8/7/2019 LA Professional Express January 27 2011

1/2

Issue No. 2 4 Thursday, January 2 7, 2011

CAIRO - Thousands of Egyptiansvented their rage against PresidentHosni Mubarak's autocratic govern-ment in a second day of protestsWednesday that defied a ban onpublic gatherings. Baton-wieldingpolice responded with tear gas andbeatings in a crackdown thatshowed zero tolerance for dissent.

Egypt's largest anti-governmentprotests in years echoed the upris-ing in Tunisia, threatening to desta-bilize the leadership of the mostimportant U.S. ally in the Arabworld. The ability of the protestersto sustain the momentum for twodays in the face of such a heavy-handed police response was a rarefeat in this country.

One protester and a policemanwere killed Wednesday, bringing thetwo-day death toll to six. Some 860people have been rounded up, andFacebook, Twitter and cell phones -key to organizing protests - havebeen disrupted.

The defiant demonstrationscontinued late into the night. InCairo, dozens of riot police withhelmets and shields charged morethan 2,000 marchers on a down-town boulevard along the Nile.Smaller clashes broke out acrossthe capital. In one, protestersstoned police, who responded witha volley of tear gas from a bridge

over the Nile.In cities across Egypt, protesters

incensed by Egypt's grinding pov-erty, rising prices and high unem-ployment hurled rocks and fire-bombs at police and smashed thewindows of military vehicles.

Thousands of policemen in riotgear and backed by armored vehi-cles also took up posts in Cairo, onbridges across the Nile, at majorintersections and squares, as wellas outside key installations, includ-ing the state TV building and theheadquarters of Mubarak's rulingNational Democratic Party.

Police fired tear gas to dispersea crowd of several hundred activistson a main thoroughfare, chasingthem through side streets as bothsides pelted each other with rockswhile hundreds of onlookerswatched. Plainclothes officersshoved some into waiting vans,slapping them in the face.

In Suez, east of Cairo, a peace-ful gathering turned violent at sun-set when protesters threw rocks at amorgue where they were waiting forthe body of a man killed a day earli-er. Protesters also firebombed theruling party headquarters and apolice station, damaging both build-ings as burning trash littered thestreets.

Parliamentary elections in No-

vember were widely decried asfraudulent, rigged to allow candi-dates from Mubarak's ruling Nation-al Democratic Party to win all but asmall fraction of the chamber's 318seats.

Many in Egypt see the events asa sign of the authoritarian leader'svulnerability in an election year.There is speculation the 82-year-oldMubarak, who recently experiencedserious health problems, may besetting his son Gamal up for heredi-tary succession.

There is considerable publicopposition to a father-son succes-sion and, according to leaked U.S.diplomatic memos, such a scenariodoes not meet with the approval ofthe powerful military.

A persistent rumor that Mubar-ak's family has fled the country wasdenied Wednesday as "baseless"by a senior ruling party official.However, the fact that such a rumorfound legs speaks to the widely heldperception that Mubarak couldfollow the example of Tunisia'slongtime authoritarian ruler, whofled the country with his family in theface of that country's popular upris-ing.

By Hamza Hendawi (AssociatedPress), Edited by Yuri Isacov (StaffWriter)

EGYPT'S PROTESTS ENTER 2ND DAY,OMINOUS SITUATION FOR DICTATOR

HONG KONG - Professional chessplayers have long stumped fanswith how they make killer moves soswif t ly and intuit ively, anda Japanese study published onFriday may have unlocked theirsecret.

Tracking blood flow in the brainto detect spikes of activity, re-searchers found that master play-ers of shogi -- a Japanese gamesimilar to chess -- use two regionsof the brain to make critical moves.Unlike amateur players, who usethe precuneus area of the parietallobe, professionals use the caudatenucleus in the center of the brain,said Keiji Tanaka at the RIKENBrain Science Institute's Cognitive

Brain Mapping Laboratory. Profes-sionals are trained extensively for along time, over 10 years, hoursevery day. This extensive training(may have) shifted the activity fromthe cerebral cortex to the caudatenucleus," the study's lead authorTanaka said.

