NEW YORK – Ed Gullo never thought he'd be on this side of a package delivery.
Gullo, 61, of Newburgh, N.Y., is driving a truck for FedEx during the holiday shipping rush that started after Thanksgiving. Gullo is no veteran truck driver. He's a news writer with experience at ABC and CNN, who found gigs hard to come by in the weak economy.
FedEx and UPS, the world's two largest package delivery companies, hire thousands of extra workers every holiday season, usually college students and 20-somethings. This year, the unemployment rate is at 10 percent and many experienced professionals are looking for work. A lot more people came to job fairs wearing a coat and tie, said UPS spokesman Norman Black.
Rolf Wick applied online with UPS after being laid off from an IT management position. The 42-year-old, who lives in San Francisco, was managing a staff of consultants and administrators. Now he's a driver's helper, tracking the status of packages and running from house to house making deliveries.
Gullo earns about $13 an hour with FedEx, far less than the $36 an hour he makes on average as a free-lancer in the news business. He said he felt out of his element at the start of training, where he made minimum wage for a week driving a small rental truck "around a lot of cones." That's some difference from last holiday season, when Gullo was writing for popular programs such as "World News Now" and "Good Morning America."
Another difference is the physical nature of the work. Both Gullo and Wick say they're sore after 50-hour weeks of loading and unloading packages filled with holiday gifts. UPS expects to deliver roughly 22 million small packages on its busiest day this year — projected to be Monday. FedEx, based in Memphis, Tenn., shipped about 14.1 million packages on Dec. 14, its peak holiday shipping day.
"I say sometimes, 'I know what I'm having for dessert tonight — and that will be a couple aspirin,'" Wick said.
UPS said it made fewer holiday hires this year to keep costs down — about 50,000 seasonal workers this year compared with 60,000 two years ago. The company did not release year-ago figures, although it said applications rose 20 percent compared with 2008. FedEx's ground division added 14,000 temporary workers — about the same as last year.
UPS expects to keep on 10,000 to 15,000 holiday hires this year. The company says many who stay on will get part-time jobs, where the turnover rate is high. According to Black, more than half of the company's part-time workers are college students. Black notes that 10 out of 12 of UPS' top executives started in entry-level jobs.
That's the path Wick aspires to. He's wants to get permanent work and eventually leave the deliveries to someone else, working his way up to management. Or possibly a gig in IT.
"The IT field is a very tough place to be in this economy," he said. "So I'm coming in as (a) seasonal (worker at UPS) with the hopes of turning it in to something better."
FedEx typically retains some temporary hires after the holidays. Rookie driver Gullo isn't interested in a permanent position. In fact, after long talks with his wife, the veteran of the news industry says he'll consider early retirement, if freelance gigs don't come more often. At his age, he said, he'd rather live on less in retirement than struggle from one temporary job to another.
"This experience (at FedEx) has really kind of forced me into thinking about it," he said. "I'm going to have to live more modestly, but I've decided that's OK."
But the younger Wicks has to take a different approach.
"I don't have a problem proving myself again if that's what it's going to take," he said.

