New data suggests that two common painkillers, ibuprofen and diclofenac, can slightly increase the risk of heart problems if taken in high doses for a long time.
People with severe arthritis often take the drugs, which also calm inflammation, to go about daily life.
The researchers said some patients would deem the risk acceptable, but they should be given the choice.
A study, published in the Lancet, showed the drugs posed even greater risks for smokers and the overweight.
The risks have been reported before, but a team of researchers at the University of Oxford analyzed the issue in unprecedented detail in order to help patients make an informed choice.
The group investigated more than 353,000 patient records from 639 separate clinical trials to assess the impact of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.
They looked at high-dose prescriptions levels, rather than over-the-counter pain relief, of 150 mg diclofenac or 2,400 mg ibuprofen each day.
They showed that for every 1,000 people taking the drugs there would be three additional heart attacks, four more cases of heart failure and one death as well cases of stomach bleeding – every year as a result of taking the drugs.
Common painkillers ibuprofen and diclofenac can slightly increase the risk of heart problems if taken in high doses for a long time
So the number of heart attacks would increase from eight per 1,000 people per year normally, to 11 per 1,000 people per year with the drugs.
“Three per thousand per year sounds like it is quite a low risk, but the judgement has to be made by patients,” said lead researcher Prof. Colin Baigent.
He added: “So if you’re a patient and you go and sit in front of your doctor and discuss it, you are the one who should be making the judgement about whether three per thousand per year is worth it to allow you, potentially, to go about your daily life.”
He said this should not concern people taking a short course of these drugs, for example for headaches.
However, he did warn that those already at risk of heart problems would be at even greater risk as a result of the high-dose drugs.
High blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking all increase the risk of heart problems.
Prof. Colin Baigent said: “The higher your risk of heart disease, the higher your risk of a complication. Roughly speaking, if you’ve got double the risk of heart disease, then the risk of having a heart attack is roughly doubled.”
He said patients should consider ways to reduce their risk, which could include statins for some patients.
A similar drug called rofecoxib (known as Vioxx), was voluntarily taken off the market by its manufacturer in 2004 after similar concerns were raised.
A third drug, naproxen, had lower risks of heart complications in the study and some doctors are prescribing this to higher-risk patients.
The drug does a similar job to aspirin by stopping the blood from clotting although this also increases the odds of a stomach bleed.
Abdul-Baki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev, who was shot by an FBI agent a week ago while being quizzed over his links to the Boston bombers, revealed the extent of his son’s injuries in photographs of his dead body today.
Abdul-Baki Todashev called for an investigation and possible legal action against the agent involved at a press conference in Moscow where he showed the images of his son’s body lying in a morgue with up to seven gunshot wounds, including one to the back of the head.
His angry calls for justice came as a report claimed the 27-year-old native Chechen was unarmed in the clash with a federal agent in Florida on May 22.
Previous reports claimed the US citizen went for the agent with a knife while being interrogated in his home.
However, a report by the Washington Post yesterday cited law enforcement officials saying he had no weapon.
Ibragim Todashev allegedly did become violent when police quizzed him over links to Tamerlan Tsarnaev and an unsolved 2011 triple homicide but he did not have a knife as previously claimed.
“Today I want justice. I want an investigation, so that these people [the FBI] are sued under US laws,” Abdul-Baki Todashev said.
“These are not FBI agents. These are bandits and they must appear in court.”
Abdul-Baki Todashev said he received the 16 images of his son’s body from a friend in the US.
Abdul-Baki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev, revealed the extent of his son’s injuries
Ibragim Todashev is pictured lying in a Florida morgue. His father claims they show brutal injuries from up to seven bullets including one to the back of the head.
“This is not a shot that you fire when you come under attack. This is a shot you fire to execute someone,” he said.
“Couldn’t they just handcuff him? At the very least, they could have wounded him in the foot or shoulder. And here he was – killed execution style.”
He added that his son must have had information they didn’t want him to reveal.
“They silenced him,” he added.
Abdul-Baki Todashev now plans to journey to the US to pick up his son’s body and said he had been to the US embassy in Moscow to apply for a visa to do so.
Authorities were pressuring Ibragim Todashev to make a full confession to the murders of three men found in an apartment in Waltham, Massachusetts on the tenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001.
It is known Tamerlan Tsarnaev was close friends with one of the victims and the FBI have been looking into whether he was involved.
Law enforcement sources toldNBC that Ibragim Todashev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev carried out the 2011 killings when a drug deal that turned violent. The suspects didn’t want the three victims to be able to identify them, so they slit their throats, according to the network.
It is that evidence which apparently led them to Ibragim Todashev and his Orlando apartment not far from Universal Studios on May 22.
He had questioned for some hours before he allegedly flipped and the shooting came as one agent stepped out of the room, leaving Ibragim Todashev alone with one officer,the Postsaid.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has recovered enough to walk, his mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said.
In an interview for the Associated Press, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said her son told her in a phone call that he and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a police manhunt after the Boston Marathon blasts, were innocent.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who was shot and injured during the manhunt, is currently being held in a prison hospital.
Last month’s bombings left three people dead and more than 260 others injured.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told AP that it was the first conversation she had had with her son since he has been held in custody.
He told her he was getting better but was struggling to comprehend what had happened.
“He didn’t hold back his emotions either, as if he were screaming to the whole world: <<What is this? What’s happening?>>” Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said.
“I could just feel that he was being driven crazy by the unfairness that happened to us, that they killed our innocent Tamerlan.”
The Tsarnaev family has continued to claim the men’s innocence in the bomb attacks, which targeted the finishing line of the Boston Marathon on April 15.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has recovered enough to walk
The family, who are ethnic Chechen Muslims from Russia, spoke from an apartment in the Russian republic of Dagestan which reportedly belonged to 26-year-old Tamerlan, who was hit in a shoot-out with police in the aftermath of the bombings.
The suspects’ father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said they bought the apartment in anticipation of Tamerlan and his family moving to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.
“All I can do is pray to God and hope that one day fairness will win out, our children will be cleared, and we will at least get Dzhokhar back, crippled, but at least alive,” he told AP.
Meanwhile, the father of a Chechen immigrant Ibragim Todashev, who was shot and killed during a violent confrontation with Boston Marathon investigators, has accused agents who killed his son of being “bandits”.
Ibragim Todashev, 27, admitted a role in a triple murder near Boston in 2011 and implicated Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the crime.
However, no evidence has emerged to link Ibragim Todashev to the bombings.
On May 22, he was shot and killed in Orlando, Florida.
Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, his father, Abdul-Baki Todashev, showed 16 photographs that he said were of his son in a Florida morgue.