"Amateurs use the precuneusonly a third of the time (that profes-sionals do)," Tanaka said. Thefindings were published in the

journal Science. Experts believethe caudate nucleus is responsiblefor switching bodily movements."The caudate nucleus is very welldeveloped in rats and mice, whilethe cerebral cortex is very devel-oped in primates ... by becoming

expert, shogi masters start to useall parts of the brain," Tanaka said.Tanaka hoped the study wouldinspire research into developingthe intuitive powers of the caudatenucleus. "Board games may notbe very important for society ... butauditors, crime investigators, doc-tors all need (intuition) to find thepoint of concern, the point of ab-normality," he said. "Systemsengineers often have to depend onintuition to locate the source oftrouble. Excellent engineers can'texplain why they are good, it's verysimilar to chess."

Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn (Reuters).Edited by Mark Davis (Staff Writer).

A protester shoved against police officers shields in Cairo yesterday outside the Journalists Union. AP

When borrowing money it'salways good to have a Plan B incase a big creditor pulls the plug.That should be true whether thesum is a few thousand dollars orabout a trillion, the size of the Unit-ed States government's debt toChina. With Chinese President HuJintao due to arrive in Washingtonon Tuesday, it is worth asking aboutU.S. officials' Plan B just in caseone day relations take a surpriseturn for the worse and Beijingdumps its holdings of U.S. treasur-ies. China is officially the UnitedStates' biggest foreign creditor, with

roughly $900 billion in Treasuryholdings -- or over $1 trillion withHong Kong's holdings included.

That means it could do severedamage to U.S. debt markets if itsuddenly started selling largeamounts. Most experts say if therewere signs of this happening, theU.S. government would go for acombination of persuading Ameri-cans to buy more U.S. debt, thesame way they did in World War II,and finding friendly foreign govern-ments to make additional purchas-

es. Banks could be called on toincrease their holdings of treasur-ies, and as a last resort, the FederalReserve could also be called on tofill the gap, though this could riskturning any dollar weakness into aslump.

"The U.S. government shouldhave and maybe still could call onthe people of the U.S. to invest inU.S. debt," said David Walker, aformer U.S. comptroller generalwho heads an advocacy groupcalling on the government to curbthe U.S. budget deficit and borrow-ings. To be sure, the idea that

China would suddenly sell its U.S.debt holdings is almost unimagina-ble to some.

After all, any weakening in theU.S. debt markets and the resultingglobal markets turmoil, includinglikely weakness in the dollar, wouldbounce back on China and couldhurt its economy badly, especiallyas the United States is such a hugeChinese export market. It likelywould take something like a mas-sive rise in tensions over an issuelike Taiwan or oil exploration in

disputed areas of the South ChinaSea, including possible militaryconfrontation between the twonations. Such a confrontation wouldalso make it easier for Washingtonto appeal to the American public tobuy its debt for patriotic reasons.But Beijing could also justify pullingback sharply from U.S. Treasuries ifthe dollar were to plunge, perhapsbecause of Washington's failure tocurb its budget deficit and debt.

"I worry that we could be at atipping point," said Eswar Prasad, aBrookings Institution economist andformer International Monetary Fund

official with responsibility for China."If the Chinese say 'We're notbuying any more Treasuries,' thiscould act as a trigger around whichnervous market sentiment coalesc-es," he said. "People could startwondering how the U.S. is going tofinance its deficit."

Reporting by Emily Flitter (Reuters).Edited by Edgar Tenenbaum (StaffWriter)

WHAT IS PLAN B IF CHINADUMPS ITS DOLLAR DEBT?

MASTER CHESS PLAYERS USE HIDDEN BRAIN PARTS

A MULTIWAVE PUBLICATIONCOMPLIMENTARY

THE LOS ANGELES Professional ExpressLAProfessionalExpress.com

MUBARAK REGIME ON THIN ICE!

CARACAS, Venezuela - DictatorHugo Chavez said Thursday hewon't relinquish special legislativepowers - a possibility he raised lastweek as a means of seeking rec-onciliation with Venezuela's oppo-sition.

Chavez's offer to reduce theperiod of time he has to enact lawsby decree through the "EnablingLaw" surprised opposition leaders,who welcomed his overture whileexpressing doubts regarding thepresident's call for mutual respectand dialogue between politicalrivals.