WASHINGTON – Outnumbered Republicans are pledging to delay passage of historic health care legislation as long as possible after jubilant Democrats locked in Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson as the 60th and decisive vote.
Nelson's backing puts President Barack Obama's signature issue firmly on a path for Christmas Eve passage. Democrats will need to show 60 votes on two additional occasions, with the next — and most critical — test vote set for about 1 a.m. Monday.
"This bill is a legislative train wreck of historic proportions," the Republican leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said at a Saturday news conference. He pointed to cuts to Medicare that the Congressional Budget Office said totaled more than $470 billion over a decade, with reductions in planned payments to home health care agencies and hospices. He also said the bill includes "massive tax increases" at a time of double-digit unemployment.
With senators set to resume debate Sunday afternoon, Republicans note the CBO concluded that under the bill, "federal outlays for health care would increase during the 2010-2019 period, as would the federal budgetary commitment to health care."
To get Nelson's vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., agreed to a series of concessions on abortion and other issues demanded by Nelson, a Democrat, and then informed Obama of the agreement as the president flew home from climate talks in Copenhagen.
Obama welcomed the breakthrough, saying in a statement at the White House, "After a nearly centurylong struggle, we are on the cusp of making health care reform a reality in the United States of America."
The CBO said the Senate bill would extend coverage to more than 30 million Americans who lack it. It also imposes new regulations to curb abuses of the insurance industry, and the president noted one last-minute addition would impose penalties on companies that "arbitrarily jack up prices" in advance of the legislation taking effect.
CBO analysts also said the legislation would cut federal deficits by $132 billion over 10 years and possibly much more in the subsequent decade.
At its core, the legislation would create a new insurance exchange where consumers could shop for affordable coverage that complied with new federal guidelines. Most Americans would be required to purchase insurance, with federal subsidies available to help defray the cost for lower and middle income individuals and families.
In a concession to Nelson and other moderates, the bill lacks a government-run insurance option of the type that House Democrats inserted into theirs. In a final defeat for liberals, a proposed Medicare expansion was also jettisoned in the past several days as Reid and the White House maneuvered for 60 votes.

WASHINGTON – The Senate cleared its year-end plate of some must-do work Saturday as it passed a critical budget bill that blends money for the Pentagon with additional help for the jobless.
The early morning 88-10 vote, taken as a blizzard buffeted the Capitol, permitted lawmakers to resume their acrimonious debate on health care, which Democrats now expect to finish by Christmas. The spending measure now goes to President Barack Obama for his signature.
It wraps up work on perhaps Congress' most fundamental job: funding the annual budgets of Cabinet agencies and the rest of the government.
But the $626 billion defense bill measure also demonstrated the failings of a Congress unable to address many of its most pressing tasks, such as passing a highway bill and making sure doctors don't absorb a 21 percent hit in Medicare payments. In a boon for the wealthy, the estate tax temporarily will expire Jan. 1, even as people inheriting smaller amounts will face larger capital gains bills.
Having run out of time and patience, Democrats used the must-pass Pentagon measure to drag along several two-month extensions of expiring legislation. They include unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, health care subsidies for those out of work, highway and transit money and parts of the terrorism-fighting Patriot Act.
Resolving those issues in February would clutter next year's agenda as Obama's Democratic allies turn to trying to rein in the spiraling budget deficit and passing his upcoming request for additional troops in Afghanistan, which promises to be a very difficult task.
The impressive vote Saturday was evidence of the broad support for paying for troops fighting overseas and other elements of the Pentagon budget. The path to that point, however, was poisoned with partisanship as Republicans sought to derail the measure in an effort to stretch out action on health care past Christmas.
"Senate Republicans have made us jump through every procedural hurdle just to have this vote and threatened to block funding for our troops — all in order to delay us from debating health care reform," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "It is incomprehensible that Republicans would even threaten to stop funding our troops and helping those who are struggling."
Just four Republicans joined with Democrats on an important test requiring 60 votes. Confident that Republicans such as Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi would vote with them, Democratic leaders gave the OK for Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut independent and Orthodox Jew who caucuses with Democrats, spend the eighth night of Hanukkah with his family.
Others strapped on their snow boots, grabbed their parkas and trooped to a Capitol that was engulfed in a whiteout by noon.
A Christmas eve vote looms on the health care bill. After that, the Senate also must deal with one other politically sensitive measure: raising the $12.1 trillion debt ceiling by $290 billion so the Treasury can continue to borrow to keep the government running and avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.
The defense bill, which contains $128 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and a 3.4 percent pay raise for the military, enjoyed wide support. Just nine Republicans opposed pork barrel projects and some of the add-ons voted against the bill, as did anti-war Democrat Russ Feingold of Wisconsin.
To ensure there's enough time for the formal process of getting that bill to Obama, the Senate immediately approved a temporary measure to fund Pentagon operations through Dec. 23.
The bill caps a battle between Obama and Congress over weapons systems. Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates prevailed in their effort to kill the super-expensive F-22 fighter program and a much maligned and over-budget new presidential helicopter.
But proponents of an alternative engine for the next generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighter outmaneuvered the administration, saving jobs in Ohio, Indiana and other states. The main F-35 engine is built in Connecticut by Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp.
In twin victories for the Boeing Co., the Senate measure includes $2.5 billion to fund 10 C-17 cargo planes assembled in Long Beach, Calif., which were not requested, and money for nine more F-18 Navy fighters than Obama requested. They would be assembled in St. Louis.
The president has yet to request funds for his recently announced troop increase in Afghanistan, and there is no money in the bill for that.
The measure also trims personnel and maintenance accounts from previous versions of the measure to pump up weapons procurement for Afghanistan and Iraq by almost $2 billion.

