"Breaking Bad" star Aaron Paul is officially off the market. The actor wed longtime girlfriend Lauren Parsekian at Calimigo's Ranch in Malibu on Sunday, E! News has confirmed. Paul proposed to Parsekian over New Year's in 2012 while the two enjoyed a romantic trip to Paris.
Last month, the 33-year-old asked Ellie Goulding over Twitter if she would perform at his wedding.
NEWS: How do Kristen Stewart and Ellie Goulding know each other?
The "Lights" singer, who unfortunately wasn't available to perform this weekend due to her touring schedule, previously sang at Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding in London. Sources tell E! News that the bride looked beautiful in her wedding dress as she headed to the ceremony this afternoon flanked by her bridemaids who wore vintage-themed gowns. Lauren wore pearls with her long, blonde hair falling loose around her shoulders. Paul got ready for the big three-day celebrating by posting, "And so it begins #mrmrspaul" on his Twitter Friday with a photo of the two getting ready.
NEWS: Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul asks Ellie Goulding to sing at his wedding
And the morning after they tied the knot, the bride and groom posted sweet messages to each other on Instagram.
"A day will never go by without me reminding you how special you are," Paul wrote. "Thanks for last night my pretty little bird."
Parsekian echoed that sentiment, writing, "Well that was the most magical night of my life. #mrmrspaul," in a caption alongside the same pic.
Nearly four years after deadly anti-Christian riots left nine dead, authorities released?a 318 page report indicating Pakistan's security establishment could have prevented them.
By Umar Farooq,?Contributor / May 26, 2013
Children of Pakistani Christians play in front of tents provided for Christian families whose homes were set on fire by a mob in Lahore, in March.
Mohsin Raza/Reuters
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A series of violent riots against Pakistani Christians in the past decade has concerned human rights watchers and religious minorities in Pakistan.
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The latest deadly incident, which took place just two months ago, raised questions about what, if anything, can be done to prevent such violence. ??
The March incident when a Muslim mob burned down a Christian neighborhood in Lahore, echoed a similar incident in the rural town of Gojra four years earlier. Nine people were killed when rioters torched two Christian neighborhoods over rumors the Christians had celebrated a wedding by showering the groom with pages torn from the Quran. Despite hundreds of arrests, no one was tried for the riots, and relatives of those killed have now fled Pakistan.
In 2009, the Punjab government asked a senior judge to investigate how to prevent incidents like the one in Gojra. The judge interviewed nearly 600 witnesses, including senior politicians and intelligence officials, producing a 318-page report detailing who was responsible for the violence. But the full report was not released until recently ? nearly four years after the riots.?
It implicates members of Pakistan Muslim League-N, at the time just recently elected to power, and recommends Pakistan's blasphemy laws be reformed to prevent future violence. According to the report, the Interservices Intelligence (ISI) and local intelligence agencies knew banned extremist groups like Sipah-e-Sahaba were organizing the mobs, yet authorities did not take preventative action.
?Everything could have been avoided, if the local administration did what they were supposed to do,? says Mehboob Khan, who headed fact-finding trips to Gojra for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Like the riot in Lahore this year, Mr. Khan says police had several days to curtail growing threats from Muslim extremists in Gojra.
On July 30, 2009, members of Sipah-e-Sahaba led a mob that burned down the entire village of Korian over the blasphemy accusation. The next day, preachers at three local mosques used their Friday sermons to demand that Gojra's Christian community ? some 40,000 people ? be expelled. They announced rallies the next day.
The next day, busloads of seminary students from the nearby town of Jhang ? a radical Sunni stronghold ? joined the rallies, which were addressed by local PML-N leaders and preachers from Sipah-e-Sahaba.
Bishop John Samuel, who heads an Anglican community in Gojra, says local police should have stopped the meetings and arrested those calling for more violence. ?There had already been one fire, why did the police allow these meetings?? he asks.
By that evening, crowds from the rallies made their way to the Christian neighborhood near the center of Gojra.
Despite the efforts of some religious leaders to disperse the crowd, the mob began throwing stones at the homes, and some began shooting at Christians.
Hameed Maseeh, a Christian, climbed on top of his roof and began firing back, but he was shot and killed. The crowd of Muslims swelled to more than 7,000, and some began setting fire to the Christian homes.
According to the report, police that were supposed to protect the Christians told them to flee, before leaving the scene themselves. ?At the height of the riot, they [the police] were nowhere to be seen,? recalls Bishop Samuel.
Hameed Masih's family ? unwilling to leave his body behind ? locked themselves inside their home. Seven of them, including two children and three women, died when the mob set fire to their home.
Maseeh's son accused 17 people ? including the regional PML-N head and several Sipah-e-Sahaba leaders ? of the murders. Though 113 suspects were arrested, all were released within months because witnesses refused to testify against them.
Peter Jacob, head of the minority rights group National Council for Justice and Peace, says the witnesses were systematically threatened into silence. In 2010, Hameed Masih's surviving family left Pakistan, fearing for their lives. In their absence, Pakistani courts dropped the murder case.
Two police commanders that left the scene as mobs torched Christian homes were suspended for a few months, but cleared by a subsequent departmental investigation. They have since been promoted.
The PML-N leader that had helped lead the Muslim mobs was elected to the provincial assembly in elections earlier this month.
'No problems'
In the years since the riots, the Punjab government has rebuilt the hundreds of homes that had been torched in Gojra. Christians in the area claim everything has gone back to normal.
?We have no problems with the Muslims, everything is fine,? said a Christian shopkeeper in Korian whose home was burned down, refusing to be named.
But Bishop Samuel says more than 50 families have chosen to leave Pakistan since the riots.
While it does not call for repealing the blasphemy laws completely, the Gojra report recommends removing specific protections for Muslims, and enacting measures to discourage fabricated cases. Rights groups say blasphemy accusations are often rooted in disputes over money or property.
?Reform is the first step,? Bishop Samuel says, ?If we can't finish the laws completely in Pakistan, at least charge the person making false claims.?
