Musharraf ‘shedding crocodile tears’, says ex- Pak SCBA chief

Islamabad, Sep.19 (ANI): Pakistan Supreme Court Bar Association’s former President Aitzaz Ahsan has said that former President General Pervez Musharraf is ‘shedding crocodile tears’ while admitting that removing Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry from office in 2007 was a mistake.

Referring to Musharraf’s speech at Trinity University in Saint Antonio, Texas, where the former general admitted that he had committed a mistake while sacking the then Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) from office, Ahsan said Musharraf had committed not only one but two mistakes by removing the higher judiciary and imposing an emergency in the country on November 3, 2007.

Talking to a private television channel, Ahsan said the government and the ‘independent’ judiciary should play their role in trying Musharraf under high treason charges.

He said it was not the right time for lawyers to take their struggle to roads, as they did previously while demanding restoration of the judiciary, The News reports.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) has denied that Musharraf had taken the cabinet into his confidence before promulgating the Provisional Constitutional Ordinance (PCO) and imposing the emergency rule in 2007.

Interacting with media persons during an Iftaar party hosted by PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, several party leaders rejected the notion regarding Musharraf consulting the cabinet before taking the illegal and extra-judicial actions. (ANI)

Declining CO2 levels helped in Antarctic formation 34 million years ago

Washington, September 14 (ANI): In a major research study, the link between declining carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the earth’s atmosphere and the formation of the Antarctic ice caps some 34 million years ago has been confirmed for the first time.

The research was carried out by a team of scientists from Cardiff, Bristol and Texas A and M universities, in a small East African village, where they extracted microfossils in samples of rocks which show the level of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere at the time of the formation of the ice-cap.

Geologists have long speculated that the formation of the Antarctic ice-cap was caused by a gradually diminishing natural greenhouse effect.

The study’s findings confirm that atmospheric CO2 declined during the Eocene – Oligocene climate transition and that the Antarctic ice sheet began to form when CO2 in the atmosphere reached a tipping point of around 760 parts per million (by volume).

According to Professor Paul Pearson from Cardiff University’s School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, who led the mission to the remote East Africa village of Stakishari, “About 34 million years ago, the Earth experienced a mysterious cooling trend. Glaciers and small ice sheets developed in Antarctica, sea levels fell and temperate forests began to displace tropical-type vegetation in many areas.”

“The period, known to geologists as the Eocene – Oligocene transition, culminated in the rapid development of a continental-scale ice sheet on Antarctica, which has been there ever since,” he said.

“We therefore set out to establish whether there was a substantial decline in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels as the Antarctic ice sheet began to grow,” he added.

The team mapped large expanses of bush and wilderness and pieced together the underlying local rock formations using occasional outcrops of rocks and stream beds.

Eventually, they discovered sediments of the right age near a traditional African village called Stakishari.

By assembling a drilling rig and extracting hundreds of meters of samples from under the ground, they were able to obtain exactly the piece of Earth’s history they had been searching for.

According to co-author Dr Gavin Foster from the University of Bristol Earth Sciences Department, “By using the rather unique set of samples from Tanzania and a new analytical technique that I developed, we have, for the first time, been able to reconstruct the concentration of CO2 across the Eocene-Oligocene boundary – the time period about 34 million years ago when ice sheets first started to grow on Eastern Antarctica.” (ANI)

How addictive drugs influence learning and memory

Washington, Sep 10 (ANI): In a new study on mice, researchers have found why and how the use of addictive drugs take control of reward signals and influence neural processes associated with learning and memory.

The study could help explain how drug-associated memories, such as the place of drug use, drive and perpetuate the addiction.

It is known that the neurochemical dopamine, a key player in the brain’s reward system, is involved in the process of addiction.

Research has indicated that dopamine participates in neural processes associated with learning, such as the strengthening of neuronal connections, called synaptic potentiation.

Evidence has also implicated the hippocampus, a deep-brain structure that is critical for formation of new memories, in the development of drug addiction.

“Although addictive drugs like nicotine have been shown to influence the induction of synaptic potentiation, there has been little or no research in freely moving animals that monitors ongoing induction of synaptic potentiation by a biologically relevant drug dose,” explains senior author Dr. John Dani from the Department of Neuroscience at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas.

The researchers recorded from the brains of freely moving mice while applying physiologically relevant concentrations of nicotine, the addictive component in tobacco.

The researchers found that nicotine induced synaptic potentiation correlated with the mice learning to prefer a place associated with the nicotine dose.

Importantly, these effects required a local dopamine signal within the hippocampus.

The finding reinforces the view that dopamine enables memory for specific events.

Overall, the results point to some intriguing possibilities about how drug-associated memories might contribute to behaviors associated with addiction.

“An animal’s memories or feelings about the environment are updated when the dopamine signal labels a particular event as important, new, and salient. Normally these memories help us to perform successful behaviors, but in our study, those memories were linked to the addictive drug.

When specific environmental events occur, such as the place or people associated with drug use, they are capable of cuing drug-associated memories or feelings that motivate continued drug use or relapse,” concluded Dani.

The study has been published in the latest issue of the journal Neuron. (ANI)

Over-expressed protein may make non-invasive breast cancer invasive

Washington, Sep 9 (ANI): An over-expressed protein can convert active but non-invasive breast cancer into a different cell type, and thereby turn it into invasive breast cancer, according to scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The researchers say that overexpression of the protein 14-3-3? (zeta) launches a molecular cascade that removes bonds that tie the pre-malignant cells together, and hold them in place, converting them from stationary epithelial cells to highly mobile mesenchymal-like cells.

This epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is recognized as a crucial step in metastasis, the spread of cancer to distant organs that causes 90 percent of all cancer deaths.

“We have discovered a key molecular mechanism for the deadly transition of non-invasive breast cancer into invasive disease,” said senior author Dr. Dihua Yu.

The researchers have shown that the zeta protein teams up with the oncoprotein ErbB2, also known as HER2, in a two-hit process to convert normal mammary cells to invasive cancer cells.

The findings of the study also provided a biomarker in zeta to identify high-risk patients for more aggressive treatment before their noninvasive breast cancer converts to invasive disease.

The researchers also got new therapeutic targets among the components of the molecular pathway launched by zeta.

According to Yu, some drugs already aim at these targets.

In addition, they found a solution to a puzzling mystery about how a subset of non-invasive breast cancer with excessive presence of an ErbB2/HER2 develops into invasive breast cancer.

Earlier, the researchers showed that zeta is over-expressed in many other cancer types, like lung, liver, uterine, stomach cancers.

“Our findings might have broader implications relating to the mechanism of invasion and metastasis in other types of cancer,” Yu said.

The researchers said that it would be very challenging to target zeta by drugs because it also regulates other important proteins in normal cellular processes.

The study has been published in the journal Cancer Cell. (ANI)

Women have sex to ‘relieve boredom, pity and to cure a migraine’

London, Sep 7 (ANI): Women indulge in sex not for love and passion, but for various other “unromantic” reasons- including relieving themselves of boredom, out of pity for a man and even to cure a migraine headache-says a new book.

‘Why Women Have Sex’ by Cindy Meston and David Buss has highlighted 200 reasons as to why women have sexual intercourse.

While attraction ranks way down in the list, it seems that women go to bed with their partners as a way of relieving boredom, keeping the peace, curing a headache and even as a thank you for a nice dinner.

“Research has shown that most men find most women at least somewhat sexually attractive, whereas most women do not find most men sexually attractive at all,” the Telegraph quoted the authors, who are both psychology professors at the University of Texas, as saying.

The researchers interviewed 1,006 women as research for the book, and found some very surprising answers.

One revealed that she did it for a spiritual experience, as she thought it to be “the closest thing to God”.

Others listed “cure for stress headache”, “to make my sexual skills better” and “for a clearer complexion”.

However, the majority (84 per cent), admitted that they had sex to ensure a quiet life or to bargain for their partners to carry out household chores.

