank ABN Amro. Buying the 183-year-old Dutch firm is just the ticket for Goodwin’s plan to grow RBS into one of the world’s dominant banks. Nicknamed “Fred the Shred” for brutal measures that catapulted thousands of workers from banks he’s previously headed, Goodwin will probably make similar cuts in the ranks at ABN Amro. Job one, however, will be shredding the bank itself. RBS, along with principal partners Fortis and Banco Santander, will break up ABN Amro into three pieces. Nothing on this scale has ever been done before. Even Shred will need three years, experts say, to deal with the remains.
A FAIRY-TALE PRINCESS GETS TOUGH IN COURT
Hours before her father, King Harald V, opened the Norwegian parliament, Princess Mrtha Louise was in court last week, seeking to stop publication of a book about angels that put her photo and name on its cover though she had nothing to do with the project. Her lawyer labelled the publisher “cynical parasites” for exploiting her image. The king’s only daughter has been a lightning rod for otherworldly controversy ever since claiming earlier this year that she had been making “contact with angels.” Though the publisher settled the court case, agreeing to apologize and remove her name from the cover, Mrtha Louise’s problems persist — a veteran journalist has called the princess “a hypocrite” for apparently using his father’s translations of fairy tales in her own book Princess Mrtha Louise’s Wonderful World. Now he’s asking for a halt to book sales.
THE HUNKENTENOR GOES TO NEW YORK
To legions of opera fans, 29-year-old Joseph Kaiser of Montreal is known as the “Hunkentenor” for his blue-eyed good looks and affable, thoughtful manner. Last week, he made his debut on the stage of New York City’s Metropolitan Opera opposite superstar Anna Netrebko in Gounod’s Romo and Juliet. He was conducted by Plcido Domingo, who simply advised Kaiser to “have fun.” Kaiser has had a storybook rise: during the 2002 Jeunesses Musicales competition in Quebec, the great singer Teresa Berganza advised him to switch from being a baritone to a tenor. Kaiser recalls: “She pulled me aside at a dinner and she said: ‘Take three months, take six months. Try.’ ” Then came a chance to audition for a minor role in Kenneth Branagh’s film of Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute. Kaiser won the lead, playing Tamino. That was one of his favourite performances, Kaiser says. The other two are singing in his synagogue and belting out O Canada at a Montreal Canadiens home game.
THE HIGH PRICE OF DOWNLOADING MUSIC
When she was slammed with a lawsuit from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for downloading copyrighted music for free off the Internet and distributing it again, 30-year-old Jammie Thomas of Minnesota did what no one else had done. The RIAA has served 26,000 other people with legal action for swapping music on sites. All have settled with the industry, but Thomas was the first to go to trial. The closely watched proceeding ended last week with a jury awarding in favour of several recording companies. They ordered the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe employee to pay US$9,250 in damages for each tune she’d downloaded, including Destiny’s Child’s Bills, Bills, Bills and Sarah McLachlan’s Building a Mystery. The total: a whopping US$220,000. The award infuriated critics of the recording industry. “Four venal record companies,” wrote Jon Newton, editor of a website devoted to file-sharing, “have bankrupted a single mother with two chidren in their lust for money.” But the win may be symbolic: pundits belive Thomas can win an appeal of the case.
SOCCER DIVE WAS A MAJOR FLOP
Soccer players dive; it is a wart on the face of the beautiful game. Occasionally, though, a player goes too far even by soccer’s standards. In a game in Glasgow last week, defending champions AC Milan suffered a shock defeat by hometown Celtic FC after Milan goalkeeper Nlson de Jesus Silva — known by his nickname Dida — conceded a last-minute goal. In the ensuing pandemonium, a fan ran onto the field. Passing Dida, he slapped the 34-year-old Brazilian keeper lightly on the shoulder. Dida angrily began charging after the fan, then seemed to change his mind and collapsed, clutching his head. Medics stretchered him off the field. It was one of the most cynical dives in memory. And if it was a flimsy attempt to have Celtic forfeit the game owing to an injury, it failed and then some. Dida was reproved by teammates and fans, and may face discipline by UEFA. British football commentator James Richardson recalled Pel’s endorsements for Viagra a few years ago when he sniped: “Not since Pel spoke out about men’s issues has a Brazilian man had this much trouble staying upright.”