He claimed his son had six gunshot wounds to his torso and one to the back of his head. However, the photos have not been authenticated.
There are conflicting reports about the events that led to Ibragim Todashev’s death, with law enforcement officials initially saying he was shot after attacking an FBI agent with a knife but later saying they were not clear about what happened.
Ibragim Todashev’s father says his son was “100% unarmed” and has called for an investigation into his death.
“These are not FBI agents but bandits – I cannot call them anything else and they must be tried,” he said.
His son met Tamerlan Tsarnaev at a boxing gym in Boston in 2011 but they were “not particularly close friends”, Abdul-Baki Todashev adds.
A suspicious letter sent to President Barack Obama was intercepted by the Secret Service.
The Secret Service said the letter was “similar” to two ricin poisoned letters mailed to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg this week and was being tested by FBI investigators.
The letters to Mayor Michael Bloomberg referred to his support for stricter gun control.
One was delivered to the Washington DC office of Michael Bloomberg’s gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
The other was addressed to the New York City mayor’s office but intercepted at a mail sorting facility.
Police have said preliminary testing of the letters sent to Michael Bloomberg indicated the presence of ricin, a poison extracted from castor beans.
A suspicious letter sent to President Barack Obama was intercepted by the Secret Service
One thousand times more toxic than cyanide, it can be fatal when inhaled, swallowed or injected, although it is possible to recover from exposure.
Law enforcement officials have told US media that all three letters were marked as having been sorted in a facility in Shreveport, Louisiana.
A Louisiana State Police spokeswoman said the Shreveport postal centre handled mail from Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas, so the letter could have come from any of those states.
New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters on Thursday he believed that the letter addressed to Barack Obama was identical to those sent to Michael Bloomberg.
According to Ray Kelly, the letters contained a threat to “shoot in the face” anyone who came for the sender’s guns.
Civilian personnel who came into contact with the letters experienced no symptoms. Minor symptoms in emergency workers who handled the letter at the sorting facility for the mayor’s office “have since abated”, the New York Police Department said in a statement.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg is one of the most prominent proponents of stricter gun control laws in the US.
The firearms debate divides Americans and has leapt to the top of the political agenda since 26 people were killed in a school shooting in Connecticut in December.
In a separate case, a Mississippi man is charged with sending ricin-laced letters to Barack Obama, a judge and a Mississippi senator. Another man has been arrested in Washington state in connection with letters sent to a judge.
The Start button is returning to Microsoft desktop mode’s taskbar of its Windows 8 operating system, the company has confirmed.
The lack of the facility – which had been in every previous version since Windows 95 – has been one of the most controversial aspects of the software.
However, it will not offer all the functionality previously associated with the feature.
Instead it will bring users to the recently-introduced “Metro” interface.
“We’ve improved the way you navigate to Start with the mouse by changing the Start ‘tip’ to be the familiar Windows logo,” the company said in a blog post.
“The new tip appears anytime you move the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen, and is always visible on the taskbar when on the desktop.”
On current versions of Windows 8, the start tip would only appear when users hovered their cursor over the lower-left corner of their screen.
In the 8.1 update, the area will be more visible.
The Start button is returning to Microsoft desktop mode’s taskbar of its Windows 8 operating system
A left-click on the tip will bring up a tile-based Start Screen – formerly known as the Metro interface – designed for touch-screen users.
A right-click will display a small menu of other options such as Event Viewer, Device Manager and Disk Management.
Another change will allow users to boot their computers directly into desktop mode, meaning they can avoid ever using the Start Screen if they wish.
Many users had complained that ditching the traditional Start Menu and introducing the Start Screen had made the system less straight-forward to use, meaning businesses which adopted it would need to retrain staff.
Microsoft had been stung by claims that the expected reintroduction of a Start button would mark a major U-turn.
An article in the Financial Times described the move as one of the “most prominent admissions of failure for a new mass-market consumer product since Coca-Cola’s New Coke fiasco nearly 30 years ago” – making reference to the soft drinks company’s decision to ditch a new recipe after overwhelming customer dissatisfaction.
Microsoft later issued a statement saying it was “unfortunate” the FT did not represent the “good response to date on Windows 8.”
A preview download of Windows 8.1 will be released to the public in June, and a final version before the end of the year. Both will be free of charge to existing users.
Other changes that will appear to users running the update include:
Added customization options, with more choice over colours and backgrounds on the Start Screen.
An improved search function that covers web content as well as apps, files and settings on the PC.
A new version of the firm’s web browser – Internet Explorer 11 – which Microsoft said would offer improved tools for developers.
Wool & Prince shirt you can wear 100 days without washing or ironing
Mac Bishop got tired of wearing the same button-down shirts to his job in marketing every day and he has invented a shirt that stays clean even after 100 days of wear.
The garment resists odor so effectively that it even smells fresh after being worn during rigorous exercise.
It is also said to need no ironing because it is made of wrinkle-free material that can withstand even the roughest of treatment.
“They were Brooks Brother cotton, button-downs,” 24-year-old Mac Bishop told FOX 411.
“They wrinkled or smelled after a couple wears and needed cleaning.”
Mac Bishop thought there had to be a better way to meet his office’s dress code without having to take his shirts to the dry cleaner after one use. So, he decided to experiment.
“I had some vintage wool button downs in my closet, and I started wearing those to work. They were more of a flannel, heavier [material]. They got by on the…business casual meter. I started wearing those, and they didn’t wrinkle. They didn’t smell,” he said.
“[I thought] <<This is really cool. I hate doing my dry cleaning, and now I don’t really do any dry cleaning because I am wearing these shirts>>.”
Mac Bishop quit his job and decided to focus on creating a “better-button down.” The idea, he explained, was a shirt made entirely of wool, which was formal enough to wear to work but wouldn’t wrinkle or smell like cotton shirts. Something, he said, the wool shirt market was missing.
“I ended up wearing one of these shirts for 100 days,” he said, explaining the shirt he experimented with came from his family’s woolen mill, in Oregon.
“It performed well. I threw a lot at it,” he said.
After the 100 days, Mac Bishop challenged people to feel and smell the shirt and recorded their reactions. He posted a video of the results on the project-funding website Kickstarter, in the hopes of raising $30,000 to create a business casual shirt out of the same material.
Now, his Wool & Prince fashion label has raised more than $300,000, and he has presold thousands of shirts, priced at $98 each. The label’s website has a waiting list for those hoping to get their hands on one of the low-maintenance shirts.
“It’s an overwhelming amount of hype for not having a completely finished product,” Mac Bishop said, adding the first batch of shirts are being produced in Asia and will ship to buyers in December.
