Sweden arrests 4 on terror allegations

Swedish police said they arrested four terror suspects in the western city of Gothenburg early Sunday.

The TT news agency said the country's National Task Force, a specialized police unit, swept into a part of the city and cordoned it off around midnight.

An art gallery hosting an opening party was ordered evacuated as barriers were erected in the vicinity, the report said.

Police released no details of the arrests.

Sara Kvarnstrom, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Security Services, was also tight-lipped about the operation.

"There's no cause for the general public to be concerned," she said.

In October, after two people were arrested on charges of plotting a bombing in Gothenburg, federal security officials said some 200 Islamic militants were known to be in the country, CNN said.

The arrests came on the 10th anniversary of four al-Qaida suicide aircraft attacks on the United States.

Army says improperly tested $2.5 billion body armor is safe

Body armor worth $2.5 billion that the Department of Defense's Inspector General found had been improperly tested poses no hazard to troops, according to the Army.

The Army cut corners and skipped tests altogether on seven body armor contracts, a DoD IG report released August 1 said.

Army spokesman Matthew Hickman said on Wednesday that the report never concluded that safety of soldiers wearing the body armor was at issue.

"I think when you first hear about it you think, holy moley, the Army's providing body armor to soldiers that can't even stop a bullet. And that's just not the case," Hickman said.

"If you read it it says this isn't an issue of safety it's more of an issue of testing procedures -- the report never actually questions the safety of the body armor," he said.

Congress requested the DoD IG's investigation of seven Army contracts worth a total of $2.5 billion dollars and awarded between 2004 and 2006.

"The Army cannot be sure that the appropriate level of protection has been achieved," Deputy Assistant Inspector General Bruce Burton stated.

The results showed that ballistic testing and quality assurance for some 5 million body armor inserts did not have proper controls to ensure the inserts met the contract requirements.

The inserts are part of Interceptor Body Armor (IBA), a system of body armor that consists of an outer vest, ballistic inserts, and other parts that increase area of coverage, according to the DoD IG.

"IBA increases survivability by stopping or slowing bullets and fragments and reducing the number and severity of wounds," the report states.

Problems such as accepting invalid test results or failing to enforce humidity and temperature requirements, critical to troops using body armor in the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq, were found with testing on all seven contracts.

But the DoD IG also noted that it could not conclude that the body armor's performance had been negatively impacted.

"Because we did not conduct any additional testing, we could not conclude that ballistic performance was adversely affected by inadequate testing and quality assurance," the report said.

The Army had already implemented recommended testing changes by the time the report was published, according to Hickman.

"The testing procedures are an ever-growing process, when the army identifies better ways to test body armor, changes are made," he said.

The report is the fourth in a series issued after Democratic Congressman Louise Slaughter of New York directly requested investigation into the Army's policy on body armor.

In 2008 the DoD IG concluded 13 body armor contracts did not have proper documentation. In response, the Army recalled 100 percent of the body armor identified by the DoD IG to put it through more rigorous testing, said Hickman.

Of the recalled equipment, 100 percent has passed with "maximum protection rates," he said.

The Army has spent roughly $10 million in recent years to upgrade existing facilities for research, development and testing for body armor, according to the DoD IG.

Six of the 13 body armor contracts were addressed in a DoD IG report in January, and the August report addresses the remaining seven.

Women smokers have more heart risk than men

Women who smoke cigarettes are more likely to develop heart disease than men, says new research released on Wednesday.

After reviewing data on 2.4 million people and 44,000 cardiac events, the article's authors found female smokers have a 25 percent greater risk for coronary heart disease than males who smoke cigarettes.

The researchers, published in The Lancet medical journal, also found the difference in risk for male and female smokers increased by two percent for every year they smoke.

"It hasn't been widely recognized that there had been this sex difference," said Rachel Huxley of the University of Minnesota, the article's lead author, in an interview.

The findings could be attributed to physical differences between men and women, or differences in smoking habits, according to the study.

"For example, there are some data that indicate women will absorb more of the harmful agents in a cigarette compared to men," said Huxley. "Women may inhale more smoke or they may smoke more intensively."

Huxley said her next step is to complete a similar study to examine if the same finding can be applied to other complications related to smoking, such as strokes.

A fifth of the world's 1.1 billion smokers are women and an analysis released in March said millions of women in developing countries risked disease and death as their rising economic and political status leads them to smoke more.