THE BANISHING OF A SUMO MASTER
Sumo stable master Tokitsukaze claimed he was just trying to whip a charge into shape, but Japan’s sumo authority has sacked him for beating Takashi Saito, 17, with a beer bottle a day before the young trainee died in June. While Tokitsukaze admitted he struck the junior wrestler on the knee and head, he claims other senior wrestlers also assaulted the teen, including one who hit him with a baseball bat. In the world of sumo, such hazings are meant to toughen new recruits. Saito subsequently collapsed while practising with another wrestler. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead from heart failure. An autopsy revealed multiple bruises, lacerations and cigarette burns, and led to a police probe. Now Tokitsukaze has been pushed out of the centre ring forever. Japan Sumo Association rules stipulate that the dismissal prevents him from ever returning to the national sport. But the scandal has dealt sumo a very public battering.
LIFE WITH BARRY: AN OVERGROWN MESS
The of home-run king Barry Bonds used to examine her lover’s body in minute detail. “There was bloating. Acne. Losing of hair. Dysfunction sexually,” Kimberly Bell says, blaming it on the baseball player’s alleged steroid use. Now, the public can examine Bell’s body in equally minute detail: she’s posed nude for November’s issue of Playboy. To promote it, Bell’s been dishing the dirt on her ex and she’s got a big spoon. She details his transition from being simply moody (”I always figured he had PMS, like a woman̶ 
to downright scary. Bell claims Bonds threatened to chop off her head. Steroids also put a hamper on their sex life: “You exaggerate your reactions.” Bell has big plans for her future, including writing a self-help book and becoming a teacher. She hopes to “inspire children,” she says. Maybe posing in Playboy isn’t such a good start.
Move Over, Viagra! Three’s Company
Sunday, November 11th, 2007| Original article ‘’ (AP) A third pill to treat impotence was approved for sale in the United States on Friday, competition in a slice of the drug market. The new pill will be sold under the name Cialis. It joins Viagra, the oral drug that went on the market in 1998, and Levitra, which was approved earlier this year by the Food and Drug Administration. All three drugs act on an enzyme that helps prompt and maintain erections by relaxing muscles in the penis and blood vessels. The duration and onset of the drug action is different, however, with each pill. Cialis, manufactured by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co., was found in studies to stay longer in the body than Viagra. Studies suggest that a 20 mg dose of Cialis is active for 24 to 36 hours. In France, where the drug has been on the market for some time, Cialis is called “Le weekend” pill. Levitra is said to start working within 15 minutes, faster than the one hour recommended for Viagra. Some market studies suggest that about 30 million men over the age of 40 have symptoms of impotence. The sales of Viagra last year were reported at $1.2 billion. Cialis, whose chemical name is tadalafil, was tested in trials with 4,000 men. The studies found that it helped promote erection within a half hour and enhanced that ability for up to 36 hours. The drug is not recommended for patients on some heart medications, such as nitroglycerin tablets or some alpha blockers, because the can cause a sharp drop in blood pressure. This can cause fainting or even death in some men. Recommendations call for dosage limitations of Cialis for patients with kidney or liver disorders. The drug should not be taken by men for whom sexual activity is inadvisable because of heart conditions. The most common reported side effects from clinical trials of Cialis were headache, indigestion, back pain, muscle aches and flushing. |
Viagra firm faces High Court bid
Thursday, November 8th, 2007&39;
The Dispensing Doctors Association (DDA) - which represents family GPs prescribing medicines - is supporting the wholesalers in their injunction bid against Pfizer.
DDA chief executive Dr David Baker said there were fears within the wholesaler community that the supply of medicines throughout the UK would be at the mercy of big drugs companies.