"I'm not going to return theEnabling Law," said Chavez,speaking in a televised address. "Imade a call to encourage courte-ous and respectful dialogue, butlook at their response."Chavez first said that he neededspecial legislative powers for 18

months, which were approved by alame-duck congress dominated byhis allies in December, to swiftlyapprove disaster-relief measuresafter severe floods and mudslidesthat left thousands homeless lastyear.

But last week, Chavez saidlawmakers could reduce the periodfrom a year and a half to 5 months.Critics have accused Chavez ofusing the "Enabling Law" to side-step congressional controls bylawmakers in the new legislature,which was sworn in earlier thismonth.

Opposition lawmakers note thatChavez's allies gave him authorityto legislate in a wide range ofareas including land-reform initia-tives and Venezuela's economicsystem - not just measures aimedat helping Venezuelans displacedby the floods. Opposition lawmak-

er Jesus Paraqueima scoffed atChavez's argument that he re-quires special powers to aid thoseaffected by the floods."It's not necessary," Paraqueimasaid in a telephone interview. "If heneeds an increased budget to helpthe homeless, we'd gladly approveit."

Chavez's ruling party has astrong majority in the assembly,but opponents gained ground inSeptember congressional elec-tions, winning 67 of the assembly's165 seats. Their gains preventedChavez allies from obtaining thetwo-thirds majority needed to passsome types of legislation.

Reporting by Christpher Toothaker(Associated Press). Edited by MarkDavis (Staff Writer)

CHAVEZ SAYS HE WON'T

GIVE UP DECREE POWERS

45 IRAQIS KILLED IN NEW

WAVE OF BOMB ATTACKSBAGHDAD Bombers killed atleast 45 Shi'ite pilgrims in Iraq onWednesday and also struck policefor a third day in a row, in a waveof violence posing a challenge toIraqi security forces as U.S. troopsprepare to withdraw.

More than 100 people have diedand hundreds have been woundedsince Tuesday in bomb attacksthat bear the hallmarks of Sunni

Arab insurgents, showing theyremain a potent threat even asWashington prepares to remove itsfinal troops this year. Most ofThursday's dead were pilgrimspouring into the holy Shi'ite city ofKerbala ahead of the culminationof an annual rite which is oftenattacked by Sunni Islamist alQaeda.

Two car bombs killed 45 people

and wounded around 150 nearKerbala, 80 km (50 miles) south ofBaghdad, on different roads intothe city, said Mohammed al-Moussawi, head of the Kerbalaprovincial council. The explosionsstruck simultaneously on the out-skirts of the city outside a securitycordon of checkpoints set up toprotect pilgrims, he said.

An official from the Health Minis-try in Baghdad put the death toll at50, and said 203 were wounded,while police and Interior Ministrysources in the capital said theyhad heard suicide bombers wear-ing explosive vests were involved.

"Again the infidel terrorists andtheir criminal assistants have add-ed a new page to their black crimi-nal record," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, said in a state-ment, pledging to pursue securityfor Iraqis, and justice. Pilgrims

walk for days from cities acrossIraq and also come from neighbor-

ing countries to attend rites at Iraqiholy sites. Earlier, a suicide bomb-er drove a car into a police head-quarters in volatile Diyala province,killing at least three people andwounding around 30, the latest in aseries of attacks against the secu-rity forces that began on Tuesday.

Around 65 people have died inthe three days of assaults on po-lice, including 49 police recruitsblown up while queuing for jobs inex-dictator Saddam Hussein'shometown Tikrit on Tuesday.

The bomber in Diyala blew upthe car at the main gate of thepolice headquarters in the city ofBaquba, 65 km (40 miles) north-east of Baghdad, police said.

Overall violence in Iraq hasdropped sharply from the height ofsectarian warfare in 2006-07, but

Sunni Islamist insurgents still stagelethal attacks, as do groups linkedto Saddam Hussein's outlawed

Baath party and armed Shi'itemilitia. Shi'ite pilgrims are oftentargeted by al Qaeda, which viewsShi'ites as apostates.