Jacob points out police have prevented violence in cases where they have seriously investigated blasphemy accusations.
?People didn't believe the law was being misused [before],? says Khan, ?but slowly ... they are starting to see examples of it.?
When a teenaged Christian girl was accused of blasphemy last year, the case was heard by the same judge who conducted the Gojra inquiry. Citing a lack of evidence, the judge dismissed the case, ordering the accuser's arrest instead.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) ? The head of the international power boating federation has been elected president of an association of sports that are recognized by the International Olympic Committee but not included in the games.
Raffaele Chiulli was elected Monday at the annual assembly of the Association of IOC Recognized International Sports Federations.
ARISF includes seven of the eight sports seeking a spot in the 2020 Olympics. Those seven, along with wrestling, are to make presentations to the IOC executive board Wednesday in St. Petersburg.
Wrestling is trying to stay in the Olympics after the IOC recommended in February the sport be dropped after 2016. ARISF sports fear wrestling?s tradition overwhelms their chances of joining the Olympics. IOC sports director Christophe Dubi told the assembly all the sports ?duly have a chance based on merit.?
Tags: Eastern Europe, Europe, Events, Olympic games, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Sports, Sports governance, Summer Olympic games, Wrestling
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To kick off UFC 160, Jeremy Stephens beat Estevan Payan with a 30-26, 20-26, 30-27 decision. The bout was so bloody that it left deep, red-colored stains in the Octagon. It was really, really bloody.
You can see the blood leaking from Payan's head here.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, Israeli President Shimon Peres, right, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas all shake hands during the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea in Jordan Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Pool, Jim Young)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, Israeli President Shimon Peres, right, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas all shake hands during the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea in Jordan Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Pool, Jim Young)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Israeli President Shimon Peres, left, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, participate in the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Center at the Dead Sea in Jordan Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Pool, Jim Young)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, Israeli President Shimon Peres, right, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas share words the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa at the King Hussein Convention Centre at the Dead Sea in Jordan Sunday May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Pool, Jim Young)
SOUTHERN SHUNEH, Jordan (AP) ? Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday he believes a plan potentially worth $4 billion is emerging that could expand the Palestinian economy by up to 50 percent in the next three years.
It could also cut unemployment by almost two-thirds and average wages could jump 40 percent, he said. But Kerry said it all depends on parallel progress on peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Kerry has been working with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and global business leaders to devise economic plans to revitalize the Palestinian economy. There were few specific details offered.
Kerry spoke at a business conference in Jordan alongside Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Kerry called the plan "transformative" and "different than anything we've done before."
He was to meet later Sunday in Amman with Blair, American hedge fund investor Tim Collins and the foreign ministers of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates.
The plan is expected to address tourism, construction, light manufacturing, agriculture and communications opportunities.
Kerry said Palestinian agriculture production could double or triple. Tourism could triple, and 100,000 new homes, many of them energy efficient, could be built in the next three years.
Kerry acknowledged the plan offers a very optimistic vision for a region that has suffered through decades of conflict, and where peace prospects remain dim.
But he insisted: "We know it can be done."
He said Netanyahu and Abbas support the plan. He said economic plans won't take hold unless Israel and the Palestinians make headway on restarting peace talks, however.
Kerry has been trying over the last two months to rejuvenate the peace process. He hasn't made any tangible success so far, but insists he is engaged in productive talks with both sides.
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's industrial profits growth quickened in April from the previous month, though the government noted that the pickup was due mainly to a low comparative base, indicating that the world's second largest economy still faces slack domestic and external demand.
Chinese firms made profits of 436.7 billion yuan ($71.22 billion) in April, up 9.3 percent from the same month last year, quickening from a year-on-year growth of 5.3 percent in March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
The improved gains in April were caused by the low comparison base in the same month a year earlier, Yu Jianxun, an official from the bureau's industrial department, said in a statement accompanying the data.
Profits had fallen 2.2 percent in April last year from 2011, compared with gains of 4.5 percent year-on-year growth in March 2012, said Yu.
In the first four months on 2013, Chinese firms made total profits of 1.61 trillion yuan, up 11.4 percent from the same period a year ago, the NBS said (www.stats.gov.cn).
Among the 41 industries tracked, 30 posted profit growth and eight reported a profit drop in the first four months compared with the year earlier period. Three sectors reported turnarounds in profitability.
Profits for manufacturers of computers, telecommuications equipment and electronics were up 44.8 percent from the same period last year, while those in the electricity and heat production and supply industry leapt 92.6 percent.
The ferrous metal smelting and rolling industry reported a 38.6 percent year-on-year increase in profits during the period, while profits in auto manufacturing rose 12.9 percent.
Petroleum refining, coking and nuclear fuel processing sectors swung into profit from losses in the first four months, while profits in oil and gas exploration dropped 7.9 percent.
The figures come after the HSBC/Markit flash purchasing managers index, the earliest indicator of China's industrial activity, showed a contraction for the first time in seven months in May as new orders fell.
The PMI added to concerns that China's economic recovery has stalled and that a sharper cooldown may be imminent.
($1 = 6.1316 Chinese yuan)
(Reporting By Xiaoyi Shao and Kevin Yao; editing by Jonathan Standing)
Bombs in teen bedroom were for a Columbine-style attack against an Oregon school, a prosecutor says. But the plot was foiled in the same way many such plots are uncovered.
By Mark Sappenfield,?Staff writer / May 26, 2013
A 17-year-old student in Albany, Ore., built several bombs and had a detailed plan ? including checklists and diagrams ? as part of a Columbine-style plot to attack West Albany High School, a local prosecutor says.
Skip to next paragraph Mark Sappenfield
Staff writer
Mark is deputy national news editor for the Monitor.
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No motive has yet been made public, but Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson said authorities on Friday found six kinds of explosives ? including napalm bombs, pipe bombs, drain-cleaner bombs, and Molotov cocktails ? in "a secret compartment that had been created in the floorboards" of the teen's bedroom. The teen, Grant Acord, sought make his attack bigger than Columbine, Mr. Haroldson said.