“If a single supple chain breaks down there will be nowhere else for us to get Pfizer drugs which is worrying,” he told BBC Radio Five Live.
Dr Baker also said that if Pfizer products could only be bought from Unichem, there would be a loss of competition and choice.
“Our members are very unhappy about the loss of choice and competition among wholesalers who do compete very hard for our business,” he said.
charges are fixed by the NHS. But Dr Baker added that as NHS prices are based on what prices are paid for the drugs, prices paid by patients could go up if a single wholesaler was able to charge more.
Pfizer, whose products also include the anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor, said it would defend the legal challenge.
“The wholesalers are acting to protect their interests,” it said in a statement.
“The legal challenge may jeopardise supply to patients because wholesalers have been encouraging pharmacists not to sign up with Unichem.”
The wholesalers bringing the appeal are AAH , Phoenix Medical, Mawdsley Brookes, Munro Wholesale Medical Supplier, Maltby & Sons, Norchem, PIF Medical Supplies and Sangers (Maidstone).
Original article
Reported Assassination of Russian Spammer a Hoax
Wednesday, November 7th, 2007
The reported assassination of an alleged Russian spammer is a hoax, according to security researchers.
On Thursday, a blog post on the Web site Loonov.com claimed a spammer named Alexey was found murdered in a villa outside Moscow. “He has been shot several times with one bullet stuck in his head. According to , this last head shot is a clear mark of Russian hit men,” the post said. The reported assassination of Tolstokozhev echoed the 2005 murder of an actual Russian spammer, Vardan Kushnir. Kushnir was found beaten to death in a Moscow apartment, prompting speculation his murder was related to his activities as a spammer. However, a police investigation later said Kushnir was killed by robbers and his death was not connected with his spam activities. The Tolstokozhev story caught the attention of the security community as well as blogs, even making it on to Slashdot, one of the most popular sites for technology-related news. But security researchers soon debunked the report. The story began to unravel when researchers failed to locate Tolstokozhev in records of known spammers, even though Loonov.com claimed he was responsible for “up to 30 percent of all Viagra and penis enlargement-related spam” and made more than US$2 million [M] in 2007 from these unsolicited e-mails. More questions were raised when researchers discovered that the Loonov.com domain name was registered on the same day the assassination post appeared. “We got the feeling pretty quickly that it was a hoax,” said Dave Marcus, security research and manager at McAfee&39;s idea of a joke or they were using a real person&39;s SunbeltBlog and Taint.org, a blog written by Justin Mason, a software developer in Ireland. The motivation behind the Tolstokozhev hoax is not clear. The Loonov.com domain was registered anonymously and the identity of the person behind the hoax is not known. “It&39;s name, because this guy&39;s computer, but didn&39;t found any malicious code embedded in the site,” he said. Perhaps ironically, all of the attention that&39;s getting an awful lot of traffic being driven to the site because of all the attention he&39;ll get a lot of Google juice out of this,” Marcus said, referring to the way Google Inc.&39;ve already got good Google activity built up, but that's just a guess.”
Originaly from: |
Mormons in the spotlight
Wednesday, October 31st, 2007, and more another.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (Reuters) - After more than a century
on the fringe of America&39;s bid to become the first Mormon in the
White House to Public Broadcasting Service&39;s darkest
episodes, the once-isolated religion is moving into the open.
“We welcome it,” Elder D. Todd Christofferson, a member of
the Presidency of the Seventy, a church leadership body, said
of the sudden attention.
“To the extent that attention can be informative as opposed
to pejorative and there&39;s positive,” he said.
But areas the church would rather forget are sharing the
limelight, including its awkward ties to nearly 40,000
fundamentalist Mormons who practice polygamy, which the church
introduced before the Civil War and then banned in 1890.
“Big Love,” HBO&39;s polygamists.
VIEW ON POLITICS
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the
sect based in Salt Lake City, Utah, is formally known, is the
fourth-largest U.S. religion and one of the richest, with 12.9
million members globally and an estimated &39;s biggest skeptics are not evangelical Christians but
those who shun all organized religion. “They tend to look at
Mormons as religion on steroids,” he said.