“I have sex to relieve the boredom.Because it’s easier than fighting. Plus it gives me something to do,” said one of the interviewee.

While another admitted: “I had sex with a couple of guys because I felt sorry for them.”

One of the surveys carried out by the authors revealed that one in ten women admitted having sexual intercourse in return for presents, or lavish meals.

Responses included “he bought me a nice dinner” or “he spent a lot of money on me early on”, “he gave me gifts early on” and “he showed me he had an extravagant lifestyle”. (ANI)

High earners munch frequently at work, stay healthier

Washington, Sep 5 (ANI): People who earn more money are more likely to munch on muffins or chocolate bars while working, according to researchers at University of Texas at Austin.

What’s more, such people boost their chances of staying healthy – thanks to the regular munching.

Economist Daniel Hamermesh and his colleagues used data from the American Time Use Survey from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to reach the conclusion.

And they examined how much time Americans spend eating meals each day and how much time they spend “grazing” – snacking or drinking while working, watching TV or doing some other activity.

“When their time becomes more valuable, people substitute grazing for eating, essentially switching to multi-tasking. Overall, better health is associated with more time spent eating, but especially with spreading that time over more meals per day,” said Hamermesh.

It was found that over fifty percent of all adults graze each day, with their grazing time almost equalling the time they spend eating meals.

The average American adult spends about two-and-a-half hours eating or grazing every day.

The study also revealed that men graze less but spend more time eating meals than women. Overall, men spend about three-and-a-half more minutes a day eating meals than women.

It was also found that better-educated people eat more frequently, spend more total time eating, graze more frequently and spend more total time grazing than those with less education.

Higher earners also spend more time eating individual meals, graze more frequently and spend more time during each individual grazing episode.

Those who spend more time eating have a lower body mass index (BMI), on average, and view themselves as healthier than those who spend less time eating.

The National Bureau of Economic Research released the study recently. (ANI)

‘Renee Zellweger meets Bradley Cooper’s parents’

Washington, Sept 4 (ANI): Renee Zellweger’s relationship with Bradley Cooper seems to be heating up, for the actress has met his parents.

The couple was first snapped out in public together last month (Aug09), when Zellweger and Cooper escaped for a low-key break in Barcelona, Spain.

However, after coming back, the ‘Hangover’ star whisked Zellweger off to his native Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to introduce her to his mum and dad.

“Brad and Renee drove from New York to Philly so he could show her off to his parents and old friends. They fell in love with her,” Contactmusic quoted a source as telling National Enquirer.

“Renee poured on her Texas charm, even arriving with flowers and a box of cupcakes she picked up at a local bakery for his parents.

“Hours after the visit, Bradley’s family was on the phone with him, gushing about Renee,” the source added.

Cooper is planning to move from Los Angeles to the Big Apple to be closer to his new girlfriend.

The insider adds, “Bradley is already talking about putting down roots in New York, where Renee lives. They just seem happy to have found each other.” (ANI)

NASA all set to launch infrared eye to hunt for dark asteroids

Sydney, September 3 (ANI): NASA is preparing to launch an infrared telescope that will hunt down dark asteroids that have slipped beneath our radar.

According to a report by ABC Science, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft recently arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California ahead of its launch later this year.

With a quartet of infrared sensors and a wide view, WISE is designed to survey the whole sky in infrared light.

It’s not the first telescope to do so, but scientists expect WISE’s observations will be 500 times sharper than a survey conducted in 1980s by IRAS, the Infrared Astronomical Satellite, according to astronomer Martin Cohen of the University of California at Berkeley.

The data will be complied into an all-sky infrared atlas, a tome that is expected to include about 300 million objects, including around 100,000 asteroids.

Many of the asteroids seen by WISE will be known objects.

Scientists hope to use the new observations to nail down details, such as an asteroid’s diameter and surface reflectivity.

“With ground-based scopes, it’s just a point source. You can’t tell size directly,” said University of Texas astronomer Dr Robert McMillan who leads Spacewatch, an asteroid-survey project.

