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Schwarzenegger: New budget is ‘perfect medicine’ for California

California Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg urges GOP help to break the budget impasse.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said the state budget plan passed by state lawmakers early Thursday is "the perfect medicine for our ailing economy."

The measure, which awaits the governor’s signature, includes tax increases, spending cuts and borrowing to close a $42 billion deficit. “It will boost public confidence in California, reassure the financial community and allow us to resume selling our bonds and rebuilding our state,” Schwarzenegger told a news conference at the capitol in Sacramento, California. The state Senate approved the measure shortly after 6 a.m. after Democrats agreed to demands from a holdout Republican senator. The state Assembly gave final approval minutes later. “I am extremely proud of the members of the Legislature, both Republicans and Democrats, who had the courage to stand up and put the needs of Californians first,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement. “Rather than approaching this unprecedented crisis with gimmicks and temporary solutions, we took the difficult but responsible steps to address our entire $42 billion budget deficit and pass historic bipartisan reform measures.” Watch how the deadlock was broken » Schwarzenegger said he was pleased that his budget proposal served as a blueprint for this spending plan, which included “spending reductions, revenue increases, economic stimulus and government efficiency.” “This is a very difficult budget, but we have turned this crisis into an opportunity to make real, lasting reforms for California,” he said.

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The budget stalemate had caused Schwarzenegger to declare a fiscal emergency and send layoff notices to 10,000 state workers. Democrats in the Senate needed one Republican vote for passage. Sen. Abel Maldonado was the one Republican amenable to vote for the measure in exchange for certain demands, and lawmakers worked through the night to meet them. Senators voted to approve Maldonado’s demands to revise the state’s constitution to permit “open” primaries for legislative, congressional and gubernatorial elections. They also passed another, the removal of a 12-cent additional gas tax. Even though several members didn’t like the open primary plan, they still voted for it to get the budget passed. Speaking on the Senate floor, Maldonado said the passage of the budget is imperative for people across the state, even if it would imperil his political career. “This might be the end for me, but this vote ensures that it’s not the end for the state of California. I’m asking for an aye vote,” he said. While he said it’s an “ugly budget” that “takes a lot away” from California, he stressed that it keeps people working and keeps the state solvent. “For many Californians, this budget is a real life-and-death situation,” Maldonado said. “This budget is about shared pain and shared sacrifices.” iReport.com: What you’d fix first State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, urged lawmakers to pass the budget during a news conference just after midnight. All Democrats were prepared to vote for the budget, but one more Republican was needed to reach a majority, Steinberg said. “We need one more member. One more member. We need one more,” said Steinberg, raising his voice as he pointed to a large placard with No. 1 written in red. “My door is open for any Republican that wants to put the state first.” After the Senate vote, Steinberg was exhausted and relieved. “This is not really a time of celebration, when you think about the difficult decisions that we have been called upon to make,” Steinberg told colleagues in the Senate chamber. “It is, however, a time of great relief that this crisis is behind, not us, but behind the people of California.” U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, had been there the previous morning, reminding lawmakers that Democrats in the U.S. Senate were able to get just enough Republican votes to pass President Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan. Interactive: See where the stimulus money is going » “We have to put aside all this ego and put the people of California first,” Boxer said. “The people of California do not deserve the fate they will receive if it is not passed.” Without a new budget, 276 public works projects would have halted Thursday, an additional 10,000 state workers could have received layoff notices and California might have been ineligible for parts of the federal economic stimulus package. The Republican governor had butted heads for months with the Democratic majority over easing the state’s $11.2 billion revenue shortfall this fiscal year alone. The California Legislature was one of several to meet this week to address budget concerns in a time when 43 states are starting the year short on funds, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Map: See projected state budget gaps »

“This is an equal-opportunity recession. States in virtually every part of the country are suffering. … Even the energy states are starting to report problems,” Corina Eckl of the National Conference of State Legislatures said. “For most, it has only gone downhill. They have tried to make up the difference with expanded gambling, with delays of construction projects, with hiring freezes, with fee and tax increases. But almost all of this has failed to regain lost ground, merely serving as a firebreak against worse troubles.”

