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BBC NewsQuote:
Binge drinking teenagers are still at risk of absent-mindedness and forgetfulness days later, a study says.
A team from Northumbria and Keele universities compared 26 binge drinkers with 34 non-bingers in memory tests, and found the drinkers fared worse.
They told the British Psychological Society conference that binge drinking could be harming developing brains.
A spokesman for the charity Addaction said drinking at dangerous levels was putting some young people at risk.
Binge drinking is already known to affect people's memories of past events.
In this study, the scientists looked at students aged 17 to 19 - a period when the brain is still developing.
Binge drinking was defined as at least eight units a session for a man and six for a woman once or twice a week.
The researchers said the binge drinkers studied consumed, on average, 30 units in just two sessions.
'Storing up problems'
The teenagers were tested three or four days after their last drinking session, so that their bodies would be free of alcohol.
They were asked to answer questions about how often they forgot to carry out tasks they intended to do, such as meeting with friends.
They were shown a video clip of a shopping trip after being given a couple of minutes to memorise a set of tasks prompted by various cues in the film, such as remembering to text a friend at a certain shop, or to check their bank accounts after seeing a person sitting on a bench.
Dr Thomas Heffernan, from the University of Northumbria and who led the study, said: "We found no differences between binge drinkers and non-binge drinkers in the self-reporting questionnaires, but when it came to the video the binge drinkers recalled significantly less than the non-binge drinkers.
"Although from their own reports they appeared to have good memories, they didn't perform as well in the video test.
"The binge drinkers recalled up to a third less of the items, a significant difference."
He said it was possible that the pre-frontal cortex or hippocampus regions of the brain were being impaired.
Dr Heffernan added: "There is evidence that excess alcohol and binge drinking in particular damages parts of the brain that underpin everyday memory.
"Not only may these teenagers be harming their memory, if their brains are still developing they could be storing up problems for the future."
A spokesman for the charity Addaction said: "While official figures show fewer young people are drinking overall, a small group of young people is drinking earlier in life and at dangerously high levels.
"Many of these young people are still at primary school and are drinking more than twice the recommended limit for adult women, with uncertain consequences for their future development."
BBC NewsQuote:
US employers shed 80,000 jobs in March, Labor Department figures have shown, in the latest sign that the US economy may be falling into recession.
The decline was the third monthly drop in succession, and worse than market expectations of a 60,000 reduction.
The jobless rate rose to 5.1% in March, the highest level since September 2005, and a rise from February's 4.8%.
Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke warned earlier this week that the US economy faced the risk of recession.
'Pretty bad'
While the Labor Department said March's job losses were spread across the economy, the biggest cuts came in the construction and manufacturing sectors.
Figures also showed that for the first quarter of 2008 as a whole, job losses averaged 77,000 a month.
This compares with average monthly job creation rates of 76,000 for the second half of last year.
"The numbers are pretty bad," said analyst Rudy Narvas of 4Cast.
"Before, there was a debate about whether we were in recession but I think this settles it.
"We've passed the tipping point."
'No silver lining'
Ben Bernanke warned on Wednesday that US gross domestic product (GDP) could contract in the first six months of 2008.
"It now appears likely that real GDP will not grow much, if at all, over the first half of 2008 and could even contract slightly," he told Congress.
The downturn in the US economy centres on the sharp slump in the housing market.
"There doesn't appear to be any silver lining," said Carl Lantz, an analyst at Credit Suisse.
"It shows that we're right in the middle of a recession that will probably take a while."
BBC NewsQuote:
Thousands of people are expected to gather in the US city of Memphis to mark 40 years since the death of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.
Crowds will converge on the Lorraine Motel, where he was shot dead aged 39.
Presidential hopefuls John McCain and Hillary Clinton are expected to attend, but not Mrs Clinton's Democratic rival Barack Obama.
Correspondents say Dr King's campaign for equal rights by non-violent means inspired millions around the world.
His "I have a dream" speech is considered among the greatest ever made.
Candle-lit vigil
Events include a "recommitment march" through the city, highlighting Dr King's ideals of social justice, and the laying of wreaths at the site of his assassination.
His son, Martin Luther King III, and civil rights campaigner the Rev Al Sharpton will lead the march, which will be followed by an evening candle-lit vigil.
Dr King was killed by a rifle shot as he helped organise a strike by sanitation workers, then among the poorest in the city.
The BBC's Andy Gallacher says that while conspiracy theories abound about his death, it is his legacy that will be celebrated.
The "I have a dream" speech inspired millions, and Dr King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his efforts to end segregation and racial discrimination.
"He pulled down the walls of fear, he changed the laws of legal apartheid in our country, he set in motion the right to vote which has transformed democratic governments around the world," the Rev Jesse Jackson, who was with him in his final moments, told the BBC.
The former motel was converted into a National Civil Rights Museum in 1991.