“A big object that is dark and a small object that is bright are going to look like they have the same brightness,” he added.

The solar system contains several million asteroids, most of which reside in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

About 7000 asteroids have been identified that cross or come close to Earth’s orbit.

WISE will be able to spot asteroids emitting heat due to direct exposure from the Sun, as opposed to visible-light searches that find asteroids that are reflecting sunlight.

“Those are two different physical effects,” said McMillan. “An asteroid that has very dark colour in invisible light is going to get heated up more, just like a black car in a parking lot is going to get heated up more than a white car,” he added.

Scientists hope to get enough positioning information to follow up targets with ground-based observations.

McMillan expects that WISE will discover a few hundred new asteroids.

The information will be folded into ongoing surveys to map asteroids that could impact Earth and cause widespread damage.

Other WISE targets include brown dwarfs, which are Jupiter-sized stars that never got their nuclear fusion engines running, and ultra-luminous galaxies, which pump out the equivalent of about 1000 Sun-sized stars every year. (ANI)

US footballer claims being Farrah Fawcett’s first and last love

Melbourne, Aug 31 (ANI): A former US footballer claims that he was the first and last love of late actress Farrah Fawcett.

Greg Lott, who says he first met Fawcett in the 60s, also claims that actor Ryan O’Neal’s heart-wrenching return to her side and his support during her dying days was nothing more than an act for the camera.

According to The Mail, Lott dismissed the image of Fawcett and O’Neal’s tragic rapprochement as nothing but Hollywood fantasy, and says that for the last 11 years of her life, she was involved in a very private romance with him.

“We were blind, crazy, in love,” the Daily Telegraph quoted him as saying.

“Farrah was my best friend and my inspiration.

“We fell in love with each other all those years ago and we never really stopped loving each other. Our lives took us in very different directions but, in the end, her heart always came home to me and Texas,” he said.

Lott also claimed that O’Neal froze him out of Fawcett’s life against her will, and that she referred to O’Neal as the “Fat F*** from the beach”.

O’Neal’s spokesman has dismissed Lott’s claims as “categorically false”, but the actor’s son Griffin has stated otherwise.

“I have to thank Greg Lott for one thing: For loving Farrah the way she deserved to be loved. Ryan was just there for the acclaim,” he said.

Lott revealed the last time he spoke to Fawcett was a couple of months before she passed away.

“I last spoke to Farrah late on the night of April 9 – two-and-a-half months before she died. She was preparing to come home from a bout of treatment at St John’s Hospital in Santa Monica,” he said.

“She told me: ‘I’m coming home tomorrow. I love you and I will call you’,” he revealed.

When he did not hear from her, Lott flew to California in desperation, to her home in LA, but he claims O’Neal refused him entry.

“I never got to say goodbye to Farrah. Ryan shut me out of her life,” he said.

Lott, who dated Fawcett from when they were students at Texas University until 1970, got his second chance when her romance with O’Neal came unstuck in 1996 thanks to his volatile temper and infidelity.

“She called and we arranged to meet in Texas,” Lott said.

“She was doing a fundraiser for battered women and invited me to the event at a hotel. She walked into the room and the electricity was there between us,” he recalled.

Fawcett then invited him to visit her at her home in Bel Air, Los Angeles.

“She flew me out to Los Angeles and we fell into each other’s arms,” he said.

“Farrah was always a very sensual woman. She never wore make-up at home and would shop at cheap stores like Walmart for her sweatpants. She had no airs and graces. That’s what I loved about her. She looked a million dollars without doing anything.

“I would look at her sleeping in the early morning and she looked like an angel. I thought I was the luckiest man in the world. She told me, ‘I’ve had the Hollywood men but you’re a real man. You get me.

“She loved to cook and would make me Texan dishes like fried chicken. We didn’t go out much. We’d stay home and watch movies and make love,” he added. (ANI)

Scientists uncover vulnerable enzyme that can be targeted to kill dangerous pathogens

Washington, August 28 (ANI): A collaborative study conducted by researchers from three institutions in the U.S. has shown that an enzyme, which is essential to many bacteria, can be targeted to kill dangerous pathogens.

