Paul McCartney of the Beatle leaves house for wedding

Paul McCartney, right, and his fiance Nancy Shevell pose for photographers outside their home in north London, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2011. Paparazzi and well-wishers gathered Saturday at the pop icon's residence in the posh St. John's Wood neighborhood. British tabloids say the couple plans to marry Sunday and have a small reception afterward. (AP Photo/PA, John Stillwell) UNITED KINGDOM OUT, NO SALES, NO ARCHIVE

LONDON — Dozens of paparazzi crowded the steps of a central London town hall Sunday in anticipation that former Beatle Paul McCartney was getting married to American heiress Nancy Shevell.

Though no public announcement has been made, a tent had also been set up at McCartney's house nearby in the St. John's Wood neighborhood, and party decorations and champagne were delivered.
The couple announced their engagement earlier this year. Shevell, 51, would be McCartney's third wife, and it would be her second marriage.
The 69-year-old McCartney married his first wife, Linda, at the same venue in 1969. She died of cancer in 1998.
His spokesman has not commented on the reported wedding plans. British press reports indicate that McCartney's daughter Stella, a top fashion designer, has fashioned Shevell's dress for the big event.
They also say McCartney's younger brother Mike will serve as best man and his young daughter Beatrice will be flower girl.
Shevell was married for more than 20 years to attorney Bruce Blakeman and serves on the board of New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
She also is a vice president of a New Jersey-based trucking company owned by her father.
McCartney married Linda Eastman, a talented photographer, at the height of the hippie era, when the Beatles were at the apex of their global fame.
The marriage of the Beatle known as "the cute one" caused young women and girls to burst into tears outside the registry office, and broke the hearts of uncounted fans throughout the world.
While many rock and roll marriages from that era broke down, the McCartneys enjoyed a long, happy marriage for many years, raising four children and spending virtually every night together except when McCartney was briefly jailed in Japan on marijuana charges.
Linda played and sang in his successful post-Beatles band Wings — even though critics thought she added little to the ensemble — and used her marriage to a Beatle to promote vegetarianism and other causes that were also backed by McCartney.
Her life was cut short by breast cancer in 1998, leaving McCartney adrift.
Model Heather Mills then entered the picture. They married in 2002 at a gala affair at an Irish castle, and soon after had a daughter. But the marriage collapsed fairly quickly and ended with a bitter divorce in 2008.
Mills publicly accused McCartney of cruelty and sought a massive $250 million divorce settlement, but the judge sided with McCartney, calling her claims exorbitant.
The British public, enamored of the sunny Sir Paul since his early Beatle days, also sided with the singer.
The case offered a rare glimpse into the magnitude of McCartney's fortune, which includes songwriting royalties from a raft of classic tunes, many co-written with the late John Lennon, who would have turned 71 Sunday.
Court papers filed by McCartney at the time indicated he had a net worth of approximately $800 million, including a valuable collection of art works including paintings by Picasso and Renoir along with luxury real estate holdings and sound music investments going well beyond his own works.
The impending marriage of one of the most enduring figures in British cultural life sparked Britain's fevered tabloid headline writers to try to come up with new puns on Sunday based on the Beatles' memorable song titles.

The video Shell doesn’t want you to see…

The video Shell doesn’t want you to see......

This 8 1/2-minute mini-documentary is an excellent introduction to what is at stake in the upcoming Wiwa v. Shell trial. It was produced by Rikshaw Films for EarthRights International (ERI) & the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the plaintiffs’ co-counsel in the case.
Business as usual: Shell trying to suppress the truth. The video was a highlight of the WiwavShell.org website run by ERI & CCR to educate the public about the trial but it was recently removed. Investigation of public legal documents reveal that the video was removed under order from the trial judge after legal motions by Shell. Read the story about it on Huffington Post.


On the www.WiwavShell.org page where this video is was presented, they offered “special thanks to filmmaker Glenn Ellis, for extensive footage from two important documentaries made by Catma Films, The Drilling Fields (1994) & Delta Force (1995), and to photographer Ed Kashi, for use of his photographs.”

10 die in northern Nigeria truck crash

KANO — A medical official says 10 people have died in a truck crash, the third reported incident of its kind in the last week in Nigeria's north.

Dr. Yusuf Makama said Friday that a truck collided with a 16-seat minibus Thursday evening along a highway in Jigawa state and injured four others.

Eyewitness Ahmed Mudi Shantake says a jaywalker caused the accident.

Authorities say 30 people have died in two recent truck crashes in the country's north.

Crashes are common on Nigeria's poorly maintained roads. Drivers often travel at high speed and overtake slower vehicles, leading to head-on collisions and high death rates.

Even main cities are linked by pitted, two-lane roads crammed with passenger buses, trucks laden with goods and rickety private vehicles.

10 Things Your Bladder Says About Your Health

By Paula Spencer Scott, Caring.com senior editor

Bladder problems are often associated with the very old and infirm. But guess what? Adults of all ages, including many who are seemingly healthy, can have unusual bladder symptoms -- and they can be warning signs of problematic health conditions.

"The urinary system can be a real canary in the coal mine," says Jill Rabin, chief of ambulatory care and urogynecology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Hyde Park, New York, and coauthor of Mind Over Bladder. "If you have a significant change in your bladder habits, you may have a problem with the bladder itself or the pelvic organs, or it may be a sign of a larger systemic problem."

Here are ten problems that unusual bladder symptoms may signal:

1. Possible bladder message: Sleep apnea

What it is: Sleep apnea is a breathing disorder in which abnormal pauses in breathing during sleep can last a minute or longer, causing the person to abruptly wake up. (Apnea is a Greek word "meaning without breath.") "Untreated sleep apnea is becoming more and more commonly diagnosed by urologists," says Adam Tierney, a urologist with Dean Clinic in Madison, Wisconsin. That's because regular doctors can't see it during checkups; it's the night urination that's noticed first.

