Russian oligarch admits he leads an "extravagant" life (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Billionaire Roman Abramovich was forced to swallow his words in a London court Tuesday, when details of his luxury lifestyle undermined his declaration that he never wanted to imitate the extravagances of rival Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky.

The pair are locked in a $6 billion legal battle in London's Commercial Court, with Berezovsky accusing his former protege of intimidating him in 2000 into selling shares in oil company Sibneft at a fraction of their value.

Abramovich, 45, denies that Berezovsky ever had an interest in the company.

The court heard about Abromovich's plush properties and holidays, drawing laughter after the Chelsea soccer club owner wrote in his witness statement that in 1994 he was surprised by Berezovsky's "extravagant lifestyle," adding: "I was never interested in imitating his lifestyle."

When quizzed by Berezovsky's lawyer, Abramovich agreed that he had bought a 420-acre estate in England, an expensive flat in an exclusive central London area and a chateau in France which once belonged to the Duke of Windsor, as Britain's King Edward VIII was known after his abdication in 1936.

"You now want to qualify that, do you, to say, whilst you weren't interested in an extravagant lifestyle then, you may have an extravagant lifestyle now?" asked the lawyer, Laurence Rabinowitz.

Abramovich agreed, speaking in Russian via an interpreter in a courtroom packed with bodyguards and banks of lawyers and aides.

The list of Abramovich's skiing holidays in the luxury resort of Courchevel and in Megeve, both in the French Alps, and yachting cruises in the Caribbean are some of the latest glimpses into the luxury lives of the Russian-born tycoons.

Abramovich -- whose fortune is estimated at over 10 billion pounds ($16 billion) -- also wrote in a witness statement: "I travelled with my family and my personal assistant ... by helicopter to Megeve."

The case, which started in early October, is being followed closely by Russia watchers from London and Moscow for any new clues into the murky world of Russian business and politics.

The two men were close when making their fortunes in Russia in the 1990s when a small group of businessmen snapped up shares in former state firms sold off after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They fell out a decade ago.

FRIEND AND FOE

Once a close ally of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, Berezovsky, 65, fled to Britain in 2001 after a dispute with Yeltsin's successor Vladimir Putin. Criminal charges were brought against Berezovsky in Russia over his business dealings.

In contrast, Abramovich has remained in favor with Russia's leaders. He used his billions to revive the remote Arctic region of Chukotka during his 2000-2008 stint as governor, coinciding with Putin's presidency. He also sold Sibneft to state-controlled gas giant Gazprom for more than $13 billion, where it now forms the basis of the company's oil arm.

Abramovich's relationship with Berezovsky began in late 1994 when he wanted to create what later became Sibneft, he wrote in his witness statement.

To achieve this in the chaotic 1990s Russia, he required the help of a politically connected person and, as a potentially successful businessman, protection from criminal gangs, an arrangement known in Russian as "krysha" or "roof," he wrote.

"Mr Berezovsky provided me with political support in the second half of the '90s and ... physical protection in relation to the creation of Sibneft. In return, Mr Berezovsky expected substantial cash payments from me," Abramovich wrote.

"Mr Berezovsky's demands were not tied to any notion of a 'share of profits' -- be it of Sibneft or any other company."

By 2000, when Putin became Russia's president, Abramovich's business relationship with Berezovsky was over, he wrote. "His time had passed. His period in Russia's post-communist history was over ... Yet he still treated me as his 'cash cow' and expected me to fund all his expenses."

In 2001 the two oligarchs decided to end their common dealings in relation to Sibneft and agreed that Abramovich would pay Berezovsky and his associate a final sum of $1.3 billion, Abramovich wrote. He saw this as "buying myself my freedom" from any association with Berezovsky and their "krysha" relationship.

Abramovich began giving evidence Monday in hearings that have been complicated by misunderstandings arising from the need to translate Rabinowitz's questions, and which highlight some of the difficulties of pursuing the many cases brought by Russians in English courts.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111101/lf_nm_life/us_britain_russia_abramovich

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Family-based intervention: Study shows promise for teen suicide prevention

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2011) ? Roughly 1 million people die by suicide each year. In the U.S., where nearly 36,000 people take their own lives annually, more than 4,600 victims are between the ages of 10 and 24, making suicide the third leading cause of death in this age group.