Economy puts bite on shark attacks, researcher says

Fewer people in the water means less chance for sharks to attack, ichthyologist George Burgess says.
Shark attacks on humans were at the lowest levels in half a decade last year, and a Florida researcher says hard economic times may be to blame.

Sharks attacked 59 people in 2008, the lowest number of attacks since 57 in 2003, according to George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, part of the Florida Museum of Natural History on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville. There were 71 attacks in 2007. “One can’t help but think that the downturn in the economy played a part in it,” Burgess said. Fewer people, especially outside of the United States, have the resources to go to the beach, he said. “To have a shark attack, you have to have humans and sharks in the water at the same time,” Burgess said. “If you have a reduction in the number of people in the water, you’re going to have a reduction in the opportunities for people and sharks to get together.” “We noticed similar declines during the recession that followed the events of 2001, despite the fact that human populations continued to rise,” the ichthyologist said. Sharks killed four people in 2008, Burgess said: one in California, one in Australia and two in Mexico. Forty-one of the 59 attacks worldwide came in the United States, and 32 of those occurred in Florida. Surfers accounted for 57 percent of shark attacks, swimmers and waders were the targets in 36 percent of the attacks, and divers the rest, he said. Burgess said the U.S. tends to see more attacks because of a large number of surfers, who are a favorite target of sharks. And neither the economy nor the attacks tend to keep American surfers from practicing their sport. “All they have to do is drive to the beach with the board and get into the water, and the rest is free,” he said. And while an attack may make them a bit more wary, he said, “I’ve yet to find a surfer who says he or she won’t go back into the water after a bite or a nip.” When the economy improves, shark attack numbers are likely to go up again, according to Burgess, predicting the number of attacks in the next decade will surpass those of the past 10 years. “We’re putting so many people in the water that humans are dictating the shark attack situation,” he said.

An Airline’s Automated System Penalizes Flyers

An Airlines Automated System Penalizes Flyers

Any experienced traveler knows it’s wise to buy airline tickets as far in advance as possible . But while buying tickets early may save you money, it also opens the door to unexpected screw-ups — as when airlines make sudden schedule adjustments that torpedo your plans. One New York family found this out the hard way.

Offending Party: AirTran Airways

What’s at Stake: $1,088, including $960 in airfare differences and $128 in unused Disney World tickets

The Complaint: Last December, Rachel Gibson and her family of eight , were booked on a flight home to Buffalo from Orlando, departing at 6:11 p.m. with a connection in Atlanta. Because their flight wasn’t until evening, the family figured they’d be able to spend the day at Disney World.

Unfortunately, the closest the Gibsons got to Mickey Mouse was on a criminally overpriced t-shirt in the Orlando International Airport gift store. That morning, the family had been informed by the hotel’s independent airport shuttle service that they had been rebooked on an earlier flight departing at 3:59 p.m., more than two hours earlier than the Gibsons had planned. The schedule change meant they had to cancel their day at the park and endure a three-plus-hour layover in Atlanta with small children.

The move was a surprise to the Gibsons, who had called Airtran’s automated phone line the night before to confirm the departure time of their original flight.

The family called the airline to get an explanation and was told simply that they had been moved to an earlier flight and that even though their original 6:11 p.m. flight was still on the schedule , the family could not be moved back.

The Outcome: Gibson thinks that her family getting booted to an earlier flight was about one thing: cash. She suspects that AirTran moved her to the earlier, less-desirable — and cheaper, by $120 per ticket — flight in order to free up seats and sell pricier tickets on her original flight.

It’s an intriguing theory, but one that AirTran says is complete bunk.

Here’s what happened, according to the airline: the Gibsons booked their tickets six months in advance. Their original Orlando-to-Buffalo itinerary included a 31-minute layover in Atlanta. The minimum allowable connection time is 30 minutes.

In August, AirTran moved the departure time of its Orlando-to-Atlanta flight back by five minutes. Doesn’t sound like much, but a five-minute delay in arrival in Atlanta meant the Gibsons had just 26 minutes to make their connecting flight — too short a window to be permitted. Therefore, Airtran’s system automatically moved the family to an earlier flight to allow more than 30 minutes between flights.