More than 12 million people have sleep apnea, and many more are thought to have it but not know it. In March 2011, Israeli researchers reported that in a group of men aged 55 to 75 who had benign prostate enlargement (BPE) and reported nocturia -- the need to get up at night to urinate -- more than half of their night wakings were probably actually attributable to sleep apnea.

What you may notice: Awakening at night to urinate as often as every two or three hours. With sleep apnea, the person wakes up because of the breathing lapse and then decides almost on autopilot to use the bathroom. By morning, he or she is aware that, "Gee, I'm getting up at night to pee a lot," rather than that breathing has been briefly stopping. Other sleep apnea symptoms include snoring and daytime sleepiness.

What you can do: Report excessive night urination to your doctor so its true cause can be pinpointed. Sleep apnea is treatable with several different devices designed to facilitate breathing, as well as surgery.

2. Possible bladder message: Out-of-control diabetes

What it is: When blood sugar is poorly controlled, nerve damage can result. Diabetics usually know that this can result in a loss of sensation in the extremities. But nerve signals may also be unable to appropriately reach the muscles that govern urination, Rabin says.

What you may notice: A frequent feeling of needing to use the bathroom, even when you don't, or a lack of sensation that it's time to void, which causes you to wet yourself. You may also be excreting larger-than-normal amounts of urine with poorly managed diabetes. That's because the body tries to rid itself of excess glucose through the urine.

What you can do: Talk to your doctor about ways of better controlling blood sugar through diet and exercise. Many diabetics don't think to report incontinence symptoms because they don't link them to their disease.

3. Possible bladder message: Hypothyroidism

What it is: Untreated hypothyroidism -- slow functioning of the thyroid gland, which helps regulate metabolism -- can also cause problems in the way that nerve signals reach muscles, says urogynecologist Jill Rabin. Women are affected more often than men.

What you may notice: Urge incontinence, or the need to "go," whether there's an actual need or not. This is usually a secondary symptom of hypothyroidism, the primary symptoms being extreme fatigue, a sense of being cold, weight gain, dry skin, and sometimes hair falling out.

What you can do: Report symptoms to your doctor, and be sure to mention any other unusual symptoms you are experiencing. Treating the hypothyroidism usually eases incontinence symptoms.

4. Possible bladder message: Prostate problem

What it is: The prostate, a doughnut-shaped gland that encircles the male urethra and plays a role in both urination and reproduction, tends to enlarge over time. This squeezes the urethra (urinary passage), causing a relatively harmless condition called benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH). BPH is most common in men over 50, as is prostate cancer. Another common prostate complication, more common in younger men, is prostatitis, an infection. One of these conditions doesn't necessarily lead to the next.

What you may notice: A sudden and urgent need to pee (urge incontinence), night waking to use the bathroom, dribbling urine after you think you're finished, difficulty beginning to urinate, and more frequent urination day or night.

What you can do: Because prostate problems range in seriousness but can manifest in many different ways, any change in urinary symptoms is worth reporting as soon as you start wondering or worrying about it. Prostate cancer is typically ruled out first through an exam that includes a digital exam and a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test.

5. Possible bladder message: Chronic urinary tract infection

What it is: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the second most common kind of infection in the human body. Both men and women get them, though they're most common in women.

What you may notice: A persistent urge to urinate, a burning sensation while urinating, frequent urination, or urine that's reddish or cloudy and sometimes foul-smelling. You may also experience fever, localized pain, and a sensation of pressure.

What you can do: See your doctor. Prescription antibiotics usually clear up the infection within a day or two. When infections are continuous, a stronger drug or longer regimen may be prescribed. People who get repeated UTIs tend to have an underlying condition that predisposes them (such as diabetes or pregnancy) or have habits that promote them. Women with chronic UTIs should use sanitary pads rather than tampons; avoid douching; urinate before and after intercourse; and avoid excessive alcohol or caffeine, which are bladder irritants.

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6. Possible bladder message: You weigh too much

What it is: You probably don't need your bladder to tell you what your mirror and scale already know. But the effects of obesity are sometimes easy to ignore, at least until everyday functioning is affected, all day long. Excess weight means that the pelvic-floor muscles involved in supporting a woman's urinary system are under extra pressure. Over time, they can weaken, especially the urinary sphincter, which keeps the urethra capped when you're not urinating.

What you may notice: Leaking urine when you cough, sneeze, exercise, or move the wrong way -- any kind of physical stress can produce what's known as stress incontinence.

"People don't often connect weight and urine, but there's a clear association," says urologist Adam Tierney. "And overweight people are more likely to have diabetes, which can cause urge incontinence on top of the stress incontinence."

What you can do: Pelvic floor exercises and other therapies for stress incontinence can help shore up weak musculature and lessen episodes of leakage. Not smoking is another remedy, since the cough that smoking produces further aggravates weak musculature.

But the very best remedy for stress incontinence for those who are overweight is to work to achieve a body-mass-index in the normal range. A 2009 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that overweight women who lost an average of just 8 percent of their body weight (17pounds) saw their weekly incontinence episodes cut in half.

7. Possible bladder message: Interstitial cystitis

What it is: A chronic inflammatory disorder of the bladder, including irritation of the bladder lining and wall, interstitial cystitis (also called painful bladder syndrome and bladder pain syndrome) affects both sexes, especially women. The cause isn't fully understood.

Interstitial cystitis is often associated with sleep disorders, migraines, depression, and other pain syndromes, such as fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and chronic fatigue syndrome, Tierney says.

What you may notice: Very frequent urination (several times an hour, all day), pain on urinating, general pