Genetics linked to breech babies

Some babies are born bottom-first because of genetic traits inherited from either their mother or father, Norwegian researchers have said.

Fewer than one in 20 is delivered this way up, but a natural breech birth carries extra risks to the child.

A study of 387,000 births, in the British Medical Journal, found a baby had double the chance of being breech if their mother or father was too.

But midwives said parents should not worry too much.

As many as one in four babies are in the wrong position at the mid-point of pregnancy, but all but 3% or 4% are head-down by the time they are delivered.

The precise reasons why a baby might be in the breech position are not known, although the anatomy of the mother - in particular the shape of her womb - can play a strong role.

Babies are designed to be born head-first, and coming out the other way round increases the chance of breathing problems at the moment of delivery.

For this reason, many women with full-term breech babies opt for caesarean sections.

Gene trait

The researchers from the University of Bergen looked at the records of more than 387,000 parents and their first-born children born between 1967 and 2004.

They found an identical increase in risk passed from both male and female parents born in breech position.

While a mother might be able to pass on the increased risk through inherited differences in her physical makeup, any risk passed from a father raises the possibility of a genetic trait carried by the baby rather than the mother.

However, other specialists say the picture is less clear.

Professor Janet Hardy, from the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said that there could be a separate, undetected factor that was increasing the chance of a breech birth in these families.

She said: "Clinicians should continue to gather information during early prenatal care on maternal and paternal birth presentation and other potential risk factors for breech delivery."

Antenatal care

Mervi Jokinen, from the Royal College of Midwives, said the findings were "intriguing".

"We always tend to ask mothers if they know how they were delivered, and some midwives will ask the partners as well, just to record this in the notes.

"But on the whole, women should not be too concerned about the possibility of a breech baby, as long as she is receiving proper ante-natal care."

Henry Annan, a spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said that having a breech delivery approximately doubled the risks of complications to the baby.

"Having a breech baby does increase the dangers, although, with proper management, the chances are that the baby will be born healthy.

"I think a lot of parents will be unaware of whether they were born breech or not, but this is still an interesting study."

BBC

Beautiful Homes In Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake

Submitted By: Tim Stewart

Start with Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake. Bring together some of the best developers in Central Virginia, and a plan to build a great community. But don't think about communities that you've seen in the past: instead, focus on the possibilities of a development that follows the land and works with it rather than taking away from the natural beauty.

Think about a community where neighbors get together at one another's homes, enjoy one another's company by the pool, go out with one another for an afternoon of boating on the lake and cap off the evening with a great meal at a restaurant on the waterfront. Combine all of these elements, and you'll have a sense of the promise of Craddock Oaks.

Built on the area's natural beauty, Smith Mountain Lake along with the Blue Ridge Mountains and wooded lands, and drawing on the number of people who gravitate to the area for vacationing, Craddock Oaks aims to be a community for those who want to remain active and to enjoy all of the finer points of what life has to offer.

For some, this will mean taking short trips from home to visit historical landmarks. For others, it will mean browsing for antiques or seeing what is new in local art galleries. For others still it will involve trips for shows or other entertainment options including fine dining restaurants and shops offering high end fashions. After all, Craddock Oaks at Smith Mountain Lake is less than an hour away from both Roanoke and Lynchburg and less than three hours from Richmond as well as Raleigh, North Carolina.

Of course, that isn't to suggest that there will not be plenty of opportunities for activity much closer to your Craddock Oaks home. Residents of Craddock Oaks will be able to enjoy rounds of championship golf as well as to take advantage tennis courts, a fitness center and both volleyball and basketball courts. Covered boat slips and private beaches make it easy to enjoy time on the lake, but if you would prefer to swim laps you'll also have the opportunity to use the pool - all located within the community.

Numerous home styles will be available within the Craddock Oaks development - each at varying elevations and with different features. Given that the homes - as well as the various community amenities - will be built on over 500 acres of land, despite all that is offered, everyone will still find that they have plenty of space.

However, just because Craddock Oaks residents will have as much space as they'd like coupled with the ability to enjoy life in the way that best suits them doesn't mean that additional services if they need them. Built into the plans for the community is a program called CALM. This Community Assisted Lifestyle Management program is designed to provide interior and exterior property upkeep, meal planning and grocery shopping services and other care that may be needed.