The alleged plot is just the latest example of how the Columbine massacre continues shape school safety 14 years later.
Not only does the plot suggest that would-be attackers continue to draw inspiration from Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., before committing suicide on April 20, 1999. But it also points to how such plots have been repeatedly foiled.
Authorities say they received a tip. Albany police became suspicious after they "received information that associated ... Acord with manufacturing a destructive device with the intent of detonating it at a school," Haroldson said, according to a CNN report.?
With students more alert for signs of potential attacks post-Columbine, tips have been crucial to preventing more Columbines.
In 2001, A suspicious note passed along by a friend led police in Elmira, N.Y., to find a high-school senior in the cafeteria with a pistol, 18 bombs, and a sawed-off shotgun, according to media reports.
Three years later, a tip about an Internet chat in which a student said he was planning to attack his school led to a stash of found stolen weapons, an AK-47, and Nazi literature in the student's house in Clinton Township, Mich., reports say.
Tips also led to the discovery of Columbine-style plots in Tampa, Fla., in 2011, and in Utah last year.
In the Utah case, the suspect actually went so far as to visit Columbine High School and interview the principal.
?To go as far as to interview the principal and physically go there ? sends a message that they were extremely committed to doing something,? Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services in Cleveland told the Monitor at the time.
In Oregon, Grant will be charged as an adult with aggravated murder, Haroldson said. He will also face charges related to bombmaking.
?This was a very methodical process,? said Haroldson, according to a report in The Oregonian. ?He took time to even get to this point.?
The evidence gathered by police, which includes "diagrams, checklists, a plan to use explosive devices, and firearms to carry out a plan specifically modeled after the Columbine shootings" shows "intent and plans to carry out a deadly assault on a target-rich environment," he said.
Haroldson did not say when Grant planned to carry out the attack, according to ABC, but added: "I can't say enough about how lucky we are that there was an intervention. When I look at the evidence in the case, I shudder to think of what could have happened here."
Grant was arrested at his home Thursday.
Police say they have searched the school and found no devices, though a Reuters report said they are following up the initial search more thoroughly to make sure students can return to school after the Memorial Day vacation.
A regular training plan is crucial to a weight-loss training program. Health and fitness firms allow a selection of workouts tools such as treadmills, workout routines, rowers a lot more. These kinds of equipments built on, best quality, efficiency and long life. Treadmill is an excellent private gym and excellent fitness equipment. Fitness treadmill machine price tags from $500- $3000 or even more. The premium quality models are highly-priced as the good quality motors and powerful components cost more. Low-cost good quality treadmills have underpowered engine that cannot keep the belt moving easily. Assessment the situation of the treadmill machine by analyzing the belt, comfort also the handrails. The correct execution of comfort is terribly beneficial as it restricts from applying all the features of treadmill machine.
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Proper repairs may be essential for the right kind functioning. Periodic lubrication, belt tightening and essential. So always choose the person who has maximum warranty on motor and necessary portions of the treadmill. From time to time area is a tremendous constraint while choosing for house exercise apparatus like treadmill. A folding treadmill is a superb resolution for smaller area. It is an excellent piece for bettering cardiovascular health. So do not compromise health for a house or another explanation why. Exercise regularly to healthy.
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BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) ? A former Texas prosecutor and one-time candidate for Congress was convicted Friday of accepting bribes in exchange for court favors, including an $80,000 payment in a scheme that allowed a convicted murder to escape.
Jurors convicted former Cameron County District Attorney Armando Villalobos on racketeering, bribery and extortion charges. They acquitted him on two extortion charges.
Villalobos is the highest-profile target to stand trial in an FBI investigation into legal corruption in Cameron County. The former prosecutor was accused of taking more than $100,000 in bribes from attorneys.
Villalobos denied any wrongdoing and testified during his trial that he did not request money from lawyers in exchange for appointments with him.
Among the allegations were that Villalobos participated in a scheme involving Amit Livingston, who was convicted of killing his girlfriend, Hermila Hernandez, in 2007. Prosecutors alleged former state District Judge Abel Lima agreed to work with Villalobos and Villalobos' former law partner, Eddie Lucio, in criminal and civil cases involving Livingston. The trio's target was the $500,000 bond put up for Livingston's release before trial.
Federal prosecutors alleged Villalobos set up Lucio to represent Hernandez's three children in their lawsuit against Livingston, and the criminal and civil cases both landed in Limas' courtroom. In the criminal case, Limas agreed to convict and sentence Livingston on the same day, thereby freeing up his bond to be used as the settlement in the civil suit.
However, Limas also agreed that day to Livingston's request that he would have 60 days to get his affairs in order before reporting to prison. That meant Livingston was released without bond ? highly unusual for a convicted killer already sentenced to decades in prison. Livingston didn't report to prison as scheduled and hasn't been seen since.
Lucio received $200,000 in attorney's fees for handling the civil case. Prosecutors said he kicked $80,000 back to Villalobos and together they gave about $10,000 to Limas to keep quiet. Lucio also faces charges in the case. Lima, who was one of the main witnesses at Villalobos' trial, pleaded guilty to racketeering and awaits sentencing.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wynne told jurors in his opening statement that the cash payments Villalobos accepted from attorneys in exchange for his prosecutorial discretion amounted to "having a district attorney on retainer."
"You pay him in advance so when you need him, he's there," Wynne told jurors at the federal courthouse in Brownsville.
Prosecutors allege the activity took place from October 2006 through May 3, 2012. Villalobos, a two-term district attorney, served from 2005 through the end of 2012. He ran for Congress last year, losing in the Democratic primary.
Villalobos remains free on bond. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison for each of the seven counts on which he was convicted. Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 26.