The defense measure would trim $900 million from the Pentagon's $7.5 billion budget to train Afghan security forces. It would use the money to buy about 1,400 additional mine-resistance vehicles suited for rugged conditions in Afghanistan. Lawmakers say the training program can't absorb that much money in the coming year, so they used it for other purposes.

The measure also caps an emotional debate over closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. While it omits Obama's $100 million request to close the facility, it permits Guantanamo detainees to be transferred to the U.S. to stand trial.

WASHINGTON – The Pell Grant program for needy college students is facing a massive shortfall as the country's bleak job market drives people back to school.
An administration official says the program will cost $18 billion more than Congress and the White House had anticipated over the next three years. The official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the budget, spoke on condition of anonymity.
The official said the administration is working with Congress to fill the gap and is committed to making sure the U.S. has an educated work force.
The shortfall is the largest in the history of the program, which cost the government about $18 billion last year.

MANCHESTER (AFP) –
Brazil star Robinho has told his Manchester City team-mates to aim for the top of the table after their 2-1 win over English Premier League leaders Chelsea last weekend.

Despite that victory - which ended a run of seven straight league draws - City are 11 points adrift of Chelsea, albeit they have a game in hand.

And Robinho, a British record 32.5 million pounds (52.8 million dollars) signing, insists the expensively-assembled City side should have ambitions as big as their price tags.

"We were really happy to win on Saturday," said Robinho. "But the most important thing now is to win. There are still a lot of games to go and we want to be top."

Robinho has recently returned from an ankle injury that sidelined him for three months and, despite not being used to playing at this time of year while with Spanish giants Real Madrid, he cannot wait for the busy Christmas and New Year fixture schedule.

"I am just happy to be playing," said the 25-year-old. "I feel excellent. I am strong, physically and mentally, and I want to play in every game. I like to play football anywhere, at any time."

City could have Craig Bellamy back for Saturday's league match away to Bolton despite both the Wales striker and Vladimir Weiss missing the Chelsea game to avoid passing on the swine flu virus to their team-mates.

"Players come in every day with sniffles, coughs and colds and the doctor has to determine whether it is the onset of something more serious," assistant manager Mark Bowen told the Manchester Evening News.

"It is his decision whether they have to be sent home."

Someone who won't be featuring at the Reebok Stadium this weekend is England defender Wayne Bridge.

The former Chelsea full-back was carried off on a stretcher last Saturday after a clash with Juliano Belletti.

Scans have since revealed Bridge suffered a knee injury which could put him out of action for up to six weeks.

If that diagnosis is correct, it would mean Bridge would miss both legs of City's League Cup semi-final against Manchester United as well as the FA Cup third round tie with Middlesbrough.

But Bowen hopes Bridge will be back sooner than expected.

"It depends on his recovery but Wayne tells us he is a good healer and he is a good professional, so we are hoping it will be sooner," he said.

The heart is a muscular organ in all vertebrates responsible for pumping blood through the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions, or a similar structure in annelids, mollusks, and arthropods. The term cardiac (as in cardiology) means "related to the heart" and comes from the Greek καρδιά, kardia, for "heart."