Other US events being held to commemorate Martin Luther King's death, include an appearance in Indianopolis by Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, who gave a passionate speech after Dr King's death and was himself assassinated two months later.
A special exhibition on his final days and funeral is due to open in his birthplace, Atlanta.
Members of the US Congress paid tribute to Dr King in speeches on Thursday.
BBC NewsQuote:
Swedish archaeologists have discovered a rare hoard of Viking-age silver Arab coins near Stockholm's Arlanda airport.
About 470 coins were found on 1 April at an early Iron Age burial site. They date from the 7th to 9th Century, when Viking traders travelled widely.
There has been no similar find in that part of Sweden since the 1880s.
Most of the coins were minted in Baghdad and Damascus, but some came from Persia and North Africa, said archaeologist Karin Beckman-Thoor.
The team from the Swedish National Heritage Board had just started removing a stone cairn at the site "when we suddenly found one coin and couldn't understand why it was there", she told the BBC News website.
"We continued digging and found more coins and realised it was a Viking-age hoard." The coins were left there in about AD850, she said.
Such Viking hoards usually come from Gotland - a large Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, she explained.
"No Viking was buried at this site - the grave is older. Maybe the Vikings thought the hoard would be protected by ancestors," Ms Beckman-Thoor added. Vikings had settled in a village nearby.
The Vikings travelled widely in their longships in the Baltic region and Russia from the late 8th to the 11th Century. They are known to have travelled as far as North Africa and Constantinople (now Istanbul).
CBCQuote:
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Workers remove campaign posters of President Robert Mugabe in Harare Friday
Opposition goes to courts to force release of election results
Zimbabwe's ruling party declared Friday that a presidential runoff election will be held between President Robert Mugabe and opposition rival Morgan Tsvangirai, as the opposition party said it was going to court in its fight to have results from the first vote released.
The announcements came as police cracked down on foreign reporters and opposition politicians in a move diplomats said could indicate Mugabe is poised to declare emergency rule after losing parliamentary elections last week.
The Zimbabwean electoral commission has yet to release results from Saturday's presidential vote, which the opposition says is "unjustified." The suit filed late Friday at the Harare High Court is to be heard Saturday.
Just hours earlier, Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF, announced the runoff following a five-hour meeting with senior party officials. Party secretary and Minister of State Didymus Mutasa also charged that the opposition bribed electoral officials and said his party would contest results of 16 parliamentary seats.
Officials in Mugabe's government privately acknowledged they "have not won the absolute vast majority they thought they were going to get" and are now preparing for a runoff, said the CBC's Adrienne Arsenault, who spoke with deputy information minister Bright Matonga after the meeting.
"[Matonga's] description of it was that the last election process was a bit like a rehearsal, a bit like a warm-up. The next one will be the real match …and [he said] the government will win it," she reported from the capital, Harare.
Diplomats in Harare and at the United Nations said Friday they think Mugabe is planning to declare a 90-day delay to a presidential run-off in order to create time for security forces to clamp down on the opposition.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said they believe their candidate secured enough votes to be declared the winner.
But independent observers had projected a runoff, saying Tsvangirai won the most votes, but not the 50 per cent plus one vote necessary for an outright victory.
Zimbabwean law requires a runoff be held within 21 days of an election, but Mugabe could change that with a presidential decree, an unnamed Western diplomat in Harare said.
The announcement came on the same day as a group of so-called "war veterans," a group considered as Mugabe's shock troops, marched through the streets of Harare, further unnerving residents who are fearful of what may come amid the crisis.
"They remember the fights of the past," the CBC's Arsenault said. "Some people see it as threatening."
Opposition offices ransacked, MDC says
Tsvangirai's party has been officially declared the winner of the country's parliamentary elections, held March 29. Results from the presidential election are yet to be released by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, although Matonga said he thought full results would be announced by the end of Friday.
Heavily armed riot police raided MDC party offices, as well as hotels used by foreign journalists, in Harare Thursday. Five reporters were detained.
MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti said hotel rooms used as offices by the opposition were ransacked by intruders he thought were either police or agents of the Central Intelligence Organization.
"Mugabe has started a crackdown," Biti said. "It is quite clear he has unleashed a war."
Biti said the raid at the Meikles Hotel in Harare targeted "certain people … including myself," but that Tsvangirai was "safe."
On Friday, a police escort accompanied about 400 veterans of Zimbabwe's guerrilla war for black rule as they marched through Harare in a show of support for Mugabe.
110 of 210 Assembly seats go to anti-Mugabe forces
The United States Friday called for a quick resolution to the uncertainty surrounding Zimbabwe's elections, saying it was "troubled" by the reports of arrests.
"We're troubled by the reports we're hearing on the ground," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters at the NATO summit in Bucharest. "Journalists and NGOs should be permitted to go about their business."
Mugabe's party won 97 of the 210 seats in the House of Assembly while the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won 99 seats, the state-run newspaper The Herald reported Thursday. A breakaway MDC faction won 10 seats, and an independent candidate won one. Results of three byelections aren't available.