IPL Auction 2011

The IPL Auction 2011 date is something that everyone has been waiting for, and keen to follow closely. It will go on for 2 days (Sat & Sun), involve 350 players for bidding, and the 10 franchises will be spending up to 75 million dollars for the players they would like to lay their hands on. IPL 4 will consist of 74 matches being played by 10 teams. Pune and Kochi are the 2 new additions in this year's competition.



This time's auction is even more interesting than last time's, for the simple reason that due to the IPL Auction 2011 rules, almost all players have been released by their respective franchises, and are up for bidding. So all the teams will have a brand new lineup, which should help injecting even more fun in this year's edition. Amongst the early important buys in this Indian Premier League were Rohit Sharma, Andrew Symonds and Harbhajan Singh (Mumbai Indians), Robin Uthappa, Angelo Mathews, Yuvraj Singh and Graeme Smith (Pune Warriors), Parthiv Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Sreesanth and VVS Laxman (Kochi), Rahul Dravid and Johan Botha (Rajasthan Royals), Irfan Pathan and David Warner (Delhi Daredevils), Gautam Gambhir and Brad Haddin (Kolkata Knight Riders), Saurabh Tiwary (Royal Challengers Bangalore), and JP Duminy and Shikhar Dhawan (Deccan Chargers). Well known players that still have not been sold are Saurav Ganguly, Herschelle Gibbs, Brian Lara, and Mark Boucher, to name a few.



The auction still has a couple of hours to go today and then there is the whole of Sunday. That is when we will get the complete lineup of all the 10 teams. So stay tuned to this space for the detailed list of the IPL Auction 2011 which will be effective from IPL 4.

US Economy Grows

We have experienced the worst economic recession since the 1930s, in the recent past. But believe it or not, this period (3rd quarter, 2009), has been the best in around 2 years. The US economy has grown at around 3.5%. The Commerce Department's report released yesterday indicated that, though these are early days and things are not 100% clear, the recession has indeed ended.

Before this quarter, there were 4 consecutive quarters of diminishing economic activity, which was experienced for the first time since 1947. But this quarter's performance has been good, and it's the first time, that we have something to cheer about since the depression hit us, in the last month of 2007. It is fair to say that this growth has not been totally unexpected since the growth projection was around 3.3%, but yes, the even better growth of 3.5%, is definitely welcome.

The government programs are largely to be thanked for this turnaround, especially the push given to the housing and automobile sectors. One such program was the 'Cash for Clunkers' program, in which a rebate of around $4,500, was offered on purchase of new cars. Trade-in of old cars, too was promoted in a large way. As a result of all the government initiatives, big spending rose by more than 22% annually, this quarter, the best showing since 2001.

The housing sector also managed to do very well. Annual growth is over 23%, an unbelievable rate, that was last seen only in the 1980s. It is also the first time since way back in 2005 that spending on housing showed a positive sign.

While things seem to be good, going ahead, it maybe wise to be cautious and keep our fingers crossed.

Abu Ghraib guard freed from prison

Charles Graner Jr., a guard convicted in the abuse of Abu Ghraib prison inmates in Irag, was released from military prison Saturday, an Army spokeswoman said.

Rebecca Steed said the Army reservist served 6 1/2 years of his 10-year term at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., CNN reported.

Steed told the U.S. news network Graner, 42, will be on supervised release until December 2014.

The private from Uniontown, Pa., was considered the ringleader in the detainee abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. He was convicted in 2005 of conspiring to mistreat detainees, including having naked prisoners stacked in a pyramid, ordering them to masturbate while others took photos and punching one in the head.

Eleven low-ranking soldiers were found guilty in the scandal, which tarnished the United States' image.

Beyonce booked to sing on 'The View'

Pop star Beyonce has been booked to perform this week on the female-powered talk show "The View" in New York.

Bill Geddie, the show's executive producer, said Monday the recording artist will perform "Best Thing I Never Had" and "1+1" live on Thursday's edition of "The View."

The Texas-born singer, who turns 30 in September, is a 16-time Grammy Award winner. She released last month her fourth studio album "4," which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

It was recently announced she will star in a remake of the classic film "A Star is Born," to be directed by Clint Eastwood. Previous versions starred Janet Gaynor (1937), Judy Garland (1954) and Barbra Streisand (1976).