UNICEF calls for global action to help malnourished children in Africa?s Sahel

By BNO News

NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday urged for global action to prevent the severe malnourishment of as many as one million children in West and Central Africa's Sahel region.

UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said "the challenge is great and the window is closing," noting the vast size of the region. "To prevent a wide-scale emergency in the Sahel, UNICEF and our partners in this effort must begin at once to fill the pipeline with life-sustaining supplies to the region before it is too late," Lake stated.

A significant number of children are already suffering from malnutrition in the Sahel, making them extremely vulnerable and susceptible to any reduction in the quantity and nutritional quality of the food they consume.

Lake also underlined the urgency to act before the 'lean season' when food runs out due to inadequate rain or poor harvests, which can start as early as March in some of the countries across the Sahelian belt.

The UNICEF chief pointed out that the best way to treat severe acute malnutrition among children under five is to distribute specially developed ready-to-use therapeutic foods. These foods provide the best chance of survival and recovery for young children.

The biggest challenge, however, is getting sufficient amounts of these critical foods to children as the need is expected to increase further in the coming months. "The children at risk today in the Sahel are not mere statistics by which we may measure the magnitude of a potential humanitarian disaster. They are individual girls and boys, and each has the right to survive, to thrive and to contribute to their societies. We must not fail them," Lake said.

Earlier this month, UNICEF appealed for $65.7 million to respond to the crisis. It is currently distributing emergency stocks in affected countries such as Niger, where an estimated 33,600 children under the age of five are at risk.

(Copyright 2011 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. Info: sales@bnonews.com.)

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011 at 10:49 pm | BNO News | Leave a Comment

Source: http://wireupdate.com/unicef-calls-for-global-action-to-help-malnourished-children-in-africas-sahel.html

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Boehner: House leaders accept Senate tax terms (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Their isolation complete, House Republicans on Thursday caved to demands by President Barack Obama, congressional Democrats and fellow Republicans for a short-term renewal of payroll tax cuts for all workers.

After days of wrangling that even House Speaker John Boehner acknowledged "may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world," the Ohio Republican abruptly changed course and dropped demands for immediate holiday season talks with the Senate. The breakthrough probably spares workers a hit in their paychecks that would have kicked in Jan. 1.

Boehner said he expects both House and Senate to pass a new bill by Sunday that would renew the tax break while congressional negotiators work out a longer-term measure that would also extend jobless benefits for millions of Americans and prevent doctors from absorbing a big cut in Medicare payments.

The developments were a clear win for Obama. The payroll tax cut was the centerpiece of his three-month campaign-style drive for jobs legislation.

"Because of this agreement, every working American will keep his or her tax cut - about $1,000 for the average family," Obama said in a statement. "That's about $40 in every paycheck. And when Congress returns, I urge them to keep working to reach an agreement that will extend this tax cut and unemployment insurance for all of 2012 without drama or delay."

The House and Senate could approve the legislation as early as Friday by voice votes.

The GOP retreat ends a tense standoff in which Boehner's House Republicans came under great pressure to agree to the short-term extension passed by the Senate on Saturday. The speaker was open to the idea, But rank and file Republicans revolted and the House instead insisted on immediate talks.

Just hours before he announced the breakthrough, Boehner had made the case for a year-long extension.

But the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, instead urged the House to accept the outlines of the Senate legislation. Resolve was crumbling among tea party-backed Republicans, too.

"I don't think that my constituents should have a tax increase because of Washington's dysfunction," said freshman Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis.

"An `all or nothing' attitude is not what my constituents need now," Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Ark., wrote in a letter to Boehner. "We are now in a position...that requires Republicans to not only demand a willingness to compromise, but to offer it as well."

On a conference call, Boehner informed his colleagues that it was time to yield.

"He said there comes a time when you've got to move on, and this is the time," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., paraphrasing Boehner's comments during the conference call, which he said lasted only three or four minutes. "I'm making my decision right now."