Between August and December, AirTran continued to shift its flight times, including those of the original flights the Gibsons had booked, which again allowed for sufficient connection time in Atlanta. Unfortunately, the same automated system that moved the family to the earlier flight failed to move them back to their original flight. A rep for AirTran says “there really is no answer” as to why the system didn’t respond.

At the airport in Orlando, the Gibsons asked about getting put back on their original flight, but despite having had seats for sale that day, the airline now says that flight was full, and the Gibsons could not be moved.

Fine, but shouldn’t the family at least be refunded for the fare difference in the flight they had originally bought and the one they were forced to take Remember, the earlier flight cost $120 less per ticket — that buys a lot of wings in Buffalo.

Not a chance, says Airtran. “When a flight adjusts times, we do not adjust fares based on that,” a rep says.

The Gibsons were offered eight $50 vouchers, but they declined; they don’t plan to fly AirTran ever again.

The only lesson here, if there is one: fly nonstop. But then, you knew that already.

How Stressed Is Your Bank?

For months, customers and investors have wondered if their banks will survive. The government may soon give its opinion. But don’t be surprised if you find the answer inconclusive.

In early February, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, as part of his bank fix, said he will “stress-test” the nation’s largest financial firms to find out which ones are fit and which ones are flatlining, and then apply the appropriate therapy — which we assume means anything from injecting capital to pulling the plug. By using a medical term, Geithner gave the impression that he had some fiscal electrocardiograph that could be strapped to banks to chart the strength of their accounts. But when it comes to a bank checkup, the actual test is far less scientific.

In theory, a financial stress test looks at a firm’s loans, assesses which will go bad and then concludes whether the bank will have money left when those accounts go unpaid. Pretty clear.

But in reality, to run the test, you have to guess not just which borrowers will stop paying but also when. Some losses will be covered by profits elsewhere. So the firm’s bottom line must be estimated. The variables leave plenty of room for the government to make some banks look better or worse, depending on the assumptions it makes. Not so cut and dried.

Geithner hasn’t detailed his test, other than that it won’t be complete for another month. Worse, officials at the Treasury say the tests probably won’t be made public. That will sort out the uncertainty that has driven the stock market down, won’t it

So instead of waiting around for the government’s finger-in-the-air results, Time decided to poke and prod the banks on its own.

To do so, we relied on the loan-loss estimates of New York University professor Nouriel Roubini, a.k.a. Dr. Doom, who has been sagelike in his predictions about the credit crisis so far. We factored in the banks’ results this year, as projected by Wall Street analysts. Besides the hit that banks will take for soured loans, the firms also have losses in their investment accounts. But since markets go up as well as down, we stuck to the actual cost of their lending foibles rather than guess where the market for debt is headed next.

The exception is Citigroup. Since the bank struck a deal with the government to shield $301 billion in losses, we had to account for some investment missteps to value the arrangement. Bank of America has a similar deal, but since the details aren’t public, we didn’t factor it in.

Any stress test is also influenced by the measure you use. We chose the leverage ratio. To calculate it, divide a bank’s equity by its assets, much of which are loans. The lower this ratio goes, the shakier a bank becomes. For example, a 10% leverage ratio means the bank has lent out $10 for every $1 in equity it has. A 5% reading translates to $20 out for every $1 in hand. Regulators like to see a reading of at least 5%. Anything less than that and a bank could become toast. Here’s what we found:

Citigroup
Loan losses: Even after making a government deal, the bank is still on the hook for the first $40 billion in loan losses in the pool it has insured. Citi also has $277 billion in other, nonhousing consumer loans, such as credit cards and student debt. Roubini estimates that about 17% of consumer loans will go unpaid nationwide. That translates into a $47 billion river of red ink. Add in everything else , and Citigroup will have to swallow $106 billion in loan losses by the end of 2010.

Capital cushion: Thanks to the Troubled Asset Relief Program , Citigroup now has $151 billion in equity, up from $113 billion a year ago. Alas, it will have a $76 billion hit from bad loans. Along with a projected bottom-line loss of $3.5 billion, that drops the bank’s capital to $70.5 billion.

Prognosis: On the way to the ICU. Citigroup has a projected leverage ratio of just 3.8% — far lower than what it would need to be considered well capitalized. How much would the U.S. have to give the bank to nurse it back to good health About $22 billion.