Experts at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham), University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and University of Maryland have also identified chemical compounds that can inhibit this enzyme, and suppress the growth of pathogenic bacteria.

Writing about their study in the journal Chemistry and Biology, the researchers say that their findings are essential to develop new broad-spectrum antibacterial agents to overcome multi-drug resistance.

Dr. Andrei Osterman, an associate professor in Burnham’s ioinformatics and Systems Biology program, targeted the acterial nicotinate mononucleotide adenylyltransferase (NadD), an essential enzyme for nicotinamide adenine dinculeotide (NAD) biosynthesis, which has many crucial functions in nearly all important pathogens.

The bacterial NadD differs significantly from the human enzyme.

“It’s clear that because of bacterial resistance, we need new, wide-spectrum antibiotics. This enzyme is indispensable in many pathogens, so finding ways to inhibit it could give us new options against infection,” said Dr. Osterman.

The research team used a structure-based approach to search for low-molecular-weight compounds that would selectively inhibit bacterial NadD, but not the human equivalent, by screening, in silico, more than a million compounds.

In their experiments, they tested the best predicted compounds against Escherichia coli and Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), which led them to a handful of versatile inhibitory chemotypes, which they explored in detail.

Using protein crystallography, a 3D structure of the enzyme in complex with one of the inhibitors was solved providing guidelines for further drug improvement.

“This is proof-of-concept that NadD is a good target to create antibacterial agents. This knowledge will be useful for both biodefense and public health. The next step is to find better inhibitors. We do not have a silver bullet yet, but we are certainly hitting a golden target,” said Dr Osterman.

The research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. (ANI)

MJ’s doc spent 47 mins making calls after he stopped breathing

London, August 26 (ANI): Michael Jackson’s personal physician Conrad Murray has been accused of spending 47 minutes making calls to another doctor, a lawyer and a mystery associate after the singer stopped breathing.

Dr Steven Hoefflin, who treated Jackson for 25 years, alleged Murray phoned fellow medic Arnold Klein for advice on what to do as the King of Pop lay dying.

“Murray definitely called Klein because Klein taught him how to administer propofol,” the Sun quoted Hoefflin as saying.

“There were two in-state calls then one out-of-state. He was calling an attorney – he had to because Michael was dead.

“He tried to cover it up by telling everyone Michael had a weak pulse, but Michael was dead,” he added.

Hoefflin, a respected plastic surgeon, also claimed that Murray rang an attorney before informing a security guard to dial 911 and summon paramedics to Jackson’s Los Angeles home.

But a lawyer representing Murray recently denied claims that the medic left Jackson to make phone calls after giving him powerful anaesthetic Propofol.

Lawyer Ed Chernoff issued a statement seeking to clarify parts of a court affidavit unsealed in Houston, Texas.

The contents came to light as reports claimed that the Los Angeles County coroner had concluded Jackson’s death was homicide and that he had lethal levels of Propofol in his body when he died on June 25. (ANI)

New model of quantum gravity may rewrite Einstein’s theory of general relativity

Washington, August 25 (ANI): Scientists at Texas A and M University in the US have developed a controversial new model of quantum gravity, which might reproduce Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

The theory, which Einstein developed in the early 20th century, says that matter curves spacetime, and it is this curvature which deflects massive bodies – an effect that we interpret as the influence of gravity.

The theory has been tested to extremely high accuracy and without it, our satellite global positioning system would be off by about 10 km per day.

Despite the success of general relativity, one of the most important problems in modern physics is finding a theory of quantum gravity that reconciles the continuous nature of gravitational fields with the inherent ‘graininess’ of quantum mechanics.

Recently, Petr Horava at Lawrence Berkeley Lab proposed such a model for quantum gravity that has received widespread interest, in no small part because it is one of the few models that could be experimentally tested.

