Lupe Lasano’s Dirty Gossip Burger

SEOUL, Nov. 10 (UPI) –

South and North Korean ships exchanged brief but heavy fire Tuesday off their west coast with Seoul claiming considerable damage to the North’s vessel.

The clashes, coming ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama’s scheduled visit to Seoul and other Asian capitals, began after a North Korean patrol boat crossed the demarcation line, South Koran officials told Yonhap news agency.

It wasn’t a close-range battle. We fired heavily on the North Korean vessel, a Navy official said.

No South Korean casualties were reported.

It is our initial assessment that the North Korean boat suffered considerable damage, the official said.

South Korean officials said their navy fired warnings shots when the North’s patrol boat crossed the Northern Limit Line and the North Koreans fired back. The clashes occurred around 11:30 a.m. near Baekryeong Island, several miles south of the NLL, another official told Yonhap.

We are analyzing…

See the full post at Korean navies exchange fire

NEW YORK, Nov. 10 (UPI) –

New York researchers suggest a rapidly rising prostate specific antigen may not indicate a greater risk of diagnosis of prostate cancer.

A.J. Vickers of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York said there were 2,742 screening-arm participants with PSA less than 3 ng/ml at initial screening in the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, or Goteborg, Sweden, who were subsequently biopsied due to elevated PSA.

Our aim was to evaluate whether PSA velocity indeed enhances the prediction of biopsy outcome in a large, representative, population-based cohort, Vickers said in a statement. Our study has several strengths. It included a very large number of men in a randomized trial, who were therefore subject to highly standardized testing and follow-up procedures.

The conclusion of the study is that PSA velocity adds very little predictive value for determining the outcome of a fi…

See the full post at PSA velocity may not help detect cancer

TOKYO, Nov. 10 (UPI) –

The Japanese Cabinet Tuesday authorized $5 billion in aid to Afghanistan during the next five years, the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said.

The civilian aid will be used for reconstruction in Afghanistan, including improving security and training of police officers, Kyodo News reported. A government statement said Japan will also make ”financial contributions” to sponsor programs for vocational training and job creation for former Taliban soldiers.

The Cabinet action comes ahead of Friday’s arrival of U.S. President Barack Obama, who is expected to decide soon on his Afghan strategy, including how many additional U.S. troops might be sent to Afghanistan.

The Japanese aid also comes as Japan’s refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of the American-led anti-terrorism operation in and around Afghanistan is set to end in January.

In approving the aid package to Afghanistan, Japan recognizes the issue is “a very significan…

See the full post at Japanese Cabinet approves $5B Afghan aid

NASHVILLE, Nov. 9 (UPI) –

The Indiana Supreme Court said it will rule on whether to review a Tennessee woman’s allegation a casino had a duty to stop her from losing about $1 million.

Jenny Kephardt, 54, of Nashville, who lost her inheritance to Caesar’s Indiana during the course of a year, maintains the casino knew of her gambling addiction and was out to take advantage of her to get her money, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal reported Saturday.

The fact that the Indiana court is willing to hear the case means there must be something about it that distinguishes it from similar cases in which the casinos have won, Joseph M. Kelly, a law professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo, said.

The casino has argued it did not have a duty to save Kephart from herself and she could have asked the casino to bar her entrance. Kephart said that did not occur to her because she had reasoned, in a way typical of those with gambling addictions, that she would have to kee…

See the full post at Ind. to rule on casino\’s duty to customers

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 9 (UPI) –

Militants struck Pakistan’s Peshawar area again Monday when a suicide bomb attack at a police checkpoint killed at least three people, police said.

In a similar attack Sunday in the city area, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber killed 12 people in Mattani village. One of the victims was Abdul Malik, the village mayor.

Monday’s attack at a police checkpoint on Peshawar’s Ring Road also wounded another five people, Dawn newspaper reported. Police said the attacker was riding in a rickshaw.

Geo News reported the injured included a child.

Malik had publicly opposed the Taliban, The New York Times reported. Police said Malik’s death was a blow to government’s efforts to fight the militants.

The Pakistani military has been involved in a major operation against terror groups in South Waziristan since Oct. 17.