The embryonic heart rate (EHR) then accelerates approximately 100 BPM during the first month of beating, peaking at 165-185 BPM during the early 7th week, (early 9th week after the LMP). This acceleration is approximately 3.3 BPM per day, or about 10 BPM every three days, an increase of 100 BPM in the first month. After 9.1 weeks after the LMP, it decelerates to about 152 BPM (+/-25 BPM) during the 15th week after the LMP. After the 15th week the deceleration slows reaching an average rate of about 145 (+/-25 BPM) BPM at term. The regression formula which describes this acceleration before the embryo reaches 25 mm in crown-rump length or 9.2 LMP weeks is: Age in days = EHR(0.3)+6.

EKG Machines

MIAMI (Reuters) –
A disbarred Florida lawyer surrendered to the FBI Tuesday to face charges he ran a Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of more than $1 billion, federal prosecutors said.

Scott Rothstein, who fled to Morocco in late October but return to Florida in early November, was scheduled to appear before a federal magistrate in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office said.

(Reporting by Jane Sutton, editing by Vicki Allen)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –
President Barack Obama on Monday prepared to announce he will deploy about 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan as part of a new strategy that aims to lay the ground for an eventual withdrawal.

After three months of deliberations, Obama will outline his plans in an address to war-weary Americans on Tuesday at 8 p.m. EST/0100 Wednesday GMT from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.

His aim is turn the tide on what U.S. military commanders call a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan due to a resurgent Taliban. He may face a tough sell at home with many Americans skeptical of sending more troops and wanting more focus on the weak U.S. economy and 10.2 percent jobless rate.

Obama told U.S. military commanders on Sunday he had settled on a plan and gave the orders to carry it out, the White House said. He also held a meeting to inform top advisers of his decision.

"The commander in chief delivered the orders," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

Obama briefed allies on his plan on Monday and will talk to congressional leaders on Tuesday before delivering his speech.

The troop increase represents a major investment by Obama in the war shortly before he travels to Oslo to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. It will likely set off a battle in the U.S. Congress over funding since his own Democrats oppose a big troop surge.The added cost could reach $20-40 billion.

STRATEGY SHIFT

Gibbs would not detail Obama's strategy, but other U.S. officials said Obama would announce that he has authorized sending about 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

The shift in strategy will put a greater emphasis on securing Afghan population centers and a major increase in training of Afghan security forces to gradually assume control.

Obama's emerging plan attempts to satisfy concerns on both sides of the U.S. political divide and represents a middle ground between conflicting options advocated by some of his senior advisers.

Sending more troops addresses demands from his generals and congressional Republicans, while stressing that the U.S. commitment is not open-ended is an attempt to placate skeptical Democrats and many Americans weary of the war and its cost.

Obama is not expected to set a specific pullout date. The strategy envisages a phased-in troop buildup over the next 12 to 18 months followed by a gradual U.S. drawdown and handover to Afghan forces over three to five years, officials said.

Pentagon officials hope NATO member-states eventually will supplement the U.S. surge with up to 10,000 of their own troops and trainers, pushing the overall number of extra troops close to 40,000, the number recommended by the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal.

But Britain has said it expects countries to pledge a further 5,000 troops on top of those sent by Obama.

OBAMA BRIEFS WORLD LEADERS

"You will hear the president discuss clearly that this is not open-ended. ... This is about what has to be done in order to assume that the Afghans can assume the responsibility of securing their country," Gibbs said.

Obama will continue the existing counterinsurgency strategy with a greater focus on protecting major Afghan population centers along with agricultural areas and transportation routes, officials said.

This will be combined with a counterterrorism campaign, advocated by Vice President Joe Biden, using unmanned aerial drones and special operations forces to combat Taliban and al Qaeda fighters along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and possibly in Afghanistan's more sparsely populated areas.

McChrystal has told lawmakers that a troop drawdown could begin by 2013, while the White House said it expected U.S. forces out of the country by 2017 or 2018.

Obama briefed Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in an Oval Office meeting and was telephoning other leaders, including British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He spoke to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last week.

U.S. officials and diplomats said the Obama administration aims to put more pressure on re-elected Afghan President Hamid Karzai to do a better job tackling corruption, with a plan to bypass his government if it does not cooperate.