Attacking the pilgrims also car-ries a political message that Mal-iki's new Shi'ite-led government,reappointed in December after anine-month impasse following aMarch election, is incapable ofprotecting people.Recent assaults on police andsoldiers are likewise aimed atundermining faith in the authoritiesahead of the U.S. withdrawal, setto occur by December 31, 2011,analysts and officials say.

By Muhanad Mohammed and Aseel Kami. Additional reportingby Waleed Ibrahim and Khalid al-

Ansary; Writing by Michael Chris-

tie and Rania El Gamal (AP).Editing by Yuri Isacov (Staff Writer)

8/7/2019 LA Professional Express January 27 2011

2/2

Issue No. 2 4 Thursday, January 2 7, 2011

Dearest Dear Sex Advisor,I have fallen in love with a girl

who I just recently met, recently asin five days ago, and although I

want to express my undeniablefeelings to her, Im also afraid thatthe hastiness of my admission oflove will scare her away and mayberuin our chances together. But I justcant keep the feeling to myself anylonger and feel on the verge of anexplosion when I am around herand we havent even had sexyet! What do you recommend is thebest and least scary way to tell herhow I feel when I know its real?-Love at first Night

Dearest Pimpulse Control,Love is the most adicktive drug

of all. Or is it a virUS? Slowly sipthe (h)elixir of love, and fight theurge to imbibe at once all the wo(u)nders it cuntains. If it is real, bothparties will feel with equal fer-vor. Forever.

We must eliminate competitionfrom the realm of thought. Before

all thought becomes knot. Its thekind of ugliness that lurks thestreets every night, looking for anew girl to bite.

Debbie Downer, the Out ofTowner. Shes the kind of girl Idlike to meet and greet, show heraround these big city streets. Shesnot from aROUND here, like hereyes. Channeling the spheres, arethese raindrops or tears? A piecethat has been missing for years.

Love in its most common form is

most often composed of equal partselation and equal parts misery. Anyattempts to reduce it down to onlyone of its cumponents will lead to

erroneous representation of a mostcumplex mode of sexistence.Ive never felt so hungry be-

fore. From every pore a hungerroars. Its the kind of hunger thathangs from a noose, a gaspingemptiness flowering from thedepths, bursting forth and fifth froman echoing and ever expandingorchasm in my loins; my soul is

jingling like a bag of coins.Can you spare a (draw and) quar-ter?

Her kiss was like an eclips, awelcoming and all encumpassingdarkness, a deafening scREAMing,a cochlear overload with its result-ant earGasm, the fuel of a fool.Nine year old girls are dying myste-riously. Borders are an outrage anda useless medium that has beencriminally enlarged.

Looking into the sky, all I cansee are UFOwes. Increases in

debt, a flying sauce-r landing righton your shirt. Will I ever be roman-cipated from your loving (h)arms?Love is a hairrowing, tail so entan-gled. Once again the knots havereturned with stars and span-gles. Social networking butterfliescaught in the internet, a twisted webof flies.

Cumpany Lovingly,Vit|r|us Hearn

A MULTIWAVE PUBLICATIONCOMPLIMENTARY

THE LOS ANGELES Professional ExpressLAProfessionalExpress.com

LA(ID) REALATIONSHIP ADVICE

ERRORS LEAD SURGEONS TO CONTEMPLATE SUICIDEA study suggests medicalerrors, job burnout and

depression lead surgeonsto contemplate suicide athigher rates than the gen-eral public, and they'remuch less likely to seekhelp.

Fear of losing their jobs contrib-utes to surgeons' reluctance to getmental health treatment, accordingto the study. Nearly 8,000 surgeonsparticipated.

About 6 percent reported recentsuicidal thoughts; the rate was 16percent among those who'd made arecent major medical error althoughit wasn't known if that was the rea-son.

Only about one-fourth of thosewith suicidal thoughts said they'dsought professional mental health.By contrast, among the generalpopulation, about 3 percent have

suicidal thoughts and 44 percent ofthem seek mental health treatment,

other studies have shown."Surgeons reported a great dealof concern about potential repercus-sions for their license to practicemedicine," and many admitted self-medicating with antidepressantdrugs, said lead author Dr. TaitShanafelt of the Mayo Clinic.