Mac Bishop said those looking for an easier business casual shirt will likely be please with his product, but he still advises wearers wash it… at least every once in a while.
“I don’t recommend that guys wear this shirt for 100 days. I’m not really a smelly guy but I’m pretty active,” he said.
“I think guys can expect to get more wears out of this shirt than their cotton shirts. We’re going to learn a lot about what guys think about the shirt when it ships.”
Wool & Prince sent researchers around the world wearing the shirts doing everything from backpacking in the Andes to dancing in sweaty New York nightclubs to test their design.
The shirts are made of wool which lasts six times longer than cotton. Laboratory tests have shown that wool fibres resist tearing and can bend back on themselves more than 20,000 times without breaking. Cotton breaks after 3,200 bends.
Wool is also highly resilient to wrinkles because it has a natural crimp.
Jessica Simpson has kept mum on her due date, but it looks like she can’t have long to go before the birth of her second child.
The second time round mother showed off her awe inspiring pregnancy figure while out on Saturday during a girly weekend away with her sister, Ashlee and mother, Tina.
Jessica Simpson, 32, looked happy but huge as she headed off for a bite to eat in Ojai, California.
With her family be her side and daughter Maxwell in tow, Jessica Simpson stopped in at Italian restaurant Boccali’s.
Now that the singer is of course eating for two, her mother Tina made sure to grab all the left overs and bring them home with them.
For the dinner Jessica Simpson made her growing bump the centre of attention in a tight black maxi dress.
Fox is bringing back their most controversial reality makeover The Swan with Monica Lewinsky and Erin Moran being considered for the show.
This time celebrities will undergo the makeover transformations.
According to Today.com, Fox has greenlighted Celebrity Swan to air later this year. The casting process is going on now and Fox will begin production this spring.
Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky is to return to the public eye in 2013
Entertainment Weekly reports: “Celebrity Swan will feature female celebrities and will offer these popular women the incredible opportunity to undergo physical, psychological and career changes as cameras follow them through the transformative process. This opportunity will allow these women to come back better than ever, have a second chance at personal and career redemption and re-introduce themselves to their supportive fans in a whole new way.”
Celebrity Swan will be a two-hour special instead of a whole season of one-hour episodes.
The Swan‘s celebrity version is being produced by FremantleMedia and Galan Entertainment with Nely Galan and Arthur Smith serving as executive producers. The producers are just beginning the casting process and no names have officially been announced. Monica Lewinsky and Erin Moran are being considered for the show. Already slimmed down from 300 lb, Monica Lewinsky is in talks to appear on the Fox TV show which turns “ugly ducklings” into “beautiful swans” with cosmetic surgery, dental treatment, counseling and personal training.
World’s most famous intern Monica Lewinsky, it seems, is making a return to public life in 2013.
At the beginning of this year Monica Lewinsky was spotted at the birthday party of Heather Kerzner at the Downton Mayfair restaurant. In the company of amongst others the Duchess of York, Princess Eugenie and her former Admiral Codrington barman boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, Donna Air and the Duchess of Cambridge’s brother, James Middleton, the Daily Mail described her as wearing “dark layers with gem-laden accessories”.
Monica Lewinsky was introduced to Heather Kerzner, the former wife of hotel magnate Sol Kerzner, by socialite and actress Amanda Eliasch in August 2012. Amongst others at a party held at the Chateau Marmont were Lisa Zane, Yassi Mazandi, Edward Bennett-Coles and Ronnie Sassoon.
Aside from having plainly found a niche on the social circuits of London and Manhattan, Monica Lewinsky, who has openly admitted that she’s “kind of known for something that’s not so great to be known for”, appeared in a $1 million endorsement campaign for Jenny Craig starting in January 2000. The deal was a disaster and by February of that year, the firm dropped Monica Lewinsky and paid just for $300,000 for her involvement.
World’s most famous intern Monica Lewinsky is making a return to public life in 2013
On the memoir and interview appearance fee front, Monica Lewinsky has been far more successfully. Andrew Morton’s Monica’s Story is said to have netted her around $500,000 and circa $1 million from the international rights to her 20/20 interview with Barbara Walters on ABC.
In due course, supposedly seeking a more private life, Monica Lewinsky moved to London in 2005 to study social psychology at the London School of Economics. She produced a thesis titled In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third-person effect and Pre-Trial Publicity.
In September 2012, Forbes magazine revealed that Monica Lewinsky was about to sign a $12 million memoir “detailing her relationship with the first seducer, discussing everything from his sexual peccadilloes to his complaints about wife Hillary”.
Around the same time, a “friend” told the New York Post: “No one will hire her and she can’t get a job because of Clinton.”
In another feature in the National Enquirer, another “friend” added: “She’s facing 40 without a man in her life” as an excuse for why Monica Lewinsky is again peddling her story.
The latest? It’s now being suggested that Bill Clinton’s former lover will appear on a FOX show named The Swan along with Happy Days actress Erin Moran. The programme, last broadcast in 2004, sees participants receive “physical and mental makeovers” including plastic surgery as they prepare to “reinvent themselves”.
Whether the memoirs and reality show go ahead or not, it looks like Monica Lewinsky will be back in London soon. In conclusion, Heather Kerzner told Charlotte Griffiths of the Mail on Sunday’s diary: “It was great to have Monica along – we’re old friends. I’m now organizing the Masterpiece Midsummer Gala in aid of charity on July 2. Hopefully Monica will be able to attend.”
The odds of naturally conceiving quintuplets are one in several million, according to Dr. Wright Bates, from the University of Alabama.
Dr. Wright Bates told ABC News that quins are “exceedingly rare”.
He said twins are born in up to 1 in every 100 births, while triplets are 1 in every 7,000 to 10,000 births.
Naturally conceived quadruplets are born in every 1 in 600,000 births.
Czech mother Alexandra Kinova has beaten staggering odds to become pregnant with quintuplets without using IVF
The first recorded set of quintuplets known to have all survived were the Dionne sisters, who were born in Ontario, Canada.
Fewer than 10 sets of quintuplets are born every year in the United States.
Last month, Guillermina and Fernando Garcia had five babies – three girls and two boys – who weighed between 2 to 3 pounds each at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City for another six weeks.
In 2010, British mother Vicky Lamb had four girls and two boys after taking a fertility drug but sadly one of the babies died.
Alexandra Kinova from Czech Republic has beaten staggering odds to become pregnant with quintuplets without using IVF.
Alexandra Kinova, 23, is due to give birth by Caesarean section on Sunday to the Czech Republic’s first ever set of quins.
Alexandra Kinova, who already has one son, did not realize she was carrying five babies until last month.