Allies are also looking at how they can better coordinate their own efforts, with a U.S. suggestion to appoint a "higher representative", an option likely to discussed at a conference in London in January, said one Western diplomat, adding that no decision had been taken on such a new role.

Gibbs said Obama was talking in general about his plan to the allies, not getting into specifics.

"The president believes the situation in this region is a shared international challenge, so building on the work he's been doing in this regard ... the president will be in close consultation with our friends and allies throughout the day," Gibbs said.

(Additional reporting by Patricia Zengerle, Sue Pleming and Phil Stewart; Editing by David Storey)

Phoenix Airport Taxi

This type of vehicle was once rather common in some locations. An example of its use was in the transport of travelers arriving by railroad at Merced, California to Glacier National Park and Yosemite National Park in the first half of the 20th century. In Glacier National Park, these were referred to as "Jammers" in reference to the nickname of their gear-jamming drivers. In Yosemite, passengers would then stay in rustic platform tent camps or more expensive lodges (both of which are still available) and hike or rent bicycles for movement around the park.

Most custom coach builders are located in the United States and Europe and cater mainly to limousine companies. Few such vehicles are available for public hire. A typical price to buy a Lincoln Town Car sedan and have it stretched to hold 6 passengers is approximately USD $85,000 (at 2006 prices) depending on the additional features added into the vehicle. In addition to luxuries, security features such as armoring and bulletproof glass are available.

NEW YORK – Alex Ovechkin isn't saying for sure, but all signs suggest his injury absence is over and he'll play against the New York Rangers.
The two-time NHL MVP practiced with the Washington Capitals on Tuesday. Barring any setbacks, he is expected to be in the lineup for Tuesday night's game in New York.
Ovechkin has missed six games because of an upper body injury, believed to be a left shoulder strain. He entered Tuesday tied for the NHL lead with 14 goals despite playing only 14 games.
Ovechkin says he's excited to play again.
"It's going to be a pretty cool moment for me," he says.
Ovechkin got hurt against Columbus on Nov. 1. The Southeast Division-leading Capitals have won four of six games since he was hurt.

BEIJING – Playing tourist on his first visit ever to China, President Barack Obama drew a chilly comparison between the Chinese capital and his Illinois hometown.
"I have to say I didn't realize that Beijing gets as cold as my hometown of Chicago," the president said Tuesday just before sitting down for a one-on-one meeting with Wu Bangguo, chairman of China's Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.
Earlier in the day, Obama had spent nearly an hour touring the Forbidden City's maze of red buildings and cobblestone courtyards. With snow dotting the roofs and patches of ice lining courtyards, Obama bundled up against the frigid weather in a sweater and brown shearling jacket. He kept his hands in his pockets to ward off the chill.
Built in the 1400s, the Forbidden City once was home to 24 Chinese emperors who ruled the country for nearly 500 years, between 1420 and 1911. The former imperial palace is now known as the Palace Museum, and is open to Beijing's visitors.
"It's a testament to the greatness of Chinese history," Obama said while on tour. He pronounced it "a magnificent place to visit" and said he wanted to come back with his wife, first lady Michelle Obama, and their two daughters, Malia and Sasha. Mrs. Obama did not accompany the president on the trip.
The visit, he said later, was a beautiful "reminder of the incredible traditions and heritage of the Chinese people."
Before leaving, Obama wrote at length in the VIP visitor's book. The White House did not immediately disclose what he wrote.
Obama's sightseeing was to continue Wednesday with a tour of the Great Wall.
___
Dinner is served.
A large, circular table draped in yellow was the setting for a state dinner China held in Obama's honor in the Golden Room of the Great Hall of the People.
Women in white served guests at the head table, including Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Women in pink served guests at a dozen smaller tables arranged around the larger one, making for about 150 guests in all.
They dined on chicken soup with bean curd, Chinese-style beef steak, stir-fried wild rice stem and asparagus, and roast grouper — all washed down with red and white Chinese wine.
The playlist for a Chinese army band providing the entertainment included a curious mix of U.S. and Chinese songs. Among them: "America the Beautiful," "We Are the World," "I Just Call To Say 'I Love You,'" "In the Mood" and the Chinese folk song, "Embroidering a Pouch."
___
Obama's visit to China was meant to feature cooperation with President Hu Jintao. For Hu, that apparently meant this planet and beyond.
Both men used the same carefully chosen phrase — "positive, cooperative and comprehensive" — to describe the careful, vital, sometimes testy relationship between their nations.