In an interview, Christofferson sought to dispel several
long-festering misconceptions, such as whether Romney would
take direction from the church&39;s position there&39;s no
church discipline applied,” he said.
GROWTH PEAKING?
He said the church was growing by about a million members
every three to five years, a pace below previous official
estimates of a million every three years. Experts say the rate,
while fast relative to the Roman Catholic Church and some other
religions, has slowed, especially in the United States.
“Retention is a problem for them, as it is in other
religions, and it&39;s well-funded political campaign.
“It's a matter certainly of interest here,” he said.
The church, founded in upstate New York in 1830 by Joseph
Smith, has long struggled for mainstream acceptance. Many
evangelical Christians are taught that Mormonism is a cult with
a heretical interpretation of Scripture and doctrine.
Although Mormons revere Christ as Savior and consider
themselves devout Christians, they reject the unified Trinity
and teach God has a body of flesh and blood. They believe Smith
was a prophet instructed by God to restore his true church.
Guided by an angel named Moroni, Smith professed to have
discovered tablets written in what he called “reformed
Egyptian” hieroglyphics that told the story of the Book of
Mormon and detailing an ancient civilization of Israelites sent
by God to America.
Smith was able to read and translate the tablets with the
help of special transparent stones he used as spectacles.
Christofferson said it was conceivable Mormonism could end
a ban on women in its lay priesthood as it did with blacks in
1978, if God directs the church president to do so in a
revelation. Revelations are a central tenant of Mormonism,
giving the religion flexibility to evolve.
“We think the Lord continues to reveal his will,” he said.
Read http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070611/us_nm/usa_mormons_dc_3
How do yo think, is it true about ?
If Viagra Is Covered, Why Not The Pill?
Monday, October 29th, 2007How do yo think, is it true about ?
(AP) If so many health insurance plans are paying for that little blue pill known as Viagra, why can’t more of them start paying for THE pill as well?
Supporters of legislation to do just that posed the question Tuesday to members of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee, which held a hearing on the issue.
About half of all health care plans do not routinely cover prescription contraceptives, said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, the bill’s primary sponsor. That fact alone contributes to higher out-of-pocket health care expenses for women, 68 percent higher than those for men.
(more̷
‘Big-Butt’ Ant Delicacy Goes Global
Sunday, October 28th, 2007(AP) The first loud crackle tastes and feels like popcorn, but by the time the juices spray wildly in your mouth and the filament-like legs slide down your throat, there’s no mistaking this toasted ant queen.
The people of sun-soaked northern Colombia have been eating ants for centuries. They believe the accurately named “hormiga culona” or big-butt queen ant is everything from a natural form of Viagra to a protein-rich defense against cancer.
Now the invertebrates are going global: A businessman in Santander province exported more than 880 pounds of the inch-long queen ants last year, many of them to be hand-dipped in Belgian chocolate and sold in fancy packaging at $8 for a half dozen at upscale London department stores like Harrods and Fortnum & Mason.
(more̷
Gang member jailed for selling fake Viagra
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007Read more on site
LONDON (AFP) -A member of an international crime ring which bought fake Viagra and drugs against baldness from factories in Asia before selling them on to unsuspecting customers at a huge profit has been jailed in Britain.
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Ashish Halai was described by prosecutors as the British “lynchpin” of the operation, which bought bogus drugs for as little as 25 pence in China and Pakistan before they were sold online for up to 20 pounds per tablet.
Halai, 31, of Borehamwood, was jailed for four-and-a-half years at Kingston Crown Court after the largest investigation of its kind.
Sentencing him, Judge Nicholas Price said it was “an undeniably lucrative business where consumers are easy prey, often too embarrassed to seek help from their doctors”.
He noted that there was no evidence that the fake drugs had caused anyone any harm.
Halai, who was sentenced on four counts of selling fake medication, is one of four men who smuggled the drugs into Britain.