JPMorgan Chase
Loan losses: JPMorgan largely avoided the troubled subprime-lending game. Not so Washington Mutual, which JPMorgan acquired in 2008 in an FDIC-brokered deal. With housing prices still falling, many of those WaMu loans are going unpaid. JPMorgan has $105 billion in credit card loans, which could cost the company some $18 billion. And there is an additional $262 billion in corporate and commercial loans, which, according to Roubini, could tally $26 billion more in red ink. All told, it’s a $97 billion loss for JPMorgan.

Capital cushion: JPMorgan has $23 billion in its rainy-day fund for such losses. Not enough. Shareholders’ equity will drop to $121 billion, from the current $167 billion.

Prognosis: Looking good. JPMorgan is in better shape than other big banks are. Its post-test leverage ratio drops to 6.4%, from nearly 8% — still a picture of financial health.

Bank of America
Loan losses: BofA’s buyout of mortgage broker Countrywide means the bank has $400 billion in home loans outstanding — more than its competitors. Worse, Countrywide, by nearly all accounts, had shockingly low lending standards. Chalk up a higher-than-average $40 billion in losses there. On top of that, BofA has made $87 billion in loans to commercial real estate developers. Roubini predicts 17% of those loans will go bad as developers hit the skids. For BofA, that’s $15 billion more in losses. Toss in $55 billion in commercial- and consumer-loan losses, and you get $121 billion in lending deficits by the end of 2010.

Capital cushion: BofA has put away $23 billion to cover future losses, and it has more equity — $177 billion — than JPMorgan or Citigroup. But that might not be enough to preserve it without government help.

Prognosis: Prepare the transfusion. BofA is still on the monitor, but it’s not far from being healthy again. It has a stressed leverage ratio of 4.6%. Just $7.3 billion in new capital would put BofA back on its feet. And with Uncle Sam finalizing its deal to guarantee $118 billion of BofA debt, the bank may already be on the mend.

Wells Fargo
Loan losses: When Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia late last year, it more than doubled its loan book. In good times, that would be a major coup. These days, it’s major trouble. Home buyers owe the bank $360 billion, up from about $150 billion just three months ago. Next, Wells has $154 billion in commercial real estate loans, as well as $200 billion in other types of commercial debt. Apply Roubini’s overall 13% loss projection, and the conclusion is that Wells may be sitting on a $117 billion loss.

Capital cushion: The good news for Wells is that it has been aggressive in identifying problem loans — $37 billion from Wachovia alone. Wells officials argue that will lead to lower losses than its competitors’. But if not, the bank could be in trouble.

Even after the $25 billion Wells got from the government last year, it has just under $100 billion in equity, trailing other major banks by more than 50%.

Prognosis: Defibrillator. Stat! Wells Fargo is generally considered one of the banks that are least likely to fail. But our stress test says otherwise. Even with its $58 billion loan-loss buffer, Wells is still in the hole for $59 billion, or 60% of its capital. With $40 billion remaining and an expected $5 billion in income, the bank could sink to a less-than-rosy leverage ratio of 3.7%.

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Lung cancer vaccine ‘extends terminal patients lives’

Cuban scientist Dr. Gisela Gonzalez says she and her team have created a lung cancer vaccine that extends patient's lives.
Terminal lung cancer patients are living longer thanks to the world’s first registered lung cancer vaccine, a leading Cuban scientist says.

Dr. Gisela Gonzalez has spent years researching the vaccine which the Cuban government approved for the use of the general public last year. Gonzalez and her team have worked on developing the CimaVax EGF vaccine at the Cuban Center of Molecular Immunology since the early 1990s. She says all those years of hard work have finally paid off as trials show that Cubans with lung cancer are living a little longer after having the vaccine. “One of my early patients was a 32-year-old man when he started taking the vaccine. I had a son that age,” the scientist told CNN. “Now he’s 35. He’s living and working. He visited us the other day and said he’s thinking about having kids.” Gonzalez says that more than 700 patients have received the vaccine over the years, many of them in seven clinical trials in Cuba, Canada and the UK. More than 400 advanced lung cancer patients received the Vaccine CimaVax EGF in the trials, according to the Latin American News Agency.