Youths treated at hospital emergency rooms for suicidal behavior remain at very high risk for future suicide attempts. But despite the urgent need to provide them with mental health follow-up care, many don't receive any such care after their discharge. Consequently, a major goal of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's National Strategy for Suicide Prevention has been to increase rates of follow-up care after discharge for patients who come to the emergency department (ED) due to suicidal behavior.

Now, a new study by UCLA researchers shows that a specialized mental health intervention for suicidal youth can help. Reporting in the November issue of the journal Psychiatric Services, Joan Asarnow, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and colleagues show that a family-based intervention conducted while troubled youths were still being treated in the ED led to dramatic improvements in linking these youths to outpatient treatment following their discharge.

"Youths who are treated for suicidal behavior in emergency departments are at very high risk for future attempts," said Asarnow, the study's first author. "Because a large proportion of youths seen in the ED for suicide don't receive outpatient treatment after discharge, the United States National Strategy for Suicide Prevention identifies the ED as an important suicide prevention site. So, a national objective is to increase the rates of mental health follow-up treatment for suicidal patients coming out of EDs."

But how to encourage this with youths when they are at their most vulnerable? The study involved 181 suicidal youths at two EDs in Los Angeles County, with a mean age of 15. Sixty-nine percent were female, and 67 percent were from racial or ethnic minority groups. For 53 percent of the participants, their emergency department visit was due to a suicide attempt. The remainder were seen because they had thoughts of suicide.

The youths were randomly assigned to either the usual ED treatment or an enhanced mental health intervention that involved a family-based crisis-therapy session designed to increase motivation for outpatient follow-up treatment and improve the youths' safety, supplemented by telephone contacts aimed at supporting families in linking to further outpatient treatment.

The results of the study show that the enhanced mental health intervention was associated with higher rates of follow-up treatment. Of the participants in the enhanced intervention, 92 percent received follow-up treatment after discharge, compared with 76 percent in the standard ED treatment arm -- a clinically significant difference.

While the results are positive, the study is only a first step, according to Asarnow, who also directs UCLA's Youth Stress and Mood Program.

"The results underscore the urgent need for improved community outpatient treatment for suicidal youths," she said. "Unfortunately, the follow-up data collected at about two months after discharge did not indicate clinical or functioning differences among youths who received community outpatient treatment and those who did not."

Still, Asarnow said, the data from the new study underscores the critical importance of this work. To address the need for effective follow-up treatment for troubled youths, the UCLA Youth Stress and Mood Program has major research trials in progress aimed at evaluating outpatient treatments for preventing suicide and suicide attempts.

Funding for the study was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Other authors included Larry Baraff, Robert Suddath, John Piacentini, Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus and Lingqi Tang, all of UCLA; Michele Berk and Charles Grob of Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute; Mona Devich-Navarro of Santa Monica College; and Daniel Cohen of Johns Hopkins University.

Asarnow reports receiving honoraria from Hathaways-Sycamores, Casa Pacifica, the California Institute of Mental Health and the Melissa Institute. Piacentini has received royalties from Oxford University Press for treatment manuals and from Guilford Press and the American Psychological Association Press for books on child mental health. In addition, he has received a consultancy fee from Bayer Schering Pharma. The other authors report no competing interests.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Los Angeles. The original article was written by Mark Wheeler.

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Journal Reference:

1. Joan Rosenbaum Asarnow, Larry J. Baraff, Michele Berk, Charles S. Grob, Mona Devich-Navarro, Robert Suddath, John C. Piacentini, Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, Daniel Cohen, Lingqi Tang. An Emergency Department Intervention for Linking Pediatric Suicidal Patients to Follow-Up Mental Health Treatment. Psychiatric Services, 2011; 62: 1303-1309 [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/aamWdEtc0Oo/111102161305.htm

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Reading, math scores for eighth-graders (AP)

Skip to navigation ? Skip to content ? By The Associated Press The Associated Press ? Tue?Nov?1, 11:01?am?ET

A state-by-state look at the percentage of eighth-graders who scored at or above reading and math proficiency levels on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, which is administered by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics. Proficiency levels in both subjects are shown for both 2009 and 2011, with reading scores in the first two columns and math scores in the next two.