In Horava’s model, Lorentz symmetry, which says that physics is the same regardless of the reference frame, is violated at small distance scales, but remerges over longer distance scales

The team at Texas A and M, which includes Hong Lu, Jianwei Mei and Christopher Pope, report their investigations into how the modifications proposed in Horava’s theory will broadly affect the solutions of general relativity.

Lu and his team’s calculations suggest that Horava’s model only reproduces general relativity on unobservable scales, “larger than the size of the Universe”.

The research team’s paper is an important contribution to testing the Horava model and shows that a good deal of work remains to understand its full implications. (ANI)

MJ’s death was homicide, concludes coroner

London, August 25 (ANI): The Los Angeles County coroner has reportedly concluded Michael Jackson’s death was homicide.

The King of Pop, who was allegedly being treated for insomnia, had lethal levels of the strong anaesthetic Propofol in his body when he died, according to court papers.

Details of the coroners’ findings were revealed when a search warrant affidavit was made public in Texas, reports the Sun.

Investigators have quizzed the team of doctors who treated Jackson, including his personal physician Dr. Conrad Murray, who, though not named as a suspect, is at the centre of a manslaughter probe.

A search warrant affidavit for Murray in California read: “The Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Dr Sathyavagiswaran, indicated that he had reviewed the preliminary toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson’s cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol (diprivan).”

The affidavit apparently revealed that Murray told LAPD detectives he had been giving the singer propofol as part of his treatment for insomnia, and feared the star was becoming addicted to the drug.

But Murray, who has denied any wrong doing, reportedly gave Jackson a lower dosage of propofol on the morning of his death after several other drugs failed to work.

Jackson died aged 50 from an apparent cardiac arrest at his rented LA mansion on June 25. (ANI)

New discovery may lead to therapies for RSV, influenza A

London, Aug 24 (ANI): A research team led by Indian-origin scientist claims to have identified a cellular molecule that not only helps recognize viruses that cause respiratory problems but also direct cells to produce defensive immune response.

Dr Santanu Bose and colleagues have identified a cellular molecule, called NOD2, that detects respiratory viruses and can instruct cells to defend against them.

The team from The University of Texas Health Science Centre at San Antonio hope that the new discovery could lead to therapies for human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza A (commonly known as flu).

“This molecule could be used to boost host immune defenses and stimulate vaccine efficacy against RSV and influenza A, especially among high-risk individuals,” Nature quoted senior author Dr Santanu Bose, assistant professor of microbiology and immunology as saying.

The study showed that mice lacking the sensor survive for only 10 days after infection, compared with up to eight weeks for normal animals.

Researchers said that identifying this sensor and understanding its key role could result in therapies that activate the NOD2 gene during or prior to infection, leading to enhanced protective immunity.

The NOD2 sensor also has the potential to recognize other viruses, such as West Nile virus, yellow fever, Ebola and rabies.

The findings appear in the journal Nature Immunology. (ANI)

O’Neal slams allegations he cheated on Fawcett with Stewart

Washington, July 16 (ANI): American actor Ryan O’Neal has slammed allegations that he was having an affair with late actress Farrah Fawcett’s best friend Alana Stewart, while his long-term girlfriend was battling cancer.

Both O’Neal, 68, and Stewart, 64, are said to have grown closer in the last three years after they joined forces to support Fawcett, who was battling anal cancer.

But O’Neal’s estranged son Griffin, who is one of the sources making the sordid claims, said that their friendship took a romantic turn during Fawcett’s final months, before her death on June 25.

“They were sharing a room together,” Contactmusic quoted him as having told In Touch Weekly magazine.

Griffin, 44, also claims that Fawcett’s ageing father, Jim, once walked in on the pair in the bedroom after flying in from Houston, Texas, to visit his ailing daughter.

“It made Jim uncomfortable, so he packed his bags and went home,” he added.

Javier Salazar, a friend of O’Neal and Fawcett’s son Redmond, also made a similar claim.

“Ryan and Alana’s relationship was fishy,” he said.

A former business partner of Fawcett’s also added: “Ryan and Alana are a little too cozy with each other. It is raising eyebrows. They both stayed at Farrah’s (home) in the end.”