Sixth night of violence in Sweden, but police say capital calmer
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Community patrols and a beefed-up police presence helped to calm violence around Stockholm overnight on Saturday but 20 to 30 cars were still torched in poor immigrant suburbs and serious incidents were reported outside the capital for the first time. The rioting in Stockholm abated after a week of masked youths vandalizing schools and police stations, setting cars alight and hurling stones at firefighters, police said.
Syrian opposition resumes tough talks on unity key to peace push
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Syria's opposition resumed talks on Saturday aimed at closing their fractious ranks, crucial to launching an international peace conference, and government forces pressed an onslaught on a rebel-held town to try to gain the upper hand in civil war. Failure of the opposition to unite could weaken the hand of conference co-sponsors Russia and the United States in ending Syria's conflict, which has killed 80,000 people, threatens to spill across borders and whip up wider sectarian conflict.
Pakistan school bus explosion and blaze kill 17 children: media
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Seventeen Pakistani children burnt to death on Saturday when a gas cylinder on the bus taking them to school exploded, media said. Ten children were injured in the blaze on the outskirts of Gujrat, 100 miles southeast of Islamabad, DawnNews said.
Suicide car bombing in Russia's Dagestan injures 11
MOSCOW (Reuters) - A suicide bomber blew herself up in car near a police building in Russia's Dagestan region on Saturday, injuring 11 policemen and passers-by, Russian media reported. Dagestan, an ethnically mixed, mostly Muslim region between Chechnya and the Caspian Sea, has become the most violent province in the North Caucasus, where insurgents say they are fighting to carve out an Islamic state out of southern Russia.
As border tightens, some U.S.-Mexico neighbors reach across the fence
NACO, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexican activist Maria Elena Borquez takes up a paintbrush and daubs a bright splotch of color on the rusted steel fence separating the small Mexican town of Naco from a neighboring town in the United States. "The wall projects hostility," she said, paint pot in hand and surrounded by youngsters from both the United States and Mexico. "The idea is to transform it with art, friendship, colors and life ... into something that unites us," said Borquez, who is director of the local museum.
Ukraine's first gay march held under police protection
KIEV (Reuters) - About 100 Ukrainian gay rights activists held the country's first gay rally on Saturday, helped by police who arrested 13 people for trying to break up the march. The activists walked for about 250 meters (yards) along Victory Avenue in the capital Kiev while Orthodox Christian activists nearby chanted slogans denouncing them.
Aid groups urge EU to fulfil commitments to Palestinians
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A group of 80 international aid agencies urged the European Union on Saturday to follow through on pledges it made last year to back Palestinian communities seen as vulnerable to Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank. Not enough action has been taken since EU foreign ministers last May urged Israel to ease curbs to growth on Palestinian villages and criticized its settlement policies, the Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA) said in a report.
Hezbollah, Syria government forces push for advance in Qusair
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian government forces and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah launched a fierce campaign to seize more rebel territory in the border town of Qusair on Saturday, sources on both sides of the conflict said. Rebels fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad said additional tanks and artillery had been deployed around opposition-held territory in Qusair, a Syrian town close to the Lebanese border.
British police arrest man after spy claim in soldier case
LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested a man under anti-terrorism laws at BBC headquarters after an interviewee said security services tried to recruit one of the two men arrested after a soldier was hacked to death in a London street. Michael Adebolajo, 28 and Michael Adebowale, 22, are under armed guard in hospital after being shot and arrested by police on suspicion of the murder of 25-year-old Lee Rigby, a veteran of the Afghan war, on Wednesday.
Interpol rejects Russia's 'political' case against fund manager Browder
By Jason Bush MOSCOW - Interpol has refused to include UK-based fund manager William Browder on its international search list after deciding that Russia's tax evasion case against him is "of a predominantly political nature".
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By Genevra Pittman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who eat diets high in fruit, certain vegetables, pasta and red wine are less likely to have hot flashes and night sweats during menopause, a new study from Australia suggests. Researchers found that of about 6,000 women followed over nine years, those who ate a lot of??
Florists around the country, pay attention. If you're looking for a value-added reason for people to buy a dozen roses from your shop, then find a way to get this brilliant Crown Vase put into production and include one with every bouquet.
Designed by Lambert Rainville, a student at the Royal College of Art, the Crown Vase works as a support allowing flowers to stand via their own stems, like a simple shelter crafted by an experienced outdoors person. A shallow dish or bowl full of water is still needed to keep the flowers alive for more than a day, but when they eventually die everything can be composted and recycled, making cleanup an eco-friendly affair.
By DRS. KAY JUDGE AND MAXINE BARISH-WREDEN? The Sacramento Bee
Two interesting studies have come up over the past month on heart attacks. Scientists have found a temporary condition that can quadruple your chance of having a heart attack. Scientists have found that job stress leads to more heart attacks, but there is a treatment that can reduce job stress-related heart attacks by 50 percent.
Curious? The first study involved almost 4,000 patients, and was conducted at Harvard, with results published in the American Journal of Cardiology. The surprising condition that could lead to a quadrupling of heart attacks was anger. The researchers collected data from patients who were part of a study between 1989 and 1996 to determine what brought on their heart attacks.
A total of 1,484 participants reported having outbursts of anger in the previous year, 110 of whom had those episodes within two hours of the onset of their heart attacks. The researchers found that with each increment of anger intensity, the risk of heart attack in the next two hours rose.
That risk was 1.7 times greater after feeling "moderately angry, so hassled it shows in your voice"; and 2.3 times greater after feeling "very tense, body tense, clenching fists or teeth" and 4.5 times greater after feeling "enraged! lost control, throwing objects, hurting yourself or others."
Why does anger increase heart attacks? Anger induces a fight-or-flight response in the body, releasing chemicals epinephrine and norepinephrine that raise blood pressure, raise our heart rate, constrict blood vessels and promote stickiness in platelets. All these are not good for the cardiovascular system and can lead to a heart attack.