2009 2011 2009 2011

Jurisdictions at or above proficient in reading at or above proficient in reading at or above proficient in math at or above proficient in math

National public 30 32 33 34

Alabama 24 26 20 20

Alaska 27 31 33 35

Arizona 27 28 29 31

Arkansas 27 28 27 29

California 22 24 23 25

Colorado 32 40 40 43

Connecticut 43 45 40 38

Delaware 31 33 32 32

District of Columbia 14 16 11 17

Florida 32 30 29 28

Georgia 27 28 27 28

Hawaii 22 26 25 30

Idaho 33 34 38 37

Illinois 33 34 33 33

Indiana 32 32 36 34

Iowa 32 33 34 34

Kansas 33 35 39 41

Kentucky 33 36 27 31

Louisiana 20 22 20 22

Maine 35 39 35 39

Maryland 36 40 40 40

Massachusetts 43 46 52 51

Michigan 31 32 31 31

Minnesota 38 39 47 48

Mississippi 19 21 15 19

Missouri 34 35 35 32

Montana 38 42 44 46

Nebraska 35 35 35 33

Nevada 22 26 25 29

New Hampshire 39 40 43 44

New Jersey 42 45 44 47

New Mexico 22 22 20 24

New York 33 35 34 30

North Carolina 29 31 36 37

North Dakota 34 34 43 43

Ohio 37 37 36 39

Oklahoma 26 27 24 27

Oregon 33 33 37 33

Pennsylvania 40 38 40 39

Rhode Island 28 33 28 34

South Carolina 24 27 30 32

South Dakota 37 35 42 42

Tennessee 28 27 25 24

Texas 27 27 36 40

Utah 33 35 35 35

Vermont 41 44 43 46

Virginia 32 36 36 40

Washington 36 37 39 40

West Virginia 22 24 19 21

Wisconsin 34 35 39 41

Wyoming 34 38 35 37

DoDEA 39 39 36 37

Notes: DoDEA stands for Department of Defense Education Activity, which supervises schools on overseas military bases. Details may not sum to totals because of rounding. Some apparent differences between estimates may not be statistically significant.

Source: National Center for Education Statistics of the Education Department.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/education/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111101/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_schools_report_card_eighth_grade_glance

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Greek turmoil sends US and world markets lower (AP)

NEW YORK ? A wave of selling swept across Wall Street and stock markets around the world Tuesday after Greece's prime minister said he would call a national vote on an unpopular European plan to rescue that nation's economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished down nearly 300 points. It swung in 100 point bursts throughout the day as investors reacted to sometimes conflicting headlines about the next steps in Greece's long-running debt crisis. Treasurys and other assets considered safe surged. The stocks of major banks, including Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase, were hit hard.

Intense selling roiled markets in Europe. Italy's main stock index dropped 6.8 percent. France's fell 5.4 percent and Germany's fell 5 percent.

The value of the dollar rose, and bond prices jumped so dramatically that analysts said they were stunned. Analysts said the bond action reflected fears that the turmoil in Greece would tear at the fabric of Europe's financial system and create a crisis that could engulf the entire European Union, which together forms the world's largest economy.

"This brings all of the concerns about Europe back to the front burner," said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James. "If this ends up turning into a financial catastrophe in Europe, then no one will escape it."

The prime minister of Greece said unexpectedly Monday that he would put the European rescue plan to a popular vote, the first referendum to be held in Greece since 1974.

The plan requires banks that hold Greek national bonds to accept 50 percent losses to help keep the Greek economy afloat. It also beefs up a European bailout fund and requires banks to strengthen their financial cushions.

There were also late reports that Greek lawmakers dissented from the plan, raising the possibility that Greece's government would not last until a confidence vote on Friday.

International creditors have demanded that Greece enact painful tax increases and drastic cuts in public welfare programs, and Greeks have shown their hostility to those measures in violent protests and strikes.

If the European rescue falls through and Greece defaults on its debt, the ripple effect would be global. Europe could fall into recession, hurting a major market for American exports, and banks could severely restrict lending.