And when Hu started naming all the areas in which the U.S. and China can work together, his list knew no boundaries.

The economy. Climate change. Energy. The environment. Counterterrorism. Law enforcement. Science. Technology. Outer space. Civil aviation. High-speed rail. Agriculture. Health. Military.

Outer space?

"The Chinese side is willing to work with the U.S. side to ensure the sustained, sound and steady growth of this relationship," Hu said.

There's plenty of ground to cover, apparently.

___

Orders to prevent sales of T-shirts showing Obama dressed like communist revolutionary Mao Zedong are in force during the president's visit — and Chinese officials mean it, as a CNN reporter found out.

Correspondent Emily Chang reported that she went searching for Oba-Mao souvenirs at Shanghai's Yatai Xinyang market. Finding none, she pulled out a T-shirt she bought before the ban was imposed to record a report in the market.

Security guards pounced, telling her she did not have permission to film there and trying to grab the shirt, according to a report on CNN's Web site.

Chang was detained for two hours before being let go, with the shirt, the report said.

A cottage industry in T-shirts and other Oba-Mao trinkets catering mainly to foreign tourists has thrived in recent months. Bans such as the one that commercial regulators ordered in recent weeks are usually temporary. When U.S. or European government officials come to Beijing for trade talks, local markets typically remove copies of brand-name designer clothes — until the foreign negotiators leave town.

Like most mammals, dogs are dichromats and have color vision equivalent to red-green color blindness in humans.

Dogs have nearly 220 million smell-sensitive cells over an area about the size of a pocket handkerchief (compared to 5 million over an area the size of a postage stamp for humans). Some breeds have been selectively bred for excellence in detecting scents, even compared to their canine brethren.