At first doctors said she was having twins but in March staff at the Prague Institute for the Care of Mother and Child said she was actually pregnant with four children.
However, it was not until the following month that she finally discovered she was having quintuplets.
Alexandra Kinova, from Milovice, about 30 km (20 miles) east of Prague, told Czech news site denik.czthat she was in shock when she was told.
She said: “When we finally found a fifth head, I started to cry.”
According to local media, her children will be the country’s first set of quins.
Alexandra Kinova from Czech Republic has beaten staggering odds to become pregnant with quintuplets without using IVF
The odds of conceiving quins naturally is one in several million, according to experts.
The mother said both she and her partner have a family history of twins.
Alexandra Kinova said aside from four months of morning sickness, she has had few complications in the pregnancy.
She said she has been able to sleep on her side and has not had any problems with her breathing.
Alexandra Kinova said she plans to breastfeed all five, as she did with her first-born son.
She told denik: “The first child I nursed for almost a year and a half and I want to breastfeed now.
“While I know that some will be on artificial nutrition.”
Alexandra Kinova said despite the best efforts of the doctors they still do not know the gender of all the babies.
Two of the unborn babies are hidden underneath the other three – two boys and a girl, who she plans to call Daniel, Michael and Tereza.
Alexandra Kinova said: “I very much look forward to seeing how they will look. It’s a great charm, but we cannot see anything properly -only a head or legs.”
The hospital will double the number of doctors and midwives for her Caesarean.
They said they have administered drugs to help speed up the development of the babies’ lungs but they cannot be sure of their condition until they are born.
Dr. Alena Měchurová, head of the hospital, said they hope that all five babies and the mother will be fine but said they cannot rule out complications.
Kim Kardashian, who was accused of using Botox in a magazine report, had to grab onto her striped dress as it flew up over her waist.
Kim Kardashian, 32, seemed to see the funny side of her Marilyn moment, however, as she chuckled with mirth when the gust played havoc with her cute frock.
The reality star did a fantastic job of preserving her modesty as she walked across the road and knowing – as she does – that camera lens are always trailed on her, she ensured that there wasn’t anything private for the photographers to see.
Kim Kardashian seemed to see the funny side of her Marilyn moment
Luckily, Kim Kardashian was wearing a really pretty pair of sensible sandals so had a lower centre of gravity than she’s used to, and it made the save all that more easy to make.
Meanwhile Kim Kardashian definitively shot down the shocking report that claimed she is still getting Botox injections during her pregnancy.
A spokesperson for the star said: “It’s absurd and NOT true!”
Kim Kardashian, who is due to give birth to her first child in July, has come under fire throughout her pregnancy for her choice of clothes, footwear and even diet.
But the suggestion she is still being injected with Botox – which is actually the poison Botulinum toxin and is often found in sausage meats – is obviously much more serious.
And Kim Kardashian, who rarely acknowledges other claims, isn’t taking this lying down.
The report in In Touch magazine, stated: “She’s still getting injections even though she’s seven months pregnant.”
“She’s become more neurotic than ever about her looks,” a family insider told the magazine.
The TV premiere of Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as flamboyant pianist Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, was seen by 2.4 million people in the US.
The Nielsen Company said it was the HBO network’s biggest audience for one of its original movies since medical drama Something the Lord Made in 2004.
A further 1.1 million people tuned in for a repeat of the film that aired immediately after Sunday’s premiere.
The TV premiere of Behind the Candelabra, starring Michael Douglas as flamboyant pianist Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson, was seen by 2.4 million people in the US
Behind the Candelabra, Steven Soderbergh’s film, will be released in UK cinemas on June 7.
Based on Scott Thorson’s memoir Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace, the film charts the life of the American pianist and the secret affair he had with the author, played by Matt Damon.
The drama received its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this month.
ABC’s Dancing With the Stars remains the most-watched programme on US television with around 15 million viewers last week.
The European Commission is suing Spain over the refusal of some of its hospitals to recognize the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC).
The EHIC entitles EU citizens to free healthcare in public hospitals.
But some Spanish hospitals rejected the card and told tourists to reclaim the cost of treatment via their travel insurance, the European Commission says.
It is not accusing cash-strapped Spanish hospitals of trying to make money.
The European Commission is suing Spain over the refusal of some of its hospitals to recognize the European Health Insurance Card
The Commission, which checks compliance with EU law, has requested information on the issue from the Spanish government – the first stage of an infringement procedure which could eventually result in a fine.
Under the health card system, an EU citizen’s home health service is supposed to cover the cost of emergency treatment abroad.
The EHIC is mainly intended for emergency treatment abroad, but also covers patients for pre-existing medical conditions. In cases where doctors think a European visitor’s treatment can wait until they get home then the EHIC can be deemed invalid.
The EHIC is intended to give foreign visitors the same level of care in emergency cases as locals get.
The Commission says it has had hundreds of such complaints concerning Spain. It says the much higher cost of private treatment is being passed on to the travel insurance companies “or, increasingly, is being billed to the citizens directly”.
Jon Bon Jovi has revealed that his band have waived their fee at a concert in Madrid next month, given the country’s economic crisis.
The unusually cheap tickets have already sold out. They were on sale for between 18 and 39 euros.
Jon Bon Jovi has revealed that his band have waived their fee at a concert in Madrid next month, given the country’s economic crisis
This compares to the equivalent of 76 euros – the average ticket cost for a Bon Jovi concert in Manchester, UK, next week.
There were fears many fans would not be able to afford the full price.
Jon Bon Jovi, 51, told Spain’s El Mundo newspaper that when the band were planning this summer’s European tour, Madrid had originally been left-off the list of venues over fears that the event might not sell out because of Spain’s economic crisis.
Not wanting to let the Spanish fans down, Bon Jovi decided they would perform in Madrid on June 27 for free.
Indian filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh has died from a heart attack at the age of 49 in the city of Calcutta.
Award-winning director Rituparno Ghosh was suffering from pancreatitis for the last couple of weeks and died on Thursday morning.
Debuting with his 1994 film Heerer Angti (The diamond ring), Rituparno Ghosh made many critically acclaimed films like Unishe April (19 April), Chokher Bali (Sand in the eye) and Abohoman (The eternal).
He won several national and international awards for his work.
Rituparno Ghosh was well known for his realistic depictions of interpersonal relationships and urban-educated middle class angst.
The filmmaker worked with several big stars of Bengali cinema and Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai.
Indian filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh has died from a heart attack at the age of 49 in the city of Calcutta
Rituparno Ghosh also acted in some of his films, including in Aar Ekti Premer Golpo (Just another love story) and Chitrangada.
His 2003 film Chokher Bali was awarded the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival and his last film, Chitrangada, won a special jury award in the 2012 national film awards.