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The trials showed that the drug extended the life of terminal patients by an average of four months, and in some cases several years, compared with those patients who only received traditional therapies. Younger patients tended to fare better. “It has the potential to be very important,” according to Dr. Howard Burris, director of drug development at the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee. He said the results were comparable to those being produced by two other lung cancer vaccines, GVAX and BLP 25, being developed in the United States. “Larger trials will show there are subsets that it’s very good for and for others it’s not relevant,” he said. CimaVax EGF does not prevent or cure lung cancer. It is a therapeutic vaccine which stimulates the patient’s body to make an antibody against the epidermal growth factor (EGF), which is a key driver causing lung cancer cells to grow. It is used in conjunction with chemotherapy and radiation therapy which reduce the size of the initial tumor.

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“With this kind of product, maybe cancer, advanced cancer, can be treated like any other chronic disease like diabetes,” Dr. Gonzalez said during a recent tour of her modern laboratory in Havana. Medical services, even the most costly, are provided free of charge in communist Cuba. CimaVax EGF is now part of routine treatment for advanced lung cancer patients. Experts say that success is due in large part to a focus on preventative medicine and a very local approach to health that includes thousands of neighborhood physicians. Cuba has also developed a formidable biotechnology industry championed by Fidel Castro as early as the 1980s. Doctors here developed vaccines for Meningitis B and Hepatitis B which are now being used in a number of countries. Medical tourism is also on the rise, attracting paying patients from abroad. Dr. Gonzalez said CimaVax EGF has sparked a lot of interest internationally. She has advised foreign patients interested in the vaccine to seek approval from their national regulatory agencies to use it in their home country. She said two patients, one from Australia and one from Argentina, have already succeeded in doing so. In December, a lung cancer patient from Australia Liz Simon, wrote on a lung cancer forum Lungevity “Well it’s actually arrived. After negotiations over six months, the CimaVax vaccine has actually arrived in Brisbane.” Simon wrote that she was undergoing radiation treatment and would have to wait four weeks after that before starting the vaccine. “The vaccine’s bona fides will be checked out before I start. And I will be using it under scientific conditions so that we can judge its efficacy. So let’s see – I am happy to…become the resident guinea pig,” she added. The Cuban team is now starting a clinical trial in Malaysia and hopes to begin others in China, India and Peru. Dr. Burris said an article last year by the Cuban doctors in the Journal of Clinical Oncology made a big splash in the scientific community, injecting new enthusiasm into U.S. research on the topic. “It’s hard to get an antibody response once you’ve had chemotherapy,” he said. “So if you have a vaccine and it works even half the time, that’s pretty fabulous.”

Israeli doubles star Ram allowed UAE entry

Israeli doubles specialist Ram has been granted access to next week's Dubai tournament.
Israel’s Andy Ram will be able to play in the Dubai Tennis Championships next week after being granted a visa to enter the United Arab Emirates.

The ATP had been under pressure to ensure Ram could compete after his countrywoman Shahar Peer was prevented from playing in the women’s event this week. ATP president and executive chairman Adam Helfant told PA Sport: “I am pleased that the efforts to secure Andy Ram’s visa to compete in the ATP World Tour 500 event in Dubai next week have been successful. “The United Arab Emirates government has made the right decision in allowing Andy Ram to enter their country and compete in next week’s Dubai Tennis Championships. “No player who qualifies to play an ATP World Tour event should be denied their right to compete on the basis of ethnicity, nationality or religion and we are happy that the Dubai Tennis Championships and the UAE have shown that they share that view.” Ram, 28, is one of the leading doubles players on the ATP Tour and won the Australian Open title last year. Peer, the world number 45, described the decision to turn down her visa request as an “injustice” and hit out at the “politics” and “discrimination” of the situation. WTA chairman and chief executive officer Larry Scott echoed her stance, calling the decision “reprehensible and unacceptable”, but believes the decision means the same thing will not happen again. The tournament’s future had been in doubt following the incident and Scott confirmed penalties are still to be decided.