Dog Tags

FRANKFURT – The board of General Motors Co. is expected to decide Tuesday the fate of Opel and Vauxhall, ending more than a year of uncertainty surrounding its business and restructuring in Europe and the U.S.
The U.S. automaker's board of directors is scheduled to meet in Detroit and part of the agenda is whether to give final approval for Canadian car parts maker Magna International Inc. and Russian lender Sberbank to take a 55 percent stake in Adam Opel GmbH, cementing their selection by GM in September over a rival bid from private equity firm RJH International SA.
Under the terms of the deal, GM would transfer the 55 percent stake to the Canadian-Russian team and keep 35 percent, with the remaining 10 percent held by Opel's employees. Germany's government had favored Magna and Sberbank all along, and agreed to provide some euro4.5 billion ($6.7 billion) in financial aid.
The offer from RHJ International, based in Brussels, Belgium, required less government aid, but involved a deeper restructuring with far more job cuts, something Germany's government was keen to avoid heading into elections at the end of September.
So far, Magna says it plans to cut about 10,500 Opel jobs in Europe, with 4,500 in Germany.
EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes also wrote Germany's then-economy minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg last month to raise her concerns that Germany may have offered to provide aid only if Magna and Sberbank were chosen.
GM said that its board would address German government and EU concerns on the sale at its meeting today.
"I think GM will do the deal with Opel. There is no alternative," Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, an automotive economics professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen told The Associated Press on Monday.
"It would be too expensive and too complex to prolong it," something he said would be very damaging for all parties involved.
There have also been signs that the GM meeting today may just be a formality, given that some GM managers have already moved to posts at Opel. One example was Frank Weber, an engineer at GM's Volt electric car project whom the company said was being transferred to Opel's Ruesselsheim headquarters in Germany.
Going through with Magna is the "risk avoiding approach" for GM, Dudenhoeffer said.
It also gives the company an advantage with Sberbank as a partner in Russia's fast growing market. Withdrawing from the Magna-Sberbank offer would have made things difficult for GM in Russia, and Dudenhoeffer predicts the new Opel and GM will focus on Russia and developing markets especially in Asia.
There has been speculation that GM could also scrap its plans altogether and keep Opel itself or Magna could walk away — tired of European politics. Opel workers in Germany, where the company employs more than 25,000, have said they would strike should GM keep the company.
GM Europe employs 54,000 workers in more than 20 countries and its brands also include Cadillac and Chevrolet.
___
On the Net:
http://www.opel.com
http://www.gm.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ten years and $2.5 billion in research have found no cures from alternative medicine. Yet these mostly unproven treatments are now mainstream and used by more than a third of all Americans. This is one in an occasional Associated Press series on their use and potential risks.
___
Acupuncture, not pain pills that "make me loopy," is what Cynde Durnford-Branecki wants for her aching back, and a treatment costs her only a $20 copayment.
"If I didn't have insurance, there's no way I could afford to go," said the 51-year-old graphic designer who lives in San Diego.
After years of being lobbied for more choice, insurers and employers increasingly are covering alternative therapies. There are even alternative "HMOs" — networks of nontraditional providers that sell services to big employers and individuals.
It is one of the last frontiers for moving alternative medicine into the mainstream, fans say. Some are pushing to require or expand coverage as part of health care reform.
Choice may sound like a good idea, but it can lead more people to use remedies they may not realize are of unproven value. It also can mean the people who use those treatments will wind up paying for them, rather than have their insurer pay for proven remedies. Here's how:
_Insurers only cover a narrow range of alternative services for specific conditions where there is evidence of value, such as chiropractors for some types of back pain. But these services are marketed for many other uses that lack such proof, such as chiropractic treatments for asthma or ear infections, and acupuncture for high blood pressure or insomnia. Patients can be stuck with the tab, even though the provider is in their insurer's network.
_Most insurers do not pay for herbals and dietary supplements because they are of unproven safety and worth. Yet some insurers, such as Aetna, let sellers advertise supplements to members, which can imply a benefit and coverage. Kaiser Permanente's HMO carries many supplements in its pharmacies and allows its network doctors to "prescribe" ones that it then sells to members, who pay the full cost.
The result: Consumers who choose alternatives can wind up paying a greater share of their health care. Every person who chooses St. John's wort instead of Prozac for depression, red yeast rice instead of Lipitor for lowering cholesterol, or an unproven therapy instead of a visit to a medical doctor, pays out of pocket and saves the insurer money.
Insurers insist that saving money is not their motivation for offering or promoting alternative remedies.
"In no way would it benefit Aetna to have our members using harmful things," said Aetna spokeswoman Wendy Morphew.
Instead, these companies say they are offering the choice that consumers have long demanded, and a safer way to get supplements that people already are buying from sources of dubious quality.
"We're not suggesting you buy this. But if you buy this, here is a place to get it safely," said R. Douglas Metz, a chiropractor who is chief health services officer of American Specialty Health Inc., of San Diego.
It is the largest of about half a dozen firms that provide complementary and alternative medicine services to insurers, employers and individuals. Like an HMO, it has 15,000 chiropractors, 6,000 acupuncturists, 6,000 massage therapists and others in its network.
About 13 million Americans are covered or eligible to use its services, including Durnford-Branecki, who works for the firm.
Aetna became one of its customers two years ago. A recent Aetna newsletter told members they could get at least a 15 percent discount and free shipping on more than 2,400 health and wellness products offered through American Specialty, including vitamin and herbal supplements, aromatherapy products and homeopathic remedies.
"They offered a great program," credentialing providers in their network and finding good supplement suppliers, said Robin Downey, head of product development for Aetna.

"We have members who come to us and ask us for these services. When we can get a discount for them, that's something we are able to pass on," although Aetna also recommends that members talk with their primary doctors about anything they plan to try, she said.

The discount program is "an offering," not a recommendation to use a product, said Dr. Robert McDonough, who develops clinical policies for Aetna.