Two days ago, Rituparno Ghosh wrote on Twitter that he had finished shooting his latest film Satyaneshi – based on the legendary Bengali detective fictional character, Byomkesh Bakshi.
As news of his death spread, several actors and actresses arrived at his home to pay their respects.
“I cannot believe that Rituparno is no more. It is very difficult to accept this news. We lost a very promising film director at a very early age,” the Press Trust of India quoted veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee as saying.
Many Indian film personalities and fans took to Twitter to express their grief.
“Shocked by passing of Rituparno Ghosh. He was dreaming of getting into what he called his <<next phase>>. Hugely creative explorer on film,” tweeted director Shekhar Kapur.
“Rituparno Ghosh had great sense of humor. He had a brilliant understanding of human behavior. Will miss him and his cinema. RIP my Friend,” wrote Bollywood actor Anupam Kher.
Noted film critic Rajeev Masand tweeted: “Deeply saddened by passing of Rituparno Ghosh. He understood the human condition with all its complexities and conveyed them with such sensitivity.”
The newborn baby boy rescued from a toilet pipe in China has been released from hospital, officials say.
The baby had been in hospital in Jinhua city, Zhejiang province, since being cut free from the pipe on Saturday.
His 22-year-old mother, who has not been named, said the baby slipped into the toilet and went down the pipe by accident as she gave birth.
Reports suggested the baby left with a relative, but it remains unclear who.
An official from the Pujiang county propaganda office, which is in Jinhua, said the baby had been released from hospital, but did not identify who took him home.
Some local reports suggest the baby’s father has made himself known but others suggested other relatives had become involved.
Meanwhile state media reports that while the incident, which took place on Saturday, is being considered an accident, investigations are ongoing.
The newborn baby boy rescued from a toilet pipe in China has been released from hospital
According to local reports, the mother alerted her landlord after the baby fell into the pipe, but did not admit the baby was hers until later.
An official told the Associated Press news agency it was because she was frightened.
China’s Zhezhong News reported that she told police she could not afford to have an abortion. She was unmarried, did not think she could afford to look after the baby, and kept her pregnancy secret, reports say.
The infant has been referred to as Baby No 59 – after the number of his hospital incubator. He suffered minor abrasions on his head and limbs after being confined in the 10 cm (4 inch) pipe.
Scott Thorson moved to Liberace’s Las Vegas mansion in 1977, when he was a teenage hunk in the foster care system, learning that the jewel-smitten showman could love just as extravagantly as he decorated.
Touring the premises before their relationship began, Liberace pointed out some decorative highlights, which included 17 pianos, a casino, a quarry’s worth of marble and a canopied bed with an ermine spread. On the ceiling was a reproduction of the Sistine Chapel with Liberace’s face painted among the cherubs.
When Liberace and Scott Thorson became a couple, the showman, who was 40 years older, was just as excessive.
“We were at a hotel in Florida, and Liberace had the manager give us another suite, with windows that faced the beach,” said Scott Thorson, now 54.
“He knew I’d be near the water and he wanted to be able to look at me.”
Liberace even wanted Scott Thorson nearby when he worked. So for years, Scott Thorson would don a chauffeur’s costume covered in rhinestones and drive “Mr. Showmanship” on stage in a bejewelled Rolls-Royce. Scott Thorson would stop the car, then open the door for Liberace, who would emerge in a fur coat with a 16ft train.
This routine, which ran for years at the Las Vegas Hilton, is recreated in a forthcoming movie, Behind the Candelabra, which is based on Scott Thorson’s autobiography of the same name and stars Matt Damon as Thorson and Michael Douglas as Liberace.
Behind the Candelabra debuted this week in the US on HBO and opens in cinemas in the UK on June 7.
One person who might miss the movie’s debut is Scott Thorson. He is an inmate at the Washoe county jail in Reno, Nevada, and while the place has its share of amenities – including television – HBO isn’t one of them.
Scott Thorson has been held there since February, when he was charged with burglary and identity theft, after buying about $1,300 worth of computer and mobile-phone merchandise, using a credit card and license that weren’t his. He was arrested at the Ponderosa hotel, where he and a man he had just met rented a room for $33.90 a night.
“We get a lot of the dregs of Reno, a lot of prostitutes, d**g dealers,” said Eric Pyzel, a clerk at the Ponderosa, where a nearby bumper sticker reads: “Welcome To Our Country. Just Do It Legally.”
“The cops are by pretty often. So when they got here it was kind of like, OK, what is it this time?”
On a recent Friday morning at the jail, Scott Thorson was sitting in a small room of white cinder blocks, empty but for a sink and a wall-mounted dispenser of disinfectants. Two officers hovered. Not for the first time in his troubled life, he vowed to clean up.
“This experience has scared me straight,” he said, in a slightly nasal tone that sounds vaguely like Liberace.
“There comes a time when you’ve got to take responsibility. You’ve got to stop lying and face your mistakes.”
It’s hard to connect this tired and anxious man in a blue prison shirt to the beefcake grinning in photographs in the late 70s. Time, an on-off m**h addiction, several stints in prison and what he describes as stage 3 colon cancer have taken their toll. Another reason he looks different: the chin implant is gone. Scott Thorson had it removed in an attempt to reverse one of the creepier episodes in the history of plastic surgery. Early in their relationship, Liberace plucked an oil painting of himself from a room in his Las Vegas mansion and asked a visiting doctor to reshape Scott Thorson’s face to look like Liberace’s as a young man.
Liberace wanted a toy boy and a son. With s** and fatherhood disturbingly entwined, Scott Thorson wound up with a new chin, a nose job and enhanced cheekbones.
“I was 17 years old,” he said, explaining why he went along with a plan that sounds so lunatic.
“Liberace had taken me out of a situation with a father who was very abusive, a mother who was mentally ill. I did everything I possibly could to please this man.”
The two went on shopping sprees, travelled first-class and spent a lot of quality time with Liberace’s shar-peis. Scott Thorson was showered with gifts, including mink coats, an assortment of baubles and a Chevrolet Camaro. They entertained celebrities such as Debbie Reynolds and Michael Jackson.
However, it all ended abruptly in 1982. That year, Liberace had members of his retinue forcibly eject Scott Thorson from his penthouse in Los Angeles. It was a break-up caused, in part, by Scott Thorson’s d**g habit, which he says he developed trying to slim down, at Liberace’s urging, on what was called the “Hollywood diet”, a cocktail of doctor-prescribed drugs that included pharmaceutical co***ne.
Scott Thorson later sued for $113 million in palimony, ultimately losing a highly public battle fought both in court and in the tabloids. He settled in 1986 for $95,000, according to reports at the time.