Arkansas Dr. Robert Lehmberg,63, said it took prodding from closefriends to finally get him to seektreatment for depression and suicid-al thoughts several years ago.Though he feared losing his licenseand being stigmatized, neither hap-pened, and he said medication andpsychotherapy have greatly helped.

Working 60 to 80 hours weekly ina busy Little Rock, Ark. plastic sur-gery office contributed to his depres-sion, but Lehmberg said he wascareful to avoid medical errors.

"Surgeons are taught that thepatient is their responsibility, period.

So absolutely, if something goeswrong, the surgeons I know take it

very personally," Lehmberg said. Hewas not involved in the study. Lehm-berg now works in palliative care,helping ease suffering in dying pa-tients.

The study appears in the Januaryissue of Archives of Surgery. It wascommissioned by the AmericanCollege of Surgeons and surveyedmembers of that group by e-mail.

Answers were anonymous.Surgeons were questioned about

whether they'd had suicidal thoughtswithin the past year. They weren'tasked about suicide attempts butthe authors said as many as 50percent of people who think aboutsuicide also make an attempt.

The research didn't addressspecific reasons why they had con-templated suicide but strongly sug-gests depression, job burnout andmedical errors were contributingfactors. To a lesser extent, being

unmarried, divorced and childlessalso were linked with contemplating

suicide. Other factors also couldhave contributed to a risk for suicidalthoughts.

Results published previouslyfrom the same survey showed al-most 9 percent of participating sur-geons said they'd made a recentmajor medical error. Overall, sur-geons queried worked 60 hours perweek on average; 40 percent feltburned out; and 30 percent had

symptoms of depression. Most saidtheir work left little time for personal

and family life.Few who worked less than 40hours weekly had suicidal thoughts.

Editorial authors Kelly McCoyand Sally Carty, both surgeons atthe University of Pittsburgh's medi-cal school, said these issues are toooften ignored.

Surgeons work long, irregularhours in an environment that honors

self-denial, prizes resilience, "andtends to interpret imperfection as

failure," they said.The survey only queried sur-geons so it is not known if they havea higher rate of suicidal tendenciesthan other doctors.

By Lindsey Tanner (AssociatedPress Medical Writer).

VERIZON CHALLENGES

NET NEUTRALITYABORTION DOCTORCHARGED WITH MURDER(Reuters) - Prosecutors charged aPhiladelphia abortion doctor withmurder on Wednesday, claiming hekilled viable babies by cutting theirspinal cords with scissors afterremoving them from mothers late in

their pregnancies.Philadelphia District AttorneySeth Williams charged Dr. KermitGosnell and nine associates withseven counts of murder involvingbabies, but said hundreds of otherslikely died in the squalid clinic thatGosnell ran from 1979 to 2010.

The defendants face first-degreemurder in the cases of seven ba-bies for which there is substantialevidence, Williams said. The babieswere born alive and viable, he said.

"My comprehension of the Eng-lish language can't adequatelydescribe the barbaric nature of Dr.Gosnell," Williams said at a newsconference.

Williams said he may seek thedeath penalty for Gosnell, 69, whowith his associates was arrested onWednesday.

Gosnell was charged with mur-der, infanticide, conspiracy, abor-

tion at 24 or more weeks and othercharges. Pennsylvania law prohib-its abortion after 24 weeks except

to save the life of the mother oravoid serious health risk to her.

The doctor committed murderunder the law, the prosecutor saidat a news conference.

"I am aware that abortion is ahot-button topic," he said. "But asdistrict attorney, my job is to carryout the law. A doctor who cuts intothe necks severing the spinal cordsof living, breathing babies, whowould survive with proper medicalattention, is committing murderunder the law," he said.

Women who came to the clinicwere given medication to inducedelivery, and the viable babies werekilled by Gosnell and his associ-

ates, Williams said.He said Gosnell's clients, manyof whom were poor, were charged

$325 for a first-trimester abortionand between $1,625 and $3,000 foran illegal abortion after 24 weeks.

Gosnell also faces a charge ofthird-degree murder, stemmingfrom the death of a mother who

died from an overdose of anesthet-ics, he said.The charges follow a year-long

investigation by a grand jury, whosereport was unveiled on Wednesday.