The second study looked at job stress and heart attacks, and found that the magical cure with a 50 percent success in reducing heart attacks from job stress was a healthy lifestyle. The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. In this study, researchers studied 102,000 men and women, ages 17 to 70, in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Sweden and Finland. Over 10 years, the rate of coronary artery disease was 18.4 per 1,000 for people with job stress and 14.7 per 1,000 for those without job stress
The lifestyles measured were smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, inactivity and obesity. Those with a healthy lifestyle had no risk factors, while people with a moderately unhealthy lifestyle had one risk factor. Two or more risk factors was an unhealthy lifestyle.
What is fascinating is the extraordinary impact of lifestyle on the reduction of heart-attack risk with job stress: When lifestyle and work were factored together, the heart disease rate was 31.2 per 1,000 for people with job stress and an unhealthy lifestyle and decreased to 15 per 1,000 for those with job stress and a healthy lifestyle.
Take-home points? Anger is dangerous for the heart, and escalating expressions of anger - far from being cathartic - appear to hurt the body. And if you are at risk for heart disease and have job stress, you can decrease that risk by changing your lifestyle. Both of these studies help quantify the benefits of a holistic approach to your health - in addition to seeing your doctor, do focus on mind/ body/spirit wellness.
(Drs. Kay Judge and Maxine Barish-Wreden are medical directors of Sutter Downtown Integrative Medicine program in Sacramento, Calif. Have a question related to alternative medicine? Email fitness@sacbee.com.)
Amanda Bynes was taken away in handcuffs after being arrested for drug possession (marijuana) and reckless endangerment, after throwing a large bong out the window of her 36th floor apartment in front of cops! The troubled actress, whose erratic behavior has everyone worried for her mental health, arrived to the police station in a strange ...
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co said sales of the latest version of its flagship Galaxy S smartphone have reached 10 million since its launch in late April, making the model its fastest selling smartphone.
The S4, the South Korean firm's challenge to Apple Inc's iPhone, is already selling in 60 countries and Samsung plans to expand sales to 327 carriers in 155 countries by next month, the world's biggest smartphone maker said on Thursday.
Solid sales have come even as supply issues have snarled the U.S. rollout through some carriers.
Analysts expect strong sales of the fourth version of the Galaxy, which has propelled Samsung to the top of the $225 billion smartphone market since its debut in 2010, will help the firm report record earnings in the current quarter.
Despite mixed reviews of the S4 by gadget experts, Samsung is benefiting from heavy marketing as it bids to gain market share in the absence of new competing models from Apple.
Samsung won a record 33 percent of the smartphone market in the first quarter, and JP Morgan analysts expect its operating profit to top Apple's this quarter for the first time in years.
(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Richard Pullin)
They?re an upstart political movement intent on ?taking back? the country from an out-of-touch political elite accused of ignoring opposition to immigration and threats to what they consider the nation?s Christian heritage.
The insurgents, many of them self-styled libertarians, have marched from one electoral success to another and are pushing the country?s dominant right-wing party even further to the right.
On one side of the Atlantic, that scenario might feel familiar to anyone who witnessed the rise of the Tea Party. Yet in this case it is Britain?s Conservative Party leadership, not Republicans, who are feeling the heat. The rise of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which a poll on Tuesday put just two percentage points behind the Conservative Party itself, is on the rise and transforming British politics.
RECOMMENDED: Keep calm and answer on: Take our United Kingdom quiz.
The record high of 22 percent for the UKIP comes after the most important chapter in its transition from the political fringes to the mainstream, when it won more than 140 seats in the English county councils earlier this month, snatching many from the Conservatives and beating the centrist Liberal Democrats into fourth place nationally.
Although UKIP was established to campaign for a British withdrawal from the European Union, it is evolving into a magnet for discontent about a range of issues including immigration and moves by the government to legalize gay marriage and is establishing itself as the foremost port of call for voters seeking to give a black eye to Westminster's three largest parties.
"An exit from the EU is the start of the journey, the key in the door," says Ray Finch, the leader of a crop of new UKIP councillors who ousted Conservatives from the county council of Hampshire, a southern coast county that has traditionally been regarded as a heartland of Prime Minister David Cameron's party. "What we generally are looking towards as a party is to reduce the power of the state and the size of the state, get it out of people's lives as much as possible so that they can live without being continually harassed, spied upon, and continually taxed."
FROM PROTEST TO POWER
Few commentators expect UKIP to pick up large numbers of seats, if any, at the next election in 2015, primarily due to the way the mechanics of Britain's electoral system mitigate against parties whose support is spread out. Many also still view support for UKIP as a mid-term protest vote while opponents seize on what they regard as the ?false promise? of its manifesto ? which combines large-scale tax cuts with promises of investments in healthcare, education, and infrastructure along with dramatically increased spending on defense.
Nevertheless, its dramatic rise as a political force has rattled Conservative MPs, increasing the ranks pushing for Cameron to take a hardline position on future membership of the EU. This week saw the latest rebellion by MPs from his own party, who attempted to interfere with the legislative passage of the gay marriage plans, a central plank of Cameron's attempts to transform the party's image, but which are opposed by many activists, MPs, and even some Tory cabinet ministers.
Further pressure was heaped on his leadership when the Conservative Party's co-chairman, who is also a member of Cameron's inner circle, was forced to fend off allegations that he had dismissed his party's activists as ?swivel-eyed loons? during a conversation with journalists.
"Loongate," which fed a Tory rebel narrative seeking to depict the Cameron leadership as a metropolitan elite divorced from the needs and instincts of the grassroots, has been seized on by UKIP's own leader Nigel Farage, a gregarious former stockbroker seemingly seldom photographed without a cigarette and a pint in his hand.
In a bid to woo disenchanted Conservatives, he took out a full-page ad in the right-leaning Daily Telegraph on Monday in which he accused Britain's political class of being "completely out of touch with the thoughts of ordinary people."
"Only an administration run by a bunch of college kids, none of whom have ever had a proper job in their lives, could so arrogantly write off their own supporters," wrote Farage, describing the loon comment as "the ultimate insult."