There was a deathbed reconciliation before Liberace died of a disease caused by AIDS in 1987. And that is where Behind the Candelabra ends. But Scott Thorson’s life went on, and as he explained in a series of interviews, both in person and via a jail-monitored version of Skype, many of the events that followed are as strange as the ones that came before.
The trick is separating the strange from the unbelievable.
“His approach to communicating with people is always to play it in a manner that reflects best on him,” said Oliver Mading, the man Scott Thorson calls his adoptive father as well as his manager. One evening recently, Oliver Mading was sitting in the living room of his home a few miles from Reno’s downtown. Sitting nearby was his stepson, Tony Pelicone, who met Scott Thorson through a mutual friend a decade ago in Palm Springs, California.
Scott Thorson had the chin implant removed in an attempt to reverse one of the creepier episodes in the history of plastic surgery
At best, these men sounded deeply ambivalent about being enmeshed in Scott Thorson’s life.
“He’s not a bad person,” said Tony Pelicone, who has a swirl of brown-blond hair and a cigarette habit.
“He’s just twisted and kind of cutthroat.”
Oliver Mading said: “He’d sell his mother – “
“Then he gives you that smile,” said Tony Pelicone, interrupting.
The two admit that much of what they know about Scott Thorson’s biography they learned from Thorson and that, at the very least, he has an aversion to telling his life story as a coherent, easy-to-follow chronology. During interviews at the Washoe county jail, Scott Thorson was often evasive and moody, deflecting questions about his past to rage against the people who have declined to put up the $15,000 in bail he says he needs to get out of jail.
“All these people are getting rich from my story,” he fumed.
“And here I sit.”
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Earlier this month, Scott Thorson pleaded guilty and asked to enter a rehabilitation programme. He could face as little as probation with a suspended prison sentence to two to 30 years and combined fines of up to $110,000.
What’s indisputable is that Scott Thorson is no longer named Scott Thorson. He is now known as Jess Marlow, a change he says occurred when he entered the federal witness protection program as the star witness in the 1989 prosecution of an infamous Los Angeles character named Eddie Nash.
Eddie Nash shows up in the book and movie as Mr. Y, described as a d**g dealer with ties to organized crime who made headlines for allegedly ordering the so-called Wonderland murders, a grisly quadruple homicide that took place two days after Nash’s home was robbed of money and drugs in 1981. (The crime is named after 8763 Wonderland Avenue, where the killings took place.)
Eddie Nash purportedly learned who had committed the robbery after his underlings beat up p**n star John Holmes, an acquaintance of Nash’s who later admitted to helping the robbers enter Nash’s home.
A fictionalized version of these events turns up in Boogie Nights, with an Eddie Nash-inspired figure played by a Speedo- and robe-wearing Alfred Molina.
Scott Thorson says that Eddie Nash became a drug source for him in the early 80s and that he later became a partner in Nash’s club business. At some point, the two fell out and, by 1988, Scott Thorson was reportedly in a Los Angeles jail for an assortment of charges. There, he says, he was offered leniency by the district attorney’s office in exchange for testifying that he happened to be at Eddie Nash’s home when thugs pummelled John Holmes – which, if true, would make Scott Thorson a kind of Zelig of the Awful. Eleven members of the jury voted to convict. One held out. Eddie Nash later admitted to bribing that lone juror, and in 2001, he struck a plea bargain in which he was sentenced to 37 months in prison for racketeering.
Now, in his early 80s, Eddie Nash is a free man. And he would like to make it clear that he and Scott Thorson were never partners.
“No, no, he worked for me,” Eddie Nash said.
“When Liberace dumped him, he had nothing. He was on the streets. So I took him in, and he worked at the house. He was good for cleaning. Because I lived with eight girls at the time. Beautiful girls. College girls. It was safe to have Thorson around because he is g*y. I had a g*y cook, too.”
Scott Thorson claims that after the trial, marshals in the federal witness protection programme moved him to Florida and gave him a new name.
“They had to keep me safe because there was a contract placed on my life by Eddie Nash,” he said during one interview.
“It started with the marshals taking me to different locations around the country for seven to 10 days, to make sure no one was following,” he said.
“Texas, Alaska, Seattle.”
It’s an intriguing narrative plot point – man forced to get a new face is later forced to take on a new identity. But the story sounds highly improbable to Bill Keefer, a former federal marshal in the witness protection programme. He has doubts because of where Scott Thorson eventually landed: at a Christian-based homeless shelter in Tallahassee, Florida, called the Haven of Rest.
“How much protection could the marshals provide a guy at a homeless shelter?” Bill Keefer asked.
At the Haven of Rest, Scott Thorson found religion. And, instead of striving for invisibility, he shared his life story in front of church congregations. He says that he became a popular evangelizer, even appearing on a Pat Robertson TV show.
“He would share his testimony about his life with Liberace,” said Danny Heaberlin, who ran Haven of Rest at the time.
“We had pictures of him with Liberace, because the story was so out there, nobody would believe it otherwise.”
Scott Thorson says an east coast mafia don gave him assurances that he needn’t worry about Eddie Nash. True or not, Scott Thorson was unable to stay on the side of the angels for long. After three years at the Haven of Rest, he says, he started using d**gs again, and in 1991, was shot in a room at a Howard Johnson hotel in Jacksonville. Local reports described the crime as a robbery committed by a crack dealer.
“They thought he was going to die,” Danny Heaberlin said, “but he kept living and living.”
While he was recovering, a life-changing event occurred: a woman from Maine named Georgianna Morrill came to visit. Scott Thorson would later claim she had seen him on TV, spreading the gospel, but that is not how Georgianna Morrill remembers it.
“I read Behind the Candelabra, and I saw the photo on the back of the book and I heard the Lord tell me to pray for this g*y,” she said, speaking from her apartment in South Portland, Maine.
“I thought, I don’t even know this man. But I’m a Christian, and, when God tells you to pray for someone, you do.”
Georgianna Morrill found Scott Thorson through a Pentecostal friend and soon after the two met, she invited him to live with her in a tiny two-storey red house in Falmouth, Maine. Scott Thorson accepted. He stayed for the next 12 years.
It was the second time that he found refuge in someone else’s life, but Falmouth was a long way from Vegas, and Georgianna Morrill was no Liberace. There were periods of domestic calm, with Scott Thorson cleaning up around the house and collecting disability payments that he was eligible for after the shooting. But Georgianna Morrill wanted to get married, despite all the evidence that the match was a terrible idea. The couple had s** once, she recalls.
“That was enough,” she said with a giggle.