Gary Haywood, 58, of Leicester, Ashwin Patel, 24, of north London and Zahid Mirza, 45, of Ilford, Essex, were found guilty of involvement in the conspiracy in August and will be sentenced next month.
The court heard that the fake drugs involved were almost identical to the real products and contained around 90 percent of the active ingredient found in the genuine drugs.
British officials were alerted to the huge manufacturing and supply ring, which also had operations in the United States, the Bahamas and Mexico, following a chance seizure of thousands of tablets.
Investigators are still trying to work out how much money the men made from the ring. (more̷
`I’m broke’ said reporter in bank heist
Monday, October 22nd, 2007Original article ‘’
SAVANNAH, Ga. - During his days at the Savannah Morning News, a colleague recalled, Don Lowery and other reporters used to sit around and joke that bank robbery was the “stupidest crime in the world.”| ADVERTISEMENT |
Lowery, 52, is now charged with that crime, leaving many confused about why he may have ignored his own judgment.
Police say a bank customer tackled Lowery on Monday after he walked into a BankSouth branch with a sawed-off shotgun, 25 rounds of ammunition and two knives.
“I’m broke … I needed the money. My kids ain’t got no food,” he told officers as he was being shackled, according to a police report.
Lowery also was ill and in need of a liver transplant, the editorial page editor of the Savannah Morning News said in a column published Wednesday. Lowery left his job at the newspaper in May.
“He actually is a thoroughly decent human being,” said Charlie Cochran, a former Morning News editor and reporter who left the newspaper last year to become a minister. “Don, if he had been in his right mind, would not have done what he’s allegedly done. I just think he was under a tremendous amount of pressure.”
Cochran said he remembered discussions where Lowery and others would comment that bank robbery was “the stupidest crime in the world, because it’s the one crime guaranteed to get the FBI on your case.”
Lowery has been hospitalized since his arrest and was in listed in serious condition Wednesday. Police say Harry Gloss, the customer who grabbed Lowery, tackled him as Lowery fumbled with the gun in his belt. The report says Gloss struck Lowery repeatedly to keep him on the ground.
“I was scared for those women working in that bank,” said Gloss. “I thought he was going to hurt those women. I just couldn’t let them get hurt.”
Lowery, who is thin and peers through thick, large glasses, had covered Effingham County for the newspaper since 1989. Co-workers knew him as a tough reporter who fought for public access to government and had little patience for dishonesty. He could be painfully blunt, even about his own shortcomings, as was apparent in the online profile Lowery wrote about himself for the newspaper’s Web site.
“I’ve been cussed, beat up, fired, bit, burned, busted for drunk driving (at 10 a.m. on my way to work), cut, threatened …,” Lowery wrote. “I’ve also tried to accurately cover news I felt was important to readers.”
Tom Barton, the editorial page editor who has known Lowery since 1978, said in his column Wednesday that any attempted heist by Lowery would be “doomed to fail.”
“Don Lowery knows as much about bank robbery as the pope knows about Viagra,” wrote Barton.
In what may have been a sign that Lowery was under pressure around the time he left the newspaper, four months before his arrest, he apparently used his newspaper e-mail account to reply with insults and profanity to a news release from Americans for Legal Immigration, said William Gheen, president of the North Carolina-based advocacy group.
The group had sent him a release urging state and local governments to step up enforcement of immigration laws. Lowery’s e-mail began: “Go (expletive) yourself,” according to a copy posted on the group’s Web site.
Gheen said he complained to Susan Catron, the newspaper’s executive editor, who later told him Lowery was “among the ranks of former employees.” Savannah Morning News Publisher Julian Miller and Catron declined to comment, saying the newspaper does not discuss personnel issues.
Miller said the newsroom staff has been collecting cash donations to be sent to Lowery’s family. Lowery’s wife, Sandra, did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday.
“We were all disturbed when we heard that Don was involved in this,” Miller said. “He had been part of this newspaper and the news community here for a couple of decades. Our hearts go out to his family.” (more̷