It was only last Thursday that European leaders announced a deal that they believed would be a turning point in the two-year debt crisis. Banks agreed to take bigger losses on Greek debt and to boost their levels of cash, while the European Union increased the size of its bailout fund. Global stock markets surged after the plan was unveiled. Now, those gains seem to be fleeting.

"The stock market is expressing disgust with Greek politics and a lack of confidence that Italy and Spain will generate the growth needed to pay down their debt," said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co.

The Dow fell 297.05 points, or 2.5 percent, to close at 11,657.96. It was the biggest drop since Sept. 22. The Dow has lost 573 points, or 4.7 percent, in the last two days.

The S&P 500 lost 35.02, or 2.8 percent, to 1,218.28. Some analysts took comfort that the S&P closed above 1,215. A drop below that level would erase nearly all of the market's gains in October. The Nasdaq composite dropped 77.45, or 2.9 percent, to 2,606.96.

Pfizer Inc. was the only company in the Dow stock to rise. It gained 0.4 percent after its income and revenue beat Wall Street's estimates. General Motors Co. sank 9.8 percent after its October sales came in lower than Wall Street analysts were expecting.

Financial companies in the S&P 500 dropped 4.7 percent, the biggest loss among the 10 company groups that make up the index.

Bank of America Corp lost 6.3 percent. JP Morgan Chase & Co. dropped 5.9 percent, and Citigroup shed 7.7 percent.

Tuesday's sell-off came after an almost uninterrupted rally in October that was largely due to higher confidence in Europe's latest financial rescue plan for Greece and signs that the U.S. economy was not falling into another recession.

The S&P 500 rose from 1,099 on Oct. 3 to 1,285 Friday, or 17 percent. The last two days, it's given up one-third of that gain.

"The market is being held hostage by a random event that is overshadowing everything else," said John Canally, an economist at LPL Financial. Canally noted that the U.S. economy continues to expand. Retail sales came in better than expected in September and auto sales increased in October.

In the United States, the market sank Monday before the surprise Greek announcement. MF Global Holdings, a securities firm led by former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, was driven into bankruptcy in part because of its holdings of European debt. The selling accelerated after the Greek announcement, and the U.S. market opened with a drop of almost 300 points.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank to 1.96 percent from 2.16 percent late Monday, a steep drop. Bond yields fall when their prices rise as investors buy assets that are considered to better hold their value during a slowing economy. The dollar rose to $1.36 for every euro.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond sank from 3.38 percent Friday to 2.96 percent Tuesday.

"That's the biggest change that I've seen in my career," said Guy LeBas, chief fixed income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. "It's obscene."

The yields of Italian debt spiked to their highest level this year, another sign that investors are concerned that the debt crisis could spread to the larger economies of Europe. The yield on 1-year Italian government bonds soared 48 percent to 5.17 percent.

The yield on the 10-year German bund plunged to 1.78 percent, a 23.5 percent fall from the day before. The German economy is seen as the strongest in Europe and the most likely to repay its debt.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/stocks/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111101/ap_on_bi_st_ma_re/us_wall_street

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FACT CHECK: GOP lawmakers spin tall tales about federally funded projects ? giant coffee pot? (Star Tribune)

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Taylor Swift Threatening Legal Action of Alleged Topless Photo | JD ...

Country music singer Taylor Swift, who has always put forth a wholesome image over the course of her singing career, has threatened to take legal action over an alleged topless photo of her posted on the website Celeb Jihad. The woman in the photo is allegedly a Swift lookalike.

According to the October 30^th celebs.gather.com article, ?Taylor Swift Considering Legal Action Over ?Leaked? Pic?, Taylor Swift?s legal team is threatening to file a trademark-infringement lawsuit, demand that the picture be removed from the website, which was posted several months ago. They claim the photograph represents ?false news? and ?false pornographic images? about Swift. The caption accompanying the post reads ?Taylor Swift Private Pic Leaked??.

Taylor Alison Swift was born on December 13, 1989. She is a country pop singer-songwriter, musician and actress. She released her third album, entitled ?Speak Now? on October 25^th of this year. It sold over 1 million copies in one week. In 2009, she was named Artist of the Year by Billboard Magazine. She earned four Grammy awards following the release of her second album Fearless. This included Album of the Year at the 52^nd Grammy Awards. The album was at the top of the Billboard 200 for 11 non-consecutive weeks.