The report read, in part:"Although no one could place anexact number on the instances,Gosnell's staff testified that killinglarge, late-term babies who hadbeen observed breathing and mov-ing was a regular occurrence."

Prosecutors said the stateHealth Department was informed ofviolations at Gosnell's clinic as earlyas 1996 but failed to respond anddid not visit the clinic until February2010 when it was raided during adrug investigation.

The health department did notimmediately respond to a requestfor comment.

The other defendants facecharges including murder, conspira-

cy, racketeering and perjury.By Jon Hurdle (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- VerizonCommunications Inc. on Thursdayfiled a legal challenge to new fed-eral regulations that prohibit broad-band providers from interferingwith Internet traffic flowing overtheir networks.In a filing in federal appeals courtin the District of Columbia, Verizonargues that the Federal Communi-cations Commission oversteppedits authority in adopting the new"network neutrality" rules lastmonth.The rules prohibit phone and cablecompanies from favoring or dis-criminating against Internet contentand services - including onlinecalling services such as Skype andInternet video services such as

Netflix, which in many cases com-pete with services sold by compa-nies like Verizon.The FCC's three Democrats votedto adopt the rules over the opposi-tion of the agency's two Republi-cans just before Christmas. Re-publicans in Congress, who nowcontrol the House, have vowed totry to block the rules from takingeffect. They argue that theyamount to unnecessary regulationthat will discourage phone andcable companies from investing intheir networks.Several key House Republicans,including House Commerce Com-mittee Chairman Fred Upton ofMichigan, welcomed Verizon'sactions Thursday as "a check onan FCC that is acting beyond theauthority granted to it by Con-gress." The court challenge hadbeen widely expected.

In a statement, Verizon said thatwhile it is "committed to preserving

an open Internet," it remains"deeply concerned by the FCC'sassertion of broad authority forsweeping new regulation of broad-band networks and the Internetitself."The company is taking the case tothe same federal court that ruledlast year that the FCC had exceed-ed its legal authority in sanctioningcable giant Comcast Corp. Theagency had cited Comcast fordiscriminating against online file-sharing traffic on its network -violating broad net neutrality princi-ples first established by the agencyin 2005. Those principles servedas a foundation for the formal rulesadopted by the commission lastmonth.

Last year's court ruling forced theFCC to look for a new frameworkfor regulating broadband to ensurethe commission would be on solidlegal ground in adopting net neu-trality and other rules. The agencycurrently treats broadband as alightly regulated "information ser-vice," as opposed to phone ser-vice, which is more heavily regulat-ed as a so-called "common carri-er."

At one point, FCC Chairman JuliusGenachowski proposed redefiningbroadband as a telecommunica-tions service subject to commoncarrier obligations to treat all trafficequally. But he later backed downin the face of fierce opposition fromthe phone and cable companies,as well as many CongressionalRepublicans.

And he now argues that the agen-cy has ample authority to mandate

net neutrality under the existingregulatory framework for broad-

band - an assumption that will betested in the Verizon challenge.

A senior FCC official said Thurs-day that the agency is confidentthat its new net neutrality rules arelegally sound and is prepared todefend them.The rules represented an attemptto craft a compromise on an issuethat has divided the telecommuni-cations and technology industries.On one side, Internet companiessuch as Skype, as well as publicinterest groups, argue that strongrules are needed to prevent broad-band providers from becomingonline gatekeepers that can dictatewhere people go and what they doonline.But the big phone and cable com-

panies insist that they need flexibil-ity to manage Internet traffic tokeep their networks runningsmoothly and preventing band-width-hogging applications fromslowing down their systems. Theyalso maintain that they should beable to charge extra for specialservices over their broadband linesand earn a healthy return on thebillions of dollars they have spenton network upgrades.New York-based Verizon is thecountry's fourth-largest fixed-lineInternet service provider, with 8.3million subscribers. It's investingmore in home broadband than anyother company, since it's upgrad-ing about two-thirds of its local-phone network with optical fiber forultra-fast Internet access.

By Joelle Tessler (AP TechnologyWriter)