He also drank a lot, and when he did he would sometimes “get stupid”, in Georgianna Morrill’s words, prompting her to call the police. Still, she held out hope that one day he would propose. And one day, he did, but with a ring with a pearl on top that she somehow knew he had purchased with a stolen credit card.
“I said to him, <<I’m looking for a diamond ring and one that you paid for yourself>>,” she said, laughing.
“He got pretty mad that I didn’t want it.”
Georgianna Morrill speaks with a note of nostalgia about those strife-ridden years. It’s a note you won’t hear when you discuss the subject with Scott Thorson.
“Horrible!” he said of his Maine phase.
“It was so boring. I hated the weather. Five feet of snow. It was too quiet. I had to get the hell out of there.”
Scott Thorson moved to Palm Springs, where he would be arrested a handful of times for stealing groceries and drug possession, among many other charges. Early in this era, he met Tony Pelicone.
“I recently learned that he came by our house to meet someone I was dating,” Tony Pelicone said.
“Later his house burned and nobody was there to pick him up. So I did, thinking he’d stay for a few days. That turned into 10 years.”
Initially, Tony Pelicone was thrilled to meet Liberace’s ex, and he introduced Scott Thorson to his mother and stepfather, Oliver Mading.
Oliver Mading, a businessman with a background in packaged foods, says he negotiated the Behind the Candelabra movie deal with the producer Jerry Weintraub while Scott Thorson was in prison on d**g charges. After his release, Scott Thorson spent his cut of the movie earnings – just under $100,000 – in about two months, mostly on cars and jewellery.
“We always knew Jess without money,” Oliver Mading said, referring to Scott Thorson by his assumed name.
“Not that $100,000 is King Midas’s trove, but Jess burned through it like a complete idiot.”
Scott Thorson says he’s now penniless because of outlays for cancer treatment. The truth is almost beside the point. An assortment of siblings and half-siblings want nothing to do with him, Oliver Mading says. His only real assets today are the intangibles that Liberace bequeathed him, most notably, a peculiar place in showbiz history as the kid that Liberace once adored and tried to remake in his image.
“There’s always been a love-hate relationship,” Scott Thorson said when asked to describe his feelings about Liberace today.
“At that time, I was so honored to be in his presence. And I didn’t want to go back to my lifestyle in the foster homes, which was pure hell.”
Their years together scarred him, he says, and partly explain the troubles that followed. But those years were also the happiest of his life. So although he removed the chin implant, he also had a tribute to Liberace tattooed on his forearm. He rolls up the sleeve of a grey thermal undershirt to reveal an inky cluster of curlicued letters and symbols. In the middle is Liberace’s name, surrounded by floating musical notes, plus the years that Liberace lived and a yellow rose.
“His favourite flower,” Scott Thorson said matter-of-factly, rolling his sleeve back down.
On Tuesday night, Cristiano Ronaldo and Rihanna met up backstage at her concert in Lisbon, Portugal.
Real Madrid football player Cristiano Ronaldo posted a picture backstage with Rihanna following the show, flashing the peace sign as the singer pouted next to him for the camera.
Cristiano Ronaldo captioned the shot with a casual: “Yesterday at @rihanna’ s concert.”
It’s not the first time Cristiano Ronaldo has made headlines by posing up with popstars.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Rihanna met up backstage at her concert in Lisbon
Last week, the sportsman met One Direction at the Spanish club’s training ground, as the boys took some time out from their whistle-stop European tour to train with Jose Mourinho’s men in the Spanish capital.
At the end of their brief kickabout, three of the band members enjoyed a meet-and-greet with the manager, who presented them with a Real Madrid shirt, before they caught up with the players.
“They told us that we had the opportunity to come to see the Real Madrid players and that was very exciting for us,” revealed Niall Horan.
“It is amazing to see how they train and see so many such good players. We are big football fans and Real Madrid are one of the best teams on the planet.”
Fellow bandmate Liam Payne added: “Cristiano Ronaldo is my favorite player, he is one of the best in the world.”
Liam Hemsworth has finally called off his engagement to Miley Cyrus after endless rumors that their relationship is over.
Liam Hemsworth, 23, and Miley Cyrus, 20, are still living together at their Los Angeles home but are now sleeping in separate rooms after Liam told his fiancée their relationship was finished for good.
According to Us Weekly magazine, Miley Cyrus confessed to a friend “we’re done” when speaking about Liam Hemsworth.
Speaking about their living arrangements, another source told the publication: “It’s strange.”
Liam Hemsworth has finally called off his engagement to Miley Cyrus after endless rumors that their relationship is over
Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus first met on the set of their film The Last Song in 2009 and had been together four years, with The Hunger Games hunk popping the question last June.
But their romance hit the rocks in February amidst rumors Miley Cyrus had become jealous of Liam Hemsworth’s close relationship with actress January Jones.
Liam Hemsworth had been urged by his brother, Thor star Chris Hemsworth, to dump Miley Cyrus because they thought the relationship was unhealthy for him because she was so jealous.
The Australian heartthrob eventually made the decision to end things after deciding he couldn’t cope with the constant drama in his romance with the former Hannah Montana star.
Miley Cyrus apparently still has the 3.5 carat Neil Lane engagement ring Liam Hemsworth gave her and it is not known if he wants her to return the expensive sparkler.
Scarlett Johansson is rumored to portray Hillary Clinton in the upcoming biopic, Rodham.
Scarlett Johansson, 28, has not secured the role just yet: she is apparently up against Jessica Chastain, Amanda Seyfried and Reese Witherspoon.
Rodham will focus on the early stages of Hilary Clinton’s career, when she was a lawyer in Washington.
The writer, Young il-Kim, was forced to deny reports earlier this year that the film was full of raunchy s** scenes when the script was leaked by The Daily Beast.
“<<Rodham>> is a journey of a woman who was torn between her personal desires and her professional ambition – both literally pulled her thousands of miles apart, because Bill did not want to leave Arkansas, and she did not want to leave Washington, D.C.,” Young il-Kim told Politico earlier this year.
Director James Ponstoldt, who was attached to the movie last month and casting for the prestigious role has only just begun.
James Ponstoldt describes Scarlett Johansson and the other candidates as “all wonderful actresses”, according to The Independent.
Scarlett Johansson is rumored to portray Hillary Clinton in the upcoming biopic, Rodham
He adds that they are “very fortunate that a lot of really great actors are interested in playing these roles. We’re in an enviable position”.
Scarlett Johansson was most recently seen on the big screen portraying Janet Leigh in the biographical comedy-drama, Hitchcock.
She has previously taken on a wide variety of roles, from the provocative Nola in Match Point to the demure Meg Windermere in A Good Woman.