Affordable Green in Craddock Oaks allows homeowners to participate in the preservation of our environment by buying into a development that uses energy efficient building materials and appliances, is designed to be pedestrian and golf cart friendly rather than promoting the use of cars, makes recycling easy and is investigating the use of additional recycled landscaping materials and geothermal energy for heating and cooling its homes.

Regardless of what your needs may be and regardless of what you're looking for in a community, chances are good that Craddock Oaks will make it available. A visit to the area is often enough to seal the deal.

Domain name for Asia up for grabs

The so-called landrush for the latest domain name suffix - .asia - has begun.
DotAsia, the organisation overseeing the registration, is expecting huge demand for the first domain name extension for the Asia Pacific region.

But some in the industry are concerned about the proliferation of domain name suffixes in recent years.

While others think that the business of buying domain names has become more about protecting brands than promoting them.

Cybersquatting

Work to create the .asia domain began in 2000 with the DotAsia Organisation winning official approval to set up the domain in 2006.

A so-called sunrise period, where companies can reserve domains to match their trademarks, has been ongoing since October.

Now the process has been opened up for anyone to register and the first .asia domains will go live on the internet in March.

Thomas Herbert, a product manager from UK hosting firm and registrar Hostway, believes the nature of buying domain names has changed, largely due to the lucrative businesses of cybersquatting.

"People are willing to pay big money for a domain and with domain name reselling on the increase, it has become a matter of protecting your trademark," he said.

As well as cybersquatting there can be legitimate battles over suffixes.

For example, in the sunrise period for the .eu domain, there were some 95,000 conflicting claims for domains.

The www.polo.eu domain was applied for by car maker Volkswagen, fashion house Ralph Lauren and sweet manufacturer Nestle.

To limit squabbles and cybersquatting this time around, the DotAsia Organisation, has put in place certain rules.

Companies must be already registered in the Asia/Pacific region to qualify and if there are any conflicts of interest, the domain will be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

Such restrictions are likely to increase as more domain names come online, thinks Mr Herbert.

Leona Chen, spokeswoman for the DotAsia Organisation, anticipated plenty of interest and hoped the suffix could have as significant an impact in Asia as .com has globally.

"We are ready for something big. All of our people and systems are in place and we look forward to the commencement of the .asia landrush," she said.

Too many?

UK domain name registrar NetNames pointed out that the number of firms registering interest is considerably lower than for the sell-off of the eu domain in April 2006.

"Only 30,780 applications have been filed for .asia domain names so far compared with 330,000 at the same point in the launch of the .eu domain name," said Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer of NetNames.

He advised firms to get onboard quickly.

"Once it starts, there's far less protection for companies' trademarks and its open season on the .asia domain name for cybersquatters, online speculators and competitors," he said.

According to a report from Nominet, the overseer of the .uk registry, there is an active market in buying, selling and storing domain names, with sales regularly exceeding £100,000 and peak values reaching more than £1m.

While some of these resales are legitimate there was also a big market for speculators, said Nominet chief executive Lesley Cowley.

She was concerned that a sudden leap in the number of domain names could leave companies confused as to which ones they need to register for.

"The current process being developed by Icann (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) means there could be a couple of hundred or even thousands of new suffixes to bid for by the end of the year," she said.

The .asia domain name extends to some 70 countries, from the Middle East to Australia. 60% of the world's population lives within the Asia-Pacific region and there are 400 million internet users.

Other regional suffixes for Africa and Latin America are expected to follow.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama clash over Bill Clinton at Democrats' debate

Published: Monday, January 21, 2008 | 9:19 PM ET
Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., left, speaks as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., listens during a Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2008. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Mary Ann Chastain

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama clashed bitterly Monday over Bill Clinton's role in his wife's campaign and Obama's recent praise for Republicans in a presidential debate five days before the pivotal South Carolina primary.

After a brief discussion of U.S. economic woes, the debate devolved into an angry exchange between the two senators, with Clinton noting Obama had taken campaign contributions from a political patron facing fraud charges and Obama calling Clinton a "corporate lawyer sitting on the board of Wal-Mart."

As Obama tried to defend his comments about Republicans and the late president Ronald Reagan, Clinton interrupted and said she has never criticized his remarks on Reagan.

"Your husband did," said Obama, who has accused the former president of misrepresenting his record.

"I'm here. He's not," she snapped.

John Edwards, who badly trails his two rivals, tried to stay above the fray while pleading for equal time.

"Are there three people in this debate, not two?" he asked.

"We have got to understand, this is not about us personally. It's about what we are trying to do for this country," Edwards said to applause from the audience.