LABOUR INROADS, TOO
It's not just the Tories who are being damaged by UKIP. Last week the party won a council by-election in a northern English area regarded as a stronghold of the Labour Party. Statistics also show that UKIP has tended to draw support from blue-collar workers and voters on low incomes ? all groups that are the traditional bedrock for the left-of-center opposition party.
Some analysts caution against reading too much into the UKIP by-election win in Labour's northern heartland.
?I would say they are less of a threat to Labour in the north than they are to the Conservatives the south," says Brendan Evans, professor of Politics at the University of Huddersfield. "The evidence suggests that, north and south, they take more votes from the Conservative Party. It?s true that they will eat into the Labour vote in the north because it is in many ways a protest vote, a vote of rejecting the political establishment and the way the current political agenda is going.... But I think that they are a bigger threat to Conservatives nationwide in that while UKIP probably won?t win parliamentary seats in the next general election they will deprive votes from the Conservatives and hand, in effect, seats over to Labour.?
It?s a nightmare scenario for senior Conservative Party strategists seeking centrist voters, and one which might draw sympathy from Republication counterparts who have long looked over their shoulders at the Tea Party.
For their part, UKIP activists don?t seem to be entirely unhappy with the US parallels.
?We come from slightly different cultures but we do understand particularly Ron Paul, who Nigel met recently and they got on famously together,? says Mr. Finch, the UKIP county councilor in Hampshire. ?We do believe as the Tea Party believes that people should be left, as far as is practicable, left to make the best of their own lives.?
Nor, like many Tea Partiers, does he believe that the movement is a temporary phenomenon.
?We are here to stay. The time for the Conservatives to have changed direction was 20 years ago when UKIP was formed. We see ourselves as a radical party. The Conservative Party is and have been for many years a part of the state, the EU, and big business, which are all linked together.?
RECOMMENDED: Keep calm and answer on: Take our United Kingdom quiz.
Robert Rozboril, Sun News, May 23, 2013 11:50 a.m.
PARMA - One bad inning. That is all it took to derail No. 1 seed Independence's hopes of a berth in the Division III District Finals.?
The Blue Devils found themselves up 5-0 after the top of the second and were feeling confident heading into the bottom half of the inning.?
No. 2 seed Elyria Catholic sent 13 batters to the plate in the second and brought nine of them around to score.?
?We had them rattled after our second at-bat up 5-0 but we just didn?t execute on defensive or pitchingwise that inning," said Independence Head Coach Mark Echstenkamper. ?As a team, we didn?t hit as well as we had in the past this season. It's hard to win when you don't play as well as you can. It?s not the best of three games, it comes down to one game and we know that as a tournament team."?
Independence went on to lose the contest by a final of 11-6.?
Elyria Catholic went on to lose to Keystone in the District Championship game by a final of 7-6 May 22.?
PHOENIX (AP) ? The judge in the Jodi Arias murder trial declared a mistrial in the penalty phase Thursday after the jury reported for a second time that it was deadlocked on whether to sentence her to life in prison or death for killing her boyfriend in 2008.
The judge scheduled a retrial for July 18. A new panel likely will be seated to try again to reach a decision on a sentence ? unless the prosecutor takes death off the table agrees to a life sentence.
The panel began deliberating Tuesday and first reported they had failed agree the next day. The judge instructed them to keep trying.
The same panel on May 8 found Arias guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Travis Alexander, who was stabbed and slashed nearly 30 times and nearly decapitated at his Mesa home. The jury later determined the killing was cruel enough to merit consideration of the death penalty.
Under Arizona law, a hung jury in the death penalty phase of a trial requires a new jury to be seated to decide the punishment. If the second jury cannot reach a unanimous decision, the judge would then sentence Arias to spend her entire life in prison or be eligible for release after 25 years. The judge cannot sentence Arias to death.
Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley has said the case could drag on for several more months as the new jury reviews evidence and hears opening statements, closing arguments and witness testimony in a "Cliffs Notes" version of the trial.
However, if the prosecutor decides not to pursue the death penalty a second time, the judge would then sentence Arias to one of the life in prison options, and the trial would come to a conclusion.
The verdict came two days after Arias spoke directly to jurors and pleaded for her life. She said she "lacked perspective" when she told a local reporter after her conviction that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in jail. She displayed family pictures for the jurors and told them she could bring about positive change in prison by teaching inmates how to read and helping launch prison recycling programs.
That night, Arias gave a series of media interviews from jail, telling reporters out about her many fights with her legal team and her belief that she "deserves a second chance at freedom someday."
Arias, 32, contends she killed Alexander in self-defense when he became enraged after a day of sex, forcing her to fight for her life. Prosecutors say she attacked him in a jealous rage because he wanted to end their relationship and go to Mexico with another woman.
Her case became a sensation from the beginning as Arias gave a series of jailhouse interviews following her 2008 arrest in which she blamed the killing on armed, masked intruders.
She went on trial in January, and the case provided endless amounts of cable TV and tabloid fodder, including a recorded phone sex call between Arias and the victim, nude photos, bloody crime-scene pictures and a defendant who described her life story in intimate detail over 18 days on the witness stand.
The former waitress told jurors of an abusive childhood, cheating boyfriends, dead-end jobs, her sexual relationship with Alexander, and her contention that he had grown physically violent.
The trial was streamed live on the Internet and became a real-life soap opera to people around the globe. Some even traveled to Phoenix to attend the trial and became fans of the fiery prosecutor, Juan Martinez, who repeatedly tangled with Arias during her testimony. They sought his autograph outside court and had pictures taken with him, prompting the defense to argue for a mistrial. Their request was denied.
The verdict brings a close to the trial's penalty phase, which featured dramatic statements by Alexander's sister and brother as they described how their lives were shattered by the loss of their beloved sibling.