Metz, of American Specialty Health, said: "We only sell products for which there is no known evidence of risk. Our rule is, if a healthy person can safely take the product we will sell it."

However, he sees great danger in people diagnosing and treating their own ailments, a mindset he described as "I've got a headache and I'm going to go on the Internet and see if there's a dietary supplement that can help me."

Metz also does not use any of these remedies himself.

"The sense that dietary supplements are safe because they're natural is not something that I believe," he said.

___

On the Net:

Alternative medicine "HMO": http://www.ashcompanies.com

Kaiser stance: http://xnet.kp.org/permanentejournal/sum08/herbs.html

LONDON – The leader of Britain's far-right party outlined his vision in a controversial television debut that critics fear could help his whites-only party ease into the political mainstream.
British National Party leader Nick Griffin feuded with fellow panelists and was excoriated by hostile audience members in a tense appearance on the BBC's "Question Time" program Thursday night.
"It was hard-going," he told The Associated Press in telephone interview after the show, describing the program as "a bit like a boxing match. I took some punches but I was able to land some punches too." Still, he complained that the audience had been stacked with minorities.
"They put us on in London where the indigenous population is in the minority so we don't have much sympathy or support," he said.
Question Time gathers Britain's leading politicians, journalists and other public figures in a panel to take questions from a studio audience. The three-decade-old program has become something of a national institution, and many have condemned Griffin's invitation as awarding his far-right group an undeserved aura of political respectability.
The BBC said that, as a publicly funded broadcaster, it must cover all political parties that have a national presence. The BNP has no seats in the Britain's Parliament, but earlier this year the party won two seats in the European legislature.
The program showed Griffin defending himself against accusations that he sympathized with the ideals of Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party — but also showed him ducking the question of whether he ever denied the Holocaust.
"I do not have a conviction for Holocaust denial," he said, smiling faintly as the studio audience snickered. He later said he had changed his mind about the Holocaust, but then refused to explain exactly how.
Fellow panelist Chris Huhne, a lawmaker with Britain's Liberal Democrats party, spoke for many of the show's guests when he predicted that Griffin's credibility "is going to be seriously damaged by his performance."
"This is a person who comes from a fascist background, anyone who watches the program will see exactly what he stands for," he told the BBC after the show.
But Griffin's appearance on the taxpayer-funded show has divided the country — with one government minister saying the BBC "should be ashamed of single-handedly doing a racist, fascist party the biggest favor in its grubby history."
"Our black, Muslim and Jewish citizens will sleep much less easily now the BBC has legitimized the BNP," Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said after the show's taping.
One expert said that the Cambridge University-educated Griffin would "see this as a breakthrough into mainstream media."
James Shields of Warwick University compared Griffin's Question Time performance to a similar television appearance by French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1984, a groundbreaking appearance Shields said had helped soften Le Pen's image in the eyes of many French voters.
Griffin's performance will be dissected in Britain's media.
His defense of the "indigenous Britons" drew scattered applause in the program, but he seemed to stumble when he claimed the media was distorting his message. He declined to give any examples, saying there were "far too many to go into."
When Griffin criticized homosexual behavior as "really creepy," he was shouted down by members of the audience, one of whom invited him to go to the South Pole.
"It's a colorless landscape. It would suit you fine," the man said, as the audience laughed and cheered.

Griffin's appearance was greeted by rowdy and sometimes violent protests at the BBC Television Center in west London. Hundreds of anti-fascist demonstrators rallied outside the BBC headquarters, and at one point about 25 people breached a police cordon and ran into the center's lobby.

BBC footage showed some being pulled across the floor by their arms and legs by security.

"Shame on the BBC!" one female protester yelled as she was being dragged out. Scotland Yard said three officers were injured in the protests, and six people were arrested.

The BBC made no apologies for its show, saying Griffin had been subjected to tough questions.

"We remain firmly of the view that it was appropriate to invite Nick Griffin," BBC deputy director general Mark Byford said after the taping.

___

On the Net:

Question Time: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/question(underscore)time/