The rapid-fire developments underscored the urgency of the search for resolution when Americans deeply disapprove of Congress and are struggling to make it in an economy slowly recovering from recession. Politics also played a significant role: The standoff put Republican presidential candidates in an awkward position less than two weeks before the Iowa caucuses that begin the nomination process, on the cusp of the 2012 elections.

In competing news conferences and statements earlier, all sides sought to avoid blame should taxes go up Jan. 1, just as Americans begin paying holiday bills. House Republicans in particular were facing fire from GOP establishment figures incensed that they would risk losing the tax cut issue to Democrats at the dawn of the presidential and congressional election year.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111222/ap_on_go_co/us_payroll_tax

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Most Sick or Disabled Seniors Want Docs to Say How Long They Have (HealthDay)

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 21 (HealthDay News) -- Life expectancy is a topic many disabled seniors want to talk about with their doctors but very few have that discussion, a new study finds.

It included 60 elderly patients with an average age of 78 who had multiple illnesses and disabilities and lived in a community-based, long-term care program in San Francisco. None of the patients had been diagnosed with a specific terminal illness.

Interviews with the patients revealed that 75 percent would want a conversation about their prognosis if their doctor felt they had less than a year to live, while 65 percent would welcome such a dialogue if they likely had fewer than five years to live.

However, only one of the 60 patients reported having such a discussion with a doctor, said the researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

Wanting to prepare for death, making the most of their remaining time and making medical or life decisions were among the most common reasons the patients gave for wanted to discuss their prognosis.

"When physicians bring up prognosis, it's usually thought of as a health issue, but for the person on the receiving end, the conversation is about a lot more than that," lead author Cyrus Ahalt, a geriatrics research coordinator in UCSF's Department of Medicine, said in a university news release.

"We've made big strides in changing the way that doctors communicate prognosis to patients who have cancer, organ diseases or other terminal diagnoses, but this study shows that we still have room to grow in discussing life expectancy with frail older adults who have poor prognosis simply because of multiple physical or cognitive impairments or old age," added principal investigator Dr. Alexander Smith, a physician at SFVAMC and a bioethics expert and assistant professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics.

The study was published online Nov. 30 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

More information

The AGS Foundation for Health in Aging has more about communication between seniors and their doctors.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/seniors/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111221/hl_hsn/mostsickordisabledseniorswantdocstosayhowlongtheyhave

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You'll Never Guess 2011's Most Popular YouTube Video! [Video]

Just kidding, of course you will, because it's Rebecca Black, and Rebecca Black is 2011's most important entity across culture, politics, and the whole of the space-time continuum. But what else mattered in our cosmos, YouTube-wise? Let's explore! More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/M8tOqTOXpIM/youll-never-guess-2011s-most-popular-youtube-video

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Rick Scott wants more lottery sales to help schools (tbo)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/177235524?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Awards Tour 2012: Critics Choice Awards Nominations

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A Year In Fail: The 6 biggest technology flops of 2011 (Yahoo! News)

From 3D tech to a sea of copycat iPads, these attempted innovations flopped in 2011

In 2011, technology gifted the masses with the?magic of the cloud and?4G as far as the eye can see, but the year wasn't without its disappointments. In fact, this year's tech climate bore witness to some failures of truly epic proportion: From launch letdowns to billion dollar bungles, here are our picks for the biggest technology fails of 2011.

1. Android Tablets
Well over a year after the release of the first?iPad, not a single company has managed to make a dent in Apple's strangehold on the tablet market. When it?debuted at CES at the beginning of 2011, the?Motorola Xoom looked to boast all the trappings of a proper iPad rival: the sleek new?Android tablet operating system, plenty of power under the hood...what could go wrong? But a few short months later, the Xoom and other would-be successful slates like the?slew of Galaxy Tabs have all blurred together. There is still hardly a single compelling reason to buy a tablet that isn't cut from Apple's cloth ? and the debut of the iPad 2 in March was just another nail in the coffin of Android latecomers the market over.

Do you have the new Facebook Timeline yet?