New imaging techniques used to help patients suffering from epilepsyPublic release date: 23-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Julie Poupart info@can-acn.org Canadian Association for Neuroscience
Toronto, May 23 2013 - New techniques in imaging of brain activity developed by Jean Gotman, from McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute, and his colleagues lead to improved treatment of patients suffering from epilepsy. The combination of electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) leads to more precise localization of the areas generating epileptic seizures, giving neurosurgeons a better understanding of the optimal ways of intervention, if appropriate. These results were presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience - Association Canadienne des Neurosciences (CAN-ACN).
Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person has repeated seizures. These seizures are episodes of abnormal brain activity, in which the brain sends out abnormal signals. Seizures can often be controlled using medication. In an estimated 40% of patients, however, drugs do not control seizures well, and for some of these people surgery to remove the abnormal brain cells that cause the seizures can be considered.
Before brain surgery can be performed, doctors and surgeons must determine if the point of origin of the seizures, which can be viewed as brain activity spikes, is discrete, and if it can be removed without damaging other important brain areas. Dr. Gotman and his colleagues developed a new imaging technique, combining EEG, which delivers excellent information on the timing of the spikes but is not always capable of precisely locating the source of the discharge, with fMRI, which allows to very precisely localize this activation in the brain.
EEG- fMRI, while technically challenging, since the strong magnetic field required for fMRI can interfere with the recording of the minute electrical currents emitted by brain cells, is useful for patients in whom precise localization of the focal point, or point of origin of seizures, was not well defined. It is also important for a better understanding of how epileptic discharges affect brain function.
Citation from Dr. Gotman: "Combing EEG and fMRi is a unique method to define non-invasively in the whole brain the regions involved in epileptic discharges. It is a complex tool but it is likely to play an increasing role among the methods currently used to localize the source of epileptic activity"
###
This research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
About the Canadian Association for Neuroscience:
The Canadian Association for Neuroscience is the largest association dedicated to the promotion of all fields of neuroscience research in Canada. The association has been organizing a yearly annual meeting since 2007. Learn more about our meeting at: http://www.can-acn.org/meeting2013
Please contact Julie Poupart, Communications Director for the Canadian Association for Neuroscience, for further information, to receive a press pack, or to request an interview with a neuroscientist
Facts:
Approximately 0.6% of the Canadian population has epilepsy. Each year, an average of 15,500 people learn that they have epilepsy. Seventy-five to eighty percent of patients are diagnosed before the age of 18, 55% before the age of 10, and 44% before age 5.
EEG: Electroencephalography is a test to measure the tiny electrical signals that brain cells use to communicate with one another. These signals are also called impulses.
fMRI: The functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging technique used by Dr Gotman relies on the fact that the magnetic properties of hemoglobin, the molecule carrying oxygen in blood, differ when it is carrying oxygen (a form called oxyhemoglobin, nonmagnetic) and after it has "delivered" oxygen to cells (a form called deoxyhemoglobin, magnetic). When a brain region is activated, it uses oxygen and the concentration of deoxyhemoglobin initially increases, before being compensated by an increase in blood flow, resulting in a decrease in deoxyhemoglobin. These differences can be very precisely localized by fMRI. This method is known as BOLD contrast, which stands for Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent contrast.
References:
Dr. Jean Gotman's website: http://apps.mni.mcgill.ca/research/gotman/
Recent publications by Dr. Gotman: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=gotman+j%5BAuthor%5D
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New imaging techniques used to help patients suffering from epilepsyPublic release date: 23-May-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Julie Poupart info@can-acn.org Canadian Association for Neuroscience
Toronto, May 23 2013 - New techniques in imaging of brain activity developed by Jean Gotman, from McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute, and his colleagues lead to improved treatment of patients suffering from epilepsy. The combination of electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) leads to more precise localization of the areas generating epileptic seizures, giving neurosurgeons a better understanding of the optimal ways of intervention, if appropriate. These results were presented at the 2013 Canadian Neuroscience Meeting, the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Neuroscience - Association Canadienne des Neurosciences (CAN-ACN).
Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person has repeated seizures. These seizures are episodes of abnormal brain activity, in which the brain sends out abnormal signals. Seizures can often be controlled using medication. In an estimated 40% of patients, however, drugs do not control seizures well, and for some of these people surgery to remove the abnormal brain cells that cause the seizures can be considered.
Before brain surgery can be performed, doctors and surgeons must determine if the point of origin of the seizures, which can be viewed as brain activity spikes, is discrete, and if it can be removed without damaging other important brain areas. Dr. Gotman and his colleagues developed a new imaging technique, combining EEG, which delivers excellent information on the timing of the spikes but is not always capable of precisely locating the source of the discharge, with fMRI, which allows to very precisely localize this activation in the brain.
EEG- fMRI, while technically challenging, since the strong magnetic field required for fMRI can interfere with the recording of the minute electrical currents emitted by brain cells, is useful for patients in whom precise localization of the focal point, or point of origin of seizures, was not well defined. It is also important for a better understanding of how epileptic discharges affect brain function.
Citation from Dr. Gotman: "Combing EEG and fMRi is a unique method to define non-invasively in the whole brain the regions involved in epileptic discharges. It is a complex tool but it is likely to play an increasing role among the methods currently used to localize the source of epileptic activity"
###
This research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
About the Canadian Association for Neuroscience:
The Canadian Association for Neuroscience is the largest association dedicated to the promotion of all fields of neuroscience research in Canada. The association has been organizing a yearly annual meeting since 2007. Learn more about our meeting at: http://www.can-acn.org/meeting2013
Please contact Julie Poupart, Communications Director for the Canadian Association for Neuroscience, for further information, to receive a press pack, or to request an interview with a neuroscientist
Facts:
Approximately 0.6% of the Canadian population has epilepsy. Each year, an average of 15,500 people learn that they have epilepsy. Seventy-five to eighty percent of patients are diagnosed before the age of 18, 55% before the age of 10, and 44% before age 5.