Often speaking over each other, Obama and Clinton clashed on their legislative records. Obama questioned why the New York senator had voted for a bankruptcy bill she later said she was glad hadn't passed, and Clinton criticized Obama for voting "present" on dozens of occasions while a member of the Illinois legislature.

"Senator Obama, it's hard to have a straight up debate with you because you never take responsibility for any vote," Clinton said to loud boos.

"On issue after issue, you voted present...Whenever someone raises that, there's always some sort of explanation."

Obama accused Clinton of playing dirty and saying anything to get elected, while Edwards joined Clinton in criticizing Obama for the "present" votes.

Clinton and Obama called for tax rebates for individuals to help with home heating and other short-term needs. But Obama claimed he was first with the idea, saying Clinton had "caught up" with him.

Edwards tried to make a distinction by pointing out Clinton and Obama supported a trade deal with Peru.

"South Carolina has been devastated by NAFTA and trade deals," Edwards said.

Obama responded by criticizing Edwards for voting for permanent trade relations with China and struck out at Clinton for saying last year NAFTA has been boon to the economy.

"I think it's been devastating," Obama said.

South Carolina holds its primary Saturday. The two-hour debate was sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute and CNN.

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Loonie tumbles on weak business spending data

Last Updated: Friday, January 4, 2008 | 5:20 PM ET

CBC News

The Canadian dollar lost more than a full cent against its U.S. counterpart on Friday following the release of unexpectedly weak business spending figures in Canada.

The loonie closed at 99.87 cents US, down 1.05 cents US. That's its lowest level in more than two weeks.

The dollar had initially gained more than half a cent following the 8:30 a.m. ET release of a weak U.S. jobs report that boosted expectations of aggressive interest rate cuts in the U.S.

But at 10 a.m. ET, the loonie took a dramatic tumble as the Ivey Purchasing Managers Index showed that purchasing activity by Canadian managers unexpectedly tumbled in December to 45.9, from November's reading of 58.7.

The index asks a single question: "Were your purchases last month in dollars higher, the same, or lower than the previous month?" A reading below 50 indicates a decrease.

Analysts also cited several other factors that may have played a role in the Canadian dollar's dip:

• A drop of almost $2 US a barrel in the price of oil.
• The expiry of a large options contract at the same time as the purchasing report came out.
• Relatively thin trading, which amplifies volatility.
• The big drop in North American equity markets Friday.
• A lacklustre U.S. jobs report, which heightened fears that a U.S. slowdown would spill over into Canada.

Posh Spice's 4-letter road rage

By Rav Singh

I HEAR that PUSHY SPICE pulls no punches when it comes to road rage and getting to her concerts in one piece.

Last week hubby DAVID BECKHAM was driving VICTORIA BECKHAM to a gig at London's O2 Arena when Posh became a little vocal—and very rude—while trying to get the traffic to slow down.

I'm told by a driver nearby at the time that Vic went into a rage as other cars zoomed past her and David.

My source said: "This fuming woman stuck her head out of the car window and screamed, ‘Slow down you f***ing w***er.'

"She followed that up with a very rude hand sign to describe what she had just said.

"It was only then that I realised it was Victoria Beckham and that David was driving the car with the kids in the back."

Japan stocks drop to 17-month low

Japan's main stock index has fallen to its lowest close in 17 months after the strong yen and record-high oil prices worried investors.

Exporters including Sony and carmakers such as Nissan performed badly on concerns about the health of the US economy - a big market for Japan.

The Nikkei closed down 616.37 points, or 4.03%, at 14,691.41.

The frenetic trading session followed a week-long holiday for Japanese financial markets.

"High-flying blue chip exporters are going to have a tough time coping with rising commodity prices, a stronger yen and a slowing U.S. economy," said Masanaga Kono, strategist at Societe Generale Asset Management.

Yen weighs

The yen is trading close to a five-week high while weak US manufacturing data raised fears over the well-being of the world's largest economy.

Crude oil topped $100 a barrel for the first time on Wednesday, threatening the Japanese economy which is reliant on energy imports.

Japanese stock markets re-opened for a half-day session after being close since Friday for the new year break. Full-day trading resumes on Monday.

Among individual shares, Nissan slid 9.2% to 1,117 yen while Mazda Motor dropped 7.7% to 515 yen.

Sony fell 6.6% to 5,790 yen and Canon Inc slipped 5% to 4,940 yen.

BBC News

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