Currently, she is promoting her Wonderstruck perfume throughout the U.S.

According to her ?My Life? page at her website, Taylor Swift writes: ?These days, I?ve been trying to classify my thoughts into two categories: ?Things I can change,? and ?Things I can?t.? It seems to help me sort through what to really stress about. But there I go again, over-planning and over-organizing my over-thinking! I write songs about my adventures and misadventures, most of which concern love. Love is a tricky business. But if it wasn?t, I wouldn?t be so enthralled with it. Lately I?ve come to a wonderful realization that makes me even more fascinated by it: I have no idea what I?m doing when it comes to love. No one does! There?s no pattern to it, except that it happens to all of us, of course. I can?t plan for it. I can?t predict how it?ll end up. Because love is unpredictable and it?s frustrating and it?s tragic and it?s beautiful. And even though there?s no way to feel like I?m an expert at it, it?s worth writing songs about ? more than anything else I?ve ever experienced in my life.?

Clearly, with this type of open minded attitude, Swift will undoubtedly be able to overcome anything that is thrown at her ? good or bad.

On November 11, 2009, Swift had the honor of becoming the youngest artist to be awarded the Country Music Association Award for Entertainer of the Year. She is one of only six women to be given the Country Music Association?s highest honor.

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Source: http://www.jdjournal.com/2011/10/31/taylor-swift-threatening-legal-action-of-alleged-topless-photo/

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RIM Offers Buy Two, Get One Free BlackBerry PlayBooks (NewsFactor)

Research In Motion hopes to move some PlayBooks before the end of the year with a promotion that aims at business users. The BlackBerry U.S. Web site is making an offer it hopes mobile business users won't be able to refuse.

From now until Dec. 31, BlackBerry business customers can get one free PlayBook tablet with every two purchased from an authorized retailer. To make the pot even sweeter, business customers can also choose a premium accessory for each tablet, either a leather sleeve, a charging pod or a six-foot cable.

Optimizing for Enterprises

The promotion comes just days after RIM announced a delay in PlayBook OS 2.0. David Smith, senior vice president of BlackBerry PlayBook for RIM, specifically mentioned enterprise plans in his Oct. 25 blog post. In a move that plays on RIM's historic strengths,, he said, RIM is addressing barriers to tablet adoption, including device manageability and enterprise application deployment.

"Enterprises will uniquely have the ability to manage tablets from a centralized server, while BlackBerry Balance ensures a seamless user experience for personal and professional needs and gives CIOs the peace of mind that corporate data is secure," Smith wrote.

Smith said BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 will also offer dedicated shelf space inside the BlackBerry App World storefront to make approved enterprise applications available to an organization's end users more quickly. RIM hopes these features will help change the way enterprises view and use tablets.

The PlayBook OS 2.0 update will also include advanced integrated e-mail, calendar and contact apps, a new video story, as well as new functionality that will allow your BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook to work together even better.

Overcoming Downsides

"RIM is trying to boost sales with this promotion and this is one way to do it. The PlayBook is obviously not selling and it can't compete with the iPad, and it has shortcomings that we've discussed before," said Michael Disabato, managing vice president of Network and Telecom at Gartner.

The PlayBook offers true multitasking capabilities. But a major downside so far is that it has to be paired with a BlackBerry smartphone via a special application to access e-mail, calendar, address book, memo pad, task list, BlackBerry Messenger, and browsing functions. With the OS update put off, it remains to be seen if business users will take the PlayBook plunge before they see the software improvements.

Another downside is the lack of a strong system of developers and applications. As Disabato sees it, if RIM is going to compete with Apple and Android, it needs to attract more developers and roll out a user experience that doesn't require two pieces of equipment. At the end of the day, Apple still has the advantage.

"With this promotion, RIM will get traction with people who are thinking about buying a PlayBook or planning to buy one," Disabato said. "The government might decide employees don't need an iPad, they just need a tablet, and decide to buy the PlayBook. But this promotion is not going to displace any iPad sales before Christmas."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/personaltech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20111031/bs_nf/80804

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