Peshawar, capital of Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province, has been the scene of much militan…

See the full post at Militants kill three more in Peshawar area

JAKARTA, Nov. 9 (UPI) –

A 6.7 magnitude earthquake early Monday struck eastern Indonesia, killing at least two people and toppling several homes, local residents said.

The town of Bima in West Nusa Tenggara province was hit hardest, the Jakarta Post reported.

China’s state-run Xinhua news agency, quoting disaster management officials, said several people were injured and the quake toppled four school buildings and a health clinic.

The quake hit at about 3 a.m., with its epicenter about 17 miles off Bima and about 15 miles below the seabed, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Shocks were felt in Makassar, capital of Sulawesi province and in Bali province, Xinhua said.

Indonesians in Sumatra are still recovering from the twin earthquakes that struck the provincial capital Padang and neighboring areas Sept. 30, killing hundreds of people and causing extensive damage.

See the full post at Quake kills at least two in Indonesia

JIM THORPE, Pa., Nov. 9 (UPI) –

Family members of 1912 Olympic gold medalist Jim Thorpe said they plan to sue for the return of his remains from a Pennsylvania town named in his honor.

Thorpe’s sons said the family has tried for 25 years to gain access to Thorpe’s remains. Thorpe had said he wanted to be buried in a cemetery near Shawnee, Okla., where his father and other relatives are buried, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday.

Thorpe’s third wife had him buried in the Pennsylvania town in 1954 on condition the town be renamed Jim Thorpe, Pa.

Carbon County borough, where Thorpe is buried, must give up Thorpe’s remains under the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the newspaper reported. The law requires federal agencies receiving federal funds to return Indian artifacts and human remains to their native peoples, Sean W. Pickett, a Kansas City, Mo. lawyer specializing in American Indian Rights, said.

Pickett said unless the tow…

See the full post at Olympic medalist\’s family wants reburial

by William Ickes WOLFSBURG, Germany (AFP) –

Nobel Peace Laureate Muhammad Yunus calls the global economic crisis “an excellent opportunity to reflect and redesign” businesses, and devote creative ones to solving social problems.

Yunus, who with his Grameen Bank — which gives tiny loans to the very poor to help start businesses — won the 2006 Peace Prize, told media here on Saturday: “Any problem has a potential of being addressed with a social business.”

“Social business being a business where you don’t make money,” he explained. “Zero profit for the investors.”

The ground-breaking “microcredit” banker from Bangladesh is backed by corporations like food giant Danone, global water group Veolia, sportswear company Adidas, software pioneer SAP and academics at Kyushu University in Japan.

The first Global Grameen Meeting of companies, foundations, think-tanks, scientifi…

See the full post at Nobel laureate says global crisis a chance to change

ORANGE COUNTY, Fl., Nov.7 (TOTI) –

Almost a year after the body of 3 year old Caylee Anthony was discovered in a Florida wetland, an upcoming play that’s based on the toddler’s
horrific death has enraged her mother and accused killer, Casey Anthony.

The play, titled Tot Mom was created by Steven Soderbergh and is scheduled to run from December 18 through January 31 at the Sydney Theater Companyin Australia. Other projects that Soderbergh include directing the films Erin Brockovich and Ocean’s Eleven.

The National Enquirer reports that news of the production infuriated 23 year old Casey Anthony. When Anthony was informed of the upcoming play, she responded, “Are you (expletive) kidding me? You get my (expletive) lawyer, now!”

Anthony stands to make no royalties from the play, as it…

See the full post at Caylee Anthony – Play About Her Daughter Throws Casey Anthony Into A Rage

BRISTOL, England, Nov. 7 (UPI) –

Parents of children at a British nursery school where an admitted pedophile worked can decide whether to be told if she named them as victims, a judge said.

Vanessa George has provided some names of children she abused at Little Ted’s in Plymouth, Judge John Royce confirmed. Royce is presiding over the case in Bristol Crown Court, The Guardian reported.

I take the view that if parents want to find out whether their child has been abused and if that information has been given then they should be in a position to do so, Royce said. If they do not want to know, and I fully understand why some parents should not want to know, then the information should not be thrust upon them. It should be a parental choice.

George, Colin Blanchard, 38, and Angela Allen, 39, are awaiting sentencing. George’s lawyer says his client was manipulated by Blanchard, who was trying to get child pornography.

Royce postponed sentencing until Dec….

See the full post at Parents decide if they\’re told of abuse