The breakaway faction of the opposition indicated Friday it would back Tsvangirai in a runoff.
"Whatever formation is there to remove Mugabe, we are there to support it," Abednico Bhebhe, spokesman for the faction headed by Arthur Mutambara, told the Associated Press.
Mugabe, a former anti-colonial fighter, is facing the greatest challenge to his 28-year grip on power, which has been tarnished in recent years with an economic collapse that has seen annual inflation rise above 100,000 per cent and unemployment run at 80 per cent.
Canadian PressQuote:
An Ontario man convicted of 15 counts of aggravated assault for knowingly exposing women to HIV has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The Crown and police had been arguing that Carl Leone, 31, of Windsor, Ont., should be labelled a dangerous or long-term offender, a designation that would have saddled him with tough conditions at the end of his sentence.
But the judge ruled that Leone did not meet the criteria for that label.
Leone was given sentences ranging from two to five years for each count of assault, to be served consecutively.
While the number of years totalled 49, the judge reduced the sentence to 18 years to better reflect sentencing guidelines laid out in the Criminal Code.
Leone had pleaded guilty to 15 counts of aggravated assault in April. He was facing 20 counts before a plea arrangement was made.
Five of Leone's 15 victims are HIV-positive. Some of the victims were drugged and assaulted while unconscious.
Leone was told in 1997 by Windsor Essex County Health Unit workers that he was HIV-positive, seven years before his arrest on June 6, 2004.
Under a 1998 Supreme Court ruling, a person who fails to disclose HIV-positive status before having unprotected sexual intercourse can be convicted of aggravated assault and face life in prison.
CBCQuote:
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Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, wife of the French president, left, and Britain's Prince Philip, right, share a joke as they watch ceremonies at Windsor Castle in Windsor, England, last week.
Prince Philip, the 86-year-old husband of Queen Elizabeth, has been admitted to a London hospital with a chest infection, Buckingham Palace said Friday.
According to the British Broadcasting Corp. Philip was was admitted to King Edward VII Hospital on Thursday.
A palace spokeswoman told the Associated Press he is being assessed and treated for a chest infection but had no information about his condition.
She said his engagements for the weekend have been cancelled.
Philip has been married to the Queen since 1947. As husband of the sovereign, Philip was not crowned at the coronation ceremony in 1953.
He has no constitutional role other than as one of the Queen's privy counsellors. In February 1957 he was awarded the dignity Prince of the United Kingdom and became known as Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
He accompanies the Queen on all her Commonwealth tours and state visits overseas, as well as on tours and visits to all parts of the United Kingdom. He is also patron or president of nearly 800 organizations.
But he has sparked controversy for some of the comments he has made over the years. In 1966 there was outrage when he said: "British women can't cook." During a royal visit to China in 1986, he described Beijing as "ghastly" and told British students: "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty-eyed."
Philip is a great-great-grandchild of Queen Victoria. His paternal grandfather, King George I of Greece, was Queen Alexandra's brother.
The Queen and Prince Philip have four children: Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.
CBCQuote:
A delegation of Canadians with an Israeli cabinet minister came under fire near the Gaza Strip Friday morning, escaping injury in an attack that left one Israeli wounded.
A group of around 15 people with the Canada-Israeli Committee was visiting the town of Sderot in the company of Israeli Public Security Minister Avi Dichter when they were shot at. Dichter's chief of staff Matti Gil was wounded in the attack.
A spokeswoman from a local hospital said Gil was shot in the groin and was in stable condition.
Moshe Ronen, chairman of the committee, said they had just finished a briefing with Dichter when the shooting began.
"There was a volley of shots, about half a minute or so," Ronen told CBC News. "We were instructed to lie on the ground and we stayed there for about 15 minutes, then evacuated to a military outpost."
"We're all shaken but we're OK."
Dichter told Army Radio he didn't think the shots were aimed specifically at him, but at the visiting groups.
He said Israeli troops returned fire. Army Radio reported that tanks and bulldozers entered Gaza after the shooting.
Several militant groups claimed responsibility for the attack, the Associated Press reported, including the military wing of Gaza's ruling Hamas movement, a militant offshoot of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, and two little-known radical Islamic groups inspired by al-Qaeda, the Army of the Nation and Protectors of the Homeland.
'Came to express solidarity'
Ronen said the group was in Sderot to show solidarity with the southern city, which is a frequent target of rocket attacks from militants in the Gaza Strip.
"It's a pretty scary feeling. You realize after a few seconds that somebody actually tried to kill you," he said.
"We came to express solidarity, we certainly expressed solidarity, but we also got a taste of what the civilians here go through day in and day out, with the constant attacks by terrorist groups who are operating from Gaza.
"It's a pretty eye-opening and pretty scary experience."
Ronen said the trip will continue.
Thanks for the news.