2. Facebook Timelines
Hey, remember the?Facebook redesign? The one that was announced to the Facebook-loving populace back in September? We barely do either: The world's most visited social network has been caught up in a?court battle over the rights to the name of its core new feature: the Timeline. We don't care what Facebook calls it, but the company certainly let the cat out of the bag way too early on this one. After integrating the Ticker, its controversial real-time scrolling sidebar, our profile pages look as dull as ever. And now that Timelines are finally rolling out, Facebook will face a double backlash: not only will the users who've been looking forward to the photo-centric redesign be put off by the false start, but the rest will be outraged all over again when things shift around in a major way on the social network.

Sure, the iPhone 4S sold well, but it's no iPhone 5

3. iPhone 4S
While it's no flop when it comes to?sales figures, the?iPhone 4S remains one of 2011's biggest consumer letdowns. Earlier this year, Apple's?iPad 2 upped its prececessor's appeal considerably, slimming the original slate down while speeding it up ? but it's tough to not be disappointed by the iconic company's most recent handset.?Apple's newest iteration of the iPhone is certainly nothing to sneeze at ? it's still one of the fastest, best-looking smartphones on the block ? but it's?no iPhone 5. After spending the better part of the year salivating over a reinvented iPhone with a larger screen, a thinner profile, and other untold Apple-flavored wonders, Apple aficionados were presented with the iPhone 4S ? a nominal upgrade over the previous model that touted the now much-parodied?Siri app as its main selling point. While Siri is a capable (if at times perhaps?too capable) virtual companion, 2011 is still an off-year when it comes to the world's must-have gadget. Patience is a virtue, and all eyes are on 2012's iPhone to up the ante.

The TouchPad was HP's last ditch effort to save webOS

4. HP TouchPad
If any one product has ridden the proverbial rollercoaster this year, it's HP's tablet, the TouchPad. After buying Palm in 2010, HP bet the farm on its new?lineup of mobile devices running on Palm's well-loved?webOS platform: the capable Pre 3 smartphone, the mini Veer, and the TouchPad ? HP's somewhat literal response to the iPad. The company was so confident in its mobile strategy that it even insisted that every new HP computer would come with a version of the mobile software next year ? a pretty outrageously aggressive move, considering that HP cranks out?more PCs than any other company in the world.

Things were looking bright for webOS, but after a mere month of lackluster sales, HP sent its barely month-old tablet to the guillotine and slashed prices dramatically enough to rouse consumer interest in the?failed product. After throwing away $1.2 billion in acquiring webOS, HP ultimately handed the software over to the masses as an?open source project ? and that's just the latest twist on what might be 2011's most ill-fated gadget.

5. Windows Phone 7
After about a year on the market, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone with Microsoft's new smartphone software in their pocket. A?lackluster debut only turned into a yet more?disappointing tenure: By the third quarter of 2011, Microsoft commanded a meager?2.7% of the smartphone software ecosystem. The computing giant's considerable resources haven't been enough to provide a compelling alternative to the iPhone or the veritable army of Android devices crowding carrier shelves. While the new mobile OS happily veered off from the path of Microsoft's last mobile software with a vibrant new look and a handful of fresh ideas,?Windows Phone 7 continues to be too little, too late.

3D is spreading, but not nearly as fast as expected

6. 3D technology
The future might be now, but you'd hardly know it by taking a peek in the average living room. At the outset, 2011 looked like it might be the tipping point for?3D ? after blockbuster hits like?Tron stirred up popular interest in the third dimension, it only follows that consumers would want to tote that tech home with them, right? Wrong. Blame high prices, headaches, or goofy accessories, but at the end of 2011, interest around?3D television hovers around the same flatline as it did a year ago. And it isn't just television: Nintendo's 3DS handheld gaming console laced even some?best-loved classics with an extra layer of (literal) depth, but sales didn't even?begin to approach the projected 16 million units the console's idealistic creator intended to move by the year's end.

This article originally appeared on Tecca

More from Tecca:

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20111214/tc_yblog_technews/a-year-in-fail-the-6-biggest-technology-flops-of-2011

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