Representatives for both O’Neal and Stewart have denied the claims, but have declined to comment further. (ANI)

Online prescription drug purchase may endanger your health, warns expert

Washington, July 12 (ANI): An expert at The University of Texas at Austin warns that prescription drugs’ purchase via the Internet, though more convenient, may endanger the buyer’s health.

“There’s a big problem with rogue Web sites,” says Dr. Marv Shepherd, the Klinck Centennial Professor in the College of Pharmacy and director of the Center for Pharmoeconomic Studies at the university.

“It’s very difficult to determine whether a Web site represents an authentic pharmacy or a counterfeit drug pharmacy. You can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys,” adds Shepherd, whose research and expertise on drug importation and drug counterfeiting has been featured on CNN, NPR and in Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report, the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today, among others.

Shepherd reports that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) surveyed Canadian pharmacy Web sites, and found 11,000 Web sites claiming to be Canadian sites selling pharmaceuticals.

However, according to the researcher, closer analysis revealed that only 214 pharmacies in Canada sell pharmaceuticals over the Web.

As regards the other 10,000-plus sites, he said that they included website in Pakistan, Southeast Asia, Mexico and even Washington State.

He warned that consumer ordering pharmaceuticals from them might receive counterfeit drugs with incorrect dosage, false labeling, no pharmaceutical benefit or worse.

“For many counterfeit products, it is difficult to distinguish the genuine product from the counterfeit product without a forensic test. They may have the brand name on them, but they aren’t the brand name product,” Shepherd says.

He says that people can avoid the risk by confirming if a pharmacy is licensed in the state, by checking the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) for links to their state board.

He says that people can also look for the Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites seal on the site. By clicking on the seal, he adds, a visitor is linked to a site where information about the pharmacy is maintained by the NABP. (ANI)

Eva Longoria becomes new face of Dutch beer giants Heineken

Washington, July 10 (ANI): American actress Eva Longoria Parker has been chosen by Dutch beer giants Heineken to spearhead their promotional campaigns.

The Desperate Housewives star will be seen endorsing the brewer’s new brand Heineken Light in a new TV ad campaign.

According to reports, in the commercial, two fans are upgraded to courtside seats alongside Longoria at a basketball game, involving her husband Tony Parker’s team the San Antonio Spurs.

“It’s always nice to get upgraded. I hope sitting next to me is an upgrade!” Contactmusic quoted Longoria Parker as saying at the ad’s Texas shoot. (ANI)

Dallas police cut extra protection at Bush home

Dallas (Texas, US), July 9 (ANI): The Dallas Police Department has cut back on some of the additional protection that the department provided around the Preston Hollow home of former President George W. Bush.

In addition to the usual Secret Service protection, Dallas until last week had stationed one on-duty tactical officer per eight-hour shift on the street outside the president’s home.

The estimated cost of that service was 300,000 a year, according to police officials who asked that they not be named.

“We just had to cut it,” said one police official, who agreed to speak on the condition on anonymity.

The city of Dallas has been struggling to deal with a 190 million dollar budget deficit.

Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle, who declined to discuss specific changes said, “Our decision on how to deploy people around security issues like this is not dependent on the budget. They’re based on other factors.”

The cuts to the president’s security detail were first reported by KTVT-TV on Tuesday. (ANI)

US Congressman opposes proposed American legend title for MJ

Washington, July 9 (ANI): A US Congressman has insisted he intends to oppose plans to honour Michael Jackson as an official American legend.

Republican Peter King recently slammed the King of Pop, tagging the late star as a “pervert, child molester, paedophile” during a CNN interview.

And he insists he intends to fight the motion to declare the icon “an American legend and musical icon (and) a world humanitarian”, saying he will do “whatever I have to do”, reports Contactmusic.

Texas Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee, who represented Congress and the U.S. Black Caucus at the Jackson memorial on Tuesday, announced that she would lead the motion.

She also showed off a framed copy of the motion, which was to be debated at the U.S. House of Representatives. (ANI)