EEG: Electroencephalography is a test to measure the tiny electrical signals that brain cells use to communicate with one another. These signals are also called impulses.
fMRI: The functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging technique used by Dr Gotman relies on the fact that the magnetic properties of hemoglobin, the molecule carrying oxygen in blood, differ when it is carrying oxygen (a form called oxyhemoglobin, nonmagnetic) and after it has "delivered" oxygen to cells (a form called deoxyhemoglobin, magnetic). When a brain region is activated, it uses oxygen and the concentration of deoxyhemoglobin initially increases, before being compensated by an increase in blood flow, resulting in a decrease in deoxyhemoglobin. These differences can be very precisely localized by fMRI. This method is known as BOLD contrast, which stands for Blood Oxygen Level-Dependent contrast.
References:
Dr. Jean Gotman's website: http://apps.mni.mcgill.ca/research/gotman/
Recent publications by Dr. Gotman: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=gotman+j%5BAuthor%5D
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Amazon has announced that it is to offer its 7-inch and 8.9-inch Android-powered Kindle Fire HD tablets to customers to pre-order in over 170 additional countries, with the tablets shipping June 13.
The biggest online retailer has also expanded its app store to over 200 countries, allowing Kindle Fire owners to choose from tens of thousands of popular Android apps.
The Kindle Fire HD hardware is unchanged from the model currently shipping in the US and certain European countries. The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD comes with a 1920x1200 1080p HD display with in-plane switching, Advanced True Wide polarizing filter. The 254 pixels per inch, Amazon says, are "indistinguishable to the human eye" ? in other words, it's a retina display.?The 7-inch Kindle Fire HD features a 1280x800 screen resolution.?
Both screen sizes feature 10-point multi-touch support.
The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD is powered by the latest generation dual-core 1.5GHz OMAP4 4470 processor with an on-board Imagination SGX544 graphics engine that's capable of over 12 billion floating point operations per second ? or 50 percent more than Nvidia's Tegra 3 processor.
The processor in the 7-inch Kindle Fire HD is a dual-core OMAP4 4460 1.2GHz processor.
The Kindle Fire represents a real threat to the Android tablet landscape not because of the Amazon logo, or even the hardware spec, but because of its highly disruptive pricing. The 7-inch variant costs $214, while its 8.9-inch big brother is only $284.?
Amazon's goal was to put together a quality Android tablet at an eye-catching price, and it accomplished this with the Kindle Fire HD hardware. Its price is refreshingly accessible when compared to Apple's iPad, and even other Android tablet offerings. The only tablet to come close to the Kindle Fire HD family is Google's own Nexus 7 and 10 tablets.
Despite the Kindle Fire HD being an Android tablet, it's rather different from most Android tablets on the market. As opposed to being a one-stop-shop for Google services, the Kindle Fire HD runs a heavily customized forked version of Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0.4) that's been turned into a portal for all things Amazon. Even compared to newer tablets running Android "Jelly Bean," the Kindle Fire HD's custom operating system looks and feels ? to me at any rate ? like a better tablet OS.
There's no doubt that this expansion in availability of the Kindle Fire HD will give Android a boost, even if it is Amazon's vision of how Android should be.
Off the beaten path: Tannersville?s Last Chance Cafe is equal parts gourmet shop, antiques emporium, and restaurant ? oh, and there?s a tavern, too
By Lynn Hazlewood Published May 21, 2013 at 08:35 PM
Cheese it! Last Chance Cafe?s French onion soup is piled high with Swiss cheese melted on toasted garlic bread
Photographs by Teresa Horgan
(page 1 of 2)
During the week, Tannersville is a quiet little Greene County village that looks much as it did during its Catskills heyday, when the mountains were studded with Dirty Dancing-style resorts. On weekends in winter, the 500 or so residents are joined by swarms of skiers, snowboarders, snowmobilers and other snowy-activity enthusiasts who drift into town after disporting themselves at Hunter Mountain, which is a few miles up the road. On summer weekends, the town comes alive with bikers, hikers, and various outdoorsy types, along with a raft of low-key second-homeowners.
Among the local charms are Rip Van Winkle Lake, where you can boat, fish, or let the kids romp in the playground or zip around the skateboard park. There?s a nine-hole golf course; bike paths; hiking trails; and the Mountain Top Arboretum, where nature lovers can ramble over 23 acres of trees, shrubs, and plants tough enough to grow at high elevations. Cultural highlights run from music festivals to the Crazy Race, in which participants tear down Tannersville?s Main Street in homemade ?vehicles.?
In recent years, several buildings in the village have become tourist attractions themselves. Spruced up in vibrant pastels as part of the Paint Program ? a scheme dreamed up by a local artist and implemented by the Hunter Foundation ? they?ve drawn media attention as well as tourists, and give the village a lively look.?
One of those gaily painted buildings houses the Last Chance Cheese and Antiques Cafe, a quirky gourmet store and eatery that?s been a Main Street fixture since 1971. In its earliest incarnation, Last Chance was an antiques shop with a sideline in bongs and head-shop paraphernalia, opened by Brooklyn transplant Loren Kashman. Back then, Kashman was, as he puts it, ?a long-haired hippie? who soon realized that there wasn?t much demand for antiques and bongs among the apr?s-ski set doing much of the spending in town. But they did buy the snacks and munchies he offered. So he branched out with soups, sandwiches, and simple fare, and went on to add imported and specialty beers and cheeses. After the building was badly damaged in a fire in 1977, Kashman restored it and reopened using half the space as a gourmet shop specializing in cheeses, and the other half as a homey restaurant, decorated with antiques and bric-a-brac for sale. Fondue, all the rage in the 1970s, has been a staple all along, and remains a favorite.?
(Continued on next page)
? 10 Can?t Miss Dishes: the fondue at Last Chance Cafe ? Visit Last Chance Cheese and Antiques Cafe in Tannersville, NY ? Go to www.lastchanceonline.com ? Go to the Hudson Valley Restaurants Guide ? Go to the Hudson Valley Food & Drink Guide