Her competition is fierce, however, with Jessica Chastain having just received rave reviews for her performance in Zero Dark Thirty.
Amanda Seyfried was also applauded for her performance alongside Hugh Jackman in Les Miserables.
Reese Witherspoon, who has also played a diverse range of strong female roles, has recently appeared in the critically acclaimed Mud.
A fossil of what may be the earliest creature yet discovered on the evolutionary line to birds has been unearthed in China.
The fossil animal, which retains impressions of feathers, is dated to be about 160 million years old.
Scientists have given it the name Aurornis, which means “dawn bird”.
The significance of the find, they tell Nature magazine, is that it helps simplify not only our understanding for how birds emerged from dinosaurs but also for how powered flight originated.
Aurornis xui, to give it its full name, is preserved in a shale slab pulled from the famous fossil beds of Liaoning Province.
About the size of a chicken, the animal has very primitive skeletal features that put it right at the base of the avialans – the group that includes birds and their close relatives since the divergence from dinosaurs.
Pascal Godefroit from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences is the lead author on the paper that describes Aurornis.
The fossil animal, which retains impressions of feathers, is dated to be about 160 million years old
His Nature publication also reports details of an across-the-board re-analysis of how the many bird-like creatures living in Jurassic and Cretaceous times were related to each other.
This was done by comparing the detail in the shape of their bones.
The major consequence of this phylogenetic re-assessment is that it restores one of the most famous fossils ever found to the bird line.
Archaeopteryx, dubbed “the first true bird” when first identified in the 19th Century, was shunted recently into a pool of non-avian but bird-looking dinosaurs as a result of the many exquisite feathered creatures emerging in Liaoning. The skeletal features seen in these new specimens had appeared to make Archaeopteryx less pivotal.
However, this demotion caused some consternation because Archaeopteryx, which lived roughly 150 million years ago, could clearly fly; and by re-classifying the animal it had implied also that powered flight must have evolved at least twice – once on the real line to birds and again in this parallel pool of dinosaurs that merely shared some bird features.
But the re-analysis conducted following the discovery of Aurornis has once again simplified the picture.
“Previous phylogenetic investigations were based on maybe only 200 morphological characteristics. Here, we recognize almost 1,500 characteristics,” explained Dr. Pascal Godefroit.
“So it’s a much bigger and more robust analysis, and according to this new investigation Archaeopteryx is again considered an ancestor of birds and the new creature we describe is also a basal bird; and in fact it is even more primitive than Archaeopteryx,” he said.
As well as placing Archaeopteryx at one of the earliest points of divergence within the avialans, the study also re-shuffles the Troodontidae, a family of bird-like dinosaurs. Dr. Pascal Godefroit and colleagues now consider these to be a sister group of the avialans.
The OECD has revised its growth forecasts for the eurozone and called on the European Central Bank to consider doing more to boost growth.
The organization says the eurozone will shrink by 0.6% this year, widening the gap between it and faster-growing economies such as the US and Japan.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has given France two more years to complete its austerity programme.
France fell back into recession in the first three months of the year.
Spain, Poland, Portugal, the Netherlands and Slovenia have also been given more time to complete fiscal tightening.
The move suggests a shift away from a focus on austerity in Europe.
In its twice-yearly Economic Outlook, the OECD said prolonged economic weakness in Europe could damage the global economy.
The OECD, which represents 34 advanced economies, forecast average growth across its members of 1.2% this year and 2.3% in 2014.
It painted a troubled picture of the eurozone economy. The forecast of a 0.6% contraction in GDP is down markedly from the 0.1% contraction forecast just six months ago.
It said eurozone unemployment would continue to rise from its current rate of 12%, stabilizing in 2014.
The OECD has revised its growth forecasts for the eurozone and called on the European Central Bank to consider doing more to boost growth
It blamed continuing austerity measures, weak confidence and tight credit conditions. It hinted that the European Central Bank (ECB) might want to expand quantitative easing (QE) as a measure to encourage stronger growth.
It warned the continuing weakness in Europe “could evolve into stagnation, with negative implications for the global economy”.
The US and Japan have seen a greater focus on stimulus measures compared with Europe, where austerity measures have taken precedence.
Japan is forecast to grow relatively strongly this year, adding 1.6% to its GDP on the back of extraordinary economic stimulus measures introduced by the government this year.
But the OECD said there was considerable uncertainty over whether that recovery would continue into 2014, when the government is expected to cut spending.
In the US, where growth of nearly 2% is forecast for this year, the OECD said quantitative easing measures might need to be “gradually reduced”.
China is not included in the OECD club, but the organization expects its annual growth to be about 8% over the next two years.
The OECD’s chief economist, Pier Paolo Padoan, told Reuters that the eurozone remained the dominant area of concern.
“Europe is in a dire situation,” he told the news agency.
“We think that the eurozone could consider more aggressive options. We could call it a eurozone-style QE.”
DSM-5 has announced its price, an incredible $199 (and the paperback is also no bargain at a hefty $149).
Compare this to $25 for a DSM III in 1980; $65 for a DSM IV in 1994; and $84 for a DSM-IV-TR in 2000. The price tag on a copy of DSM is escalating at more than twice the rate of inflation.
No one outside the closed APA circle will ever really know for sure, but clearly the astounding price jump is not fueled by Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” – the powerful interaction of supply and demand that guides any free market.
The supply of DSM-5 is unlimited while the demand is likely to be quite limited (due to all the mistrust that has been generated by DSM-5’s flawed process and reckless product).
The price tag on a copy of DSM-5 is escalating at more than twice the rate of inflation
So if supply is great and demand is small, why is the price of DSM-5 jumping up so rapidly instead of sticking to inflation or retreating? Three reasons:
1. APA has sunk more than $25 million into DSM-5 and wants to recoup as much of its investment as it can. God only knows where the money went. DSM-IV cost one fifth as much – just $5 million – of which half came from external grants.
2. APA is in deficit and is rapidly losing membership dues and drug company funding. It desperately needs all the publishing profits it can pull from DSM-5 to bridge its budgetary gap. If DSM-5 sales are projected to be much less than originally expected, the APA strategy may be to raise prices sky-high in order to make up the difference.
3. APA is probably counting on having captive buyers who are forced to pay its price, however exorbitant it may be. That’s exactly how monopolies take advantage of markets that are not free- rigging the prices to bring in all the profits the helpless traffic will bear.
Previous systems (DSM-III, DSM-IIIR, DSM-IV) were far from perfect, but they were good enough to provide a widely accepted common language for communication. The gross incompetence of DSM-5 will likely return us to a Babel of many languages – different people using different methods of diagnoses.