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He said: “We welcome the change of the UAE policy, which will allow Andy Ram to play this week in Dubai and which clarifies that all Israeli athletes will be able to compete in future tournaments in UAE. “Shahar Peer is owed all of our thanks for her courage in challenging an unjust policy and for forcing action to be taken that resulted in today’s announcement. “We thank all of the many organisations and individuals that rallied behind Shahar and pressed the UAE to change their discriminatory stance. It is deeply regrettable that Shahar had to suffer the negative consequences of the UAE decision this past week in order for this policy to get turned around for the benefit of others. “What happened to Shahar last week was discriminatory, reprehensible and unacceptable, and the Tour will shortly be determining remedies for her, penalties to be imposed on the tournament, and the additional assurances we will require to guarantee all Israeli athletes entry to the UAE so that future tournaments in the UAE may take place.” Although Ram’s participation in Dubai next week is now assured, one player who will not attend the tournament is world number one Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard has opted to pulled out of the event to rest the knee ligament injury he sustainted in Sunday’s Rotterdam defeat to Andy Murray. The 22-year-old has also taken the decision to ensure he will be fit Nadal for Spain’s Davis Cup World Group match against Serbia in Benidorm next month.

Jade Goody’s Reality: A TV Star’s Very Public Dying

Jade Goodys Reality: A TV Stars Very Public Dying

Celebrities tell you more about the countries that produce them than any guide book. Take the mouthy, pugnacious Londoner , Jade Goody, now 27 and famous in the U.K. simply for being famous. Her joyfully lowbrow chatter struck a chord with the British public in 2002 when she appeared on TV reality show Big Brother. Five years later when Goody graduated to Celebrity Big Brother, Britons were less comfortable to see themselves reflected in her instinctive hostility toward Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, the slinky, bejeweled personification of newly confident India.

Yet in each of Goody’s incarnations, and in her hardscrabble past as the daughter of a drug-addicted, mixed-race petty criminal and a needy mother , Goody has been both icon and exponent of a wide strand of Englishness. Inadequately educated, a single parent to two boys, spilling out of nightclubs and ill- fitting dresses, she gave a human face to all those hand-wringing reports detailing Britain’s stubborn social inequality and boozy irrepressibility.

That’s why Goody’s imminent death, from cervical cancer that has metastasized to her bowel, liver and groin, is a matter of national importance, boosting the numbers of women in Britain seeking cervical screening by 21% and discussed at the highest levels. “It’s very sad and tragic that someone so young has got this deadly disease of cancer,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown mused at his Downing Street press conference on Feb. 18. “I know the whole country will be worried and anxious.”

Until Goody’s diagnosis — revealed to her as she filmed the Indian version of Big Brother called Bigg Boss alongside her erstwhile nemesis Shetty — a small number of Britons somehow avoided the Goody circus. They failed to buy either of her memoirs Jade: My Autobiography or Jade: Catch a Falling Star; they never dabbed her fragrance Shh … Jade Goody behind their ears; they didn’t perform physical jerks along to any of her five fitness DVDs or try recipes from her cookbook; they even missed her multiple broadcast and print appearances. Yet enough of their compatriots did these things to transform the penniless girl without obvious prospects or talents into a wealthy tycoon and eponymous brand.

Among all of Goody’s ventures, the one predicted to net her the fattest profit is her death. She had already signed up to star in another reality series when she learned of her condition last August. Since discovering last Friday — Friday the 13th no less — that her illness is terminal, she has secured a series of deals that will reportedly swell her sons’ inheritance by between £1 million and £1.5 million. These include a televised interview with America’s Got Talent judge Piers Morgan and extensive coverage in OK! magazine of her wedding to her boyfriend Jack Tweed, recently released from prison, where he was serving a term for assault. “It’s weird, but it’s like a film, I’m happy, but then I’m sad, obviously,” Tweed said of his forthcoming nuptials.

The marriage is scheduled to take place on Sunday at the kind of snooty country house hotel that is usually expert at making Britons of Goody’s class feel out of place. At the end of her life, though, Goody, bald and frail, has most definitely arrived. Shetty confided to her blog that a “shoot in Kuala Lampur” prevents her attendance at the ceremony, but homegrown celebrities are expected to turn out in force to honor Goody, including the mega-successful pop group Girls Aloud, originally brought together by a TV talent show.

Amidst the swirling confusion of reality, hyperreality and surreality, it’s easy to forget there’s an actual person — and a genuine sadness — at the heart of all the activity. Even Goody herself seems confused. “I have lived my whole adult life talking about my life. The only difference is I am talking about my death now,” Goody told the documentary crew following her final days. “I’ve lived in front of the cameras and maybe I’ll die in front of them.” Her p.r. representative later denied that the public will witness the moment of Goody’s death. Sometimes even reality has its limits.

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Jailed Zimbabwe activist misses swear-in

Roy Bennett, left, pictured with MDC leader Morgan Tzvangirai.
One of Zimbabwe’s top opposition politicians remained in police custody Thursday as his fellow deputy ministers were being sworn in to join the new unity government led by President Robert Mugabe.

Deputy Agriculture Minister-designate Roy Bennett has been in prison on charges of terrorism, banditry and sabotage since last week . He was arrested as he tried to leave the country. The foundation of the new government — formed by Mugabe and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — has been unsettled by the arrest of Bennett, a longtime Mugabe foe and senior MDC member. Mugabe downplayed the situation, telling reporters after the swearing-in ceremony “it’s a court case.” “I do not know why (Bennett’s arrest is grabbing headlines) across the world, that is a court case,” the president said. Bennett’s lawyer was seen Thursday in Harare trying to apply for bail for his client at the High Court. A court hearing is expected within a week. Besides Bennett, more than 30 MDC supporters have been arrested since December and remain in prison, facing charges of plotting to topple Mugabe. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, who is now the country’s new prime minister, told members of his party Wednesday he was concerned by the continued arrested of his supporters.

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Zimbabwe’s new leaders are grappling with a massive humanitarian and economic crisis. Many civil servants — including teachers, doctors and nurses — have been on strike since September, demanding higher pay as Zimbabwe’s currency has plummeted in value. That has caused many schools to close and exacerbated a cholera epidemic that has killed nearly 4,000 people and infected about 65,000 people since August. The power-sharing deal signed last year by Mugabe’s Zanu-PF and the MDC for the unity government is seen by many as the only panacea to the crisis. The deal came after a hotly disputed election in which Mugabe claimed victory, but the results were questioned by opposition leaders and international observers. Many Zimbabweans are hoping that the coalition government can remain intact and halt the country’s economic meltdown. But Mugabe seemed to underline the divisions in the unity government.

“We will maintain our different parties. This is an interim measure. Once we are stabilized we will hold elections later,” the president said. “Whether the elections will produce the same results I do not know. If they produce the same results that recommend that we work together, that will be… I do not see any reason why in the future an election should not yield real unity.”

France sends police to quell Guadeloupe violence

French gendarmes face-off against Guadeloupe protesters.
France is sending four state police units to its overseas department of Guadeloupe after a month of sometimes violent demonstrations, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Thursday.

“The pillaging … the violence against people, are not tolerable and will not be tolerated,” Alliot-Marie told the French radio station RTL. “It’s no longer simply a question of containing the protests. … This mission of honor will continue to be undertaken, but we also have to fight against the violence.” French President Nicolas Sarkozy planned to meet with elected officials from overseas departments, including Guadeloupe, Thursday afternoon, his office announced. A general strike over low wages and living conditions in the Caribbean island has included demonstrations and clashes with police. At least one civilian has been killed in the riots, officials said. Hospitals and emergency services continue to function and the main international airport is open, but petrol stations, schools, and most businesses — including supermarkets and car rental offices — are closed, the British Foreign Office said in a travel advisory. Hotels are open, but the strike is causing daily cuts to electricity and water supplies, the Foreign Office said. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Thursday he is ready to approve a compromise that would give nearly a €200 ($254) monthly supplement to workers in Guadeloupe with low-paying jobs. “This crisis is serious, and profound, but it’s not new,” Fillon said, adding that it’s linked to “the lifelessness of the economy in the Antilles, aggravated by the global economic crisis.” Sending supplementary police forces is justified, Fillon said, because “we cannot accept what has happened” in the department. He was referring to the attacks on businesses, the roadblocks in the streets and above all, the death of the civilian, who he said was a union leader. Agence France-Presse identified the victim as union representative Jacques Bino. He was shot dead Tuesday night when he drove past a roadblock manned by armed youths in the city of Pointe-a-Pitre. His car was hit three times by shotgun fire, prosecutors told AFP. Three police who accompanied emergency services trying to help the dying man were lightly wounded, officials said, according to AFP. Speaking with RTL on Wednesday, one demonstrator denied he was fanning the flames of unrest. “We have always called for calm,” Elie Domota, leader of the Coalition against Exploitation, said. “We have told the young people to go to their homes and continue to protest peacefully, but the police yesterday beat protesters and called them racist names, so the situation escalated.”

Men see bikini-clad women as objects, psychologists say

Images of women in bikinis prompted brain responses in men associated with using tools.
It may seem obvious that men perceive women in sexy bathing suits as objects, but now there’s science to back it up.

New research shows that, in men, the brain areas associated with handling tools and the intention to perform actions light up when viewing images of women in bikinis. The research was presented this week by Susan Fiske, professor of psychology at Princeton University, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “This is just the first study which was focused on the idea that men of a certain age view sex as a highly desirable goal, and if you present them with a provocative woman, then that will tend to prime goal-related responses,” she told CNN. Although consistent with conventional wisdom, the way that men may depersonalize sexual images of women is not entirely something they control. In fact, it’s a byproduct of human evolution, experts say. The first male humans had an incentive to seek fertile women as the means of spreading their genes. “They’re not fully conscious responses, and so people don’t know the extent to which they’re being influenced,” Fiske said. “It’s important to recognize the effects.” The participants, 21 heterosexual male undergraduates at Princeton, took questionnaires to determine whether they harbor “benevolent” sexism, which includes the belief that a woman’s place is in the home, or hostile sexism, a more adversarial viewpoint which includes the belief that women attempt to dominate men. In the men who scored highest on hostile sexism, the part of the brain associated with analyzing another person’s thoughts, feelings and intentions was inactive while viewing scantily clad women, Fiske said. Visit CNNHealth.com, your connection for better living Men also remember these women’s bodies better than those of fully-clothed women, Fiske said. Each image was shown for only a fraction of a second. This study looked specifically at men, and did not test women’s responses to similar images. A supplementary study on both male and female undergraduates found that men tend to associate bikini-clad women with first-person action verbs such as I “push,” “handle” and “grab” instead of the third-person forms such as she “pushes,” “handles” and “grabs.” They associated fully clothed women, on the other hand, with the third-person forms, indicating these women were perceived as in control of their own actions. The females who took the test did not show this effect, Fiske said.

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That goes along with the idea that the man looking at a woman in a bikini sees her as the object of action, Fiske said. The findings are consistent with previous work in the field, and resonate, for example, with the abundance of female strip clubs in comparison to male strip clubs, said Dr. Charles Raison, psychiatrist and director of the Mind/Body Institute at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Raison was not involved in the study. Previous research found that people tend to similarly dehumanize those who are homeless or drug addicts, although the phenomenon in this case is somewhat different, Fiske said. People have reactions of avoidance toward the homeless and drug addicts, and the opposite for scantily clad women. The broader purpose of the research was to explore circumstances under which people treat one another as the means to an end, Fiske said. Past studies have also shown that when men view images of highly sexualized women, and then interact with a woman in a separate setting, they are more likely to have sexual words on their minds, she said. They are also more likely to remember the woman’s physical appearance, and sit closer to her — for instance, at a job interview. Taken together, the research suggests that viewing certain images is not appropriate in the workplace, Fiske said. “I’m not advocating censorship, but I do think people need to know what settings should discourage the display and possession of these kinds of things,” she said. Both women and men have something to learn from this line of research, Raison said. Women should be aware of how they are perceived when wearing provocative clothing, and men shouldn’t let feelings of impersonal sexual longing interfere with their more personal relationships with other women, including female friends. “Many men make foolish choices because of sexual attraction,” he said.

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“The suggestion might be that there’s some hard-wiring there that can interfere with the average man’s ability to interact on deeper levels with really hot looking stranger women in bikinis,” he said. Women may also depersonalize men in certain situations, but published research on the subject has not been done, experts say. Evolutionary psychology would theorize that men view women as objects in terms of their youth and apparent fertility, while women might view men as instrumental in terms of their status and resources, Fiske said. Another avenue to explore would be showing images of men’s wives and girlfriends in bikinis, Raison said. He predicts the objectifying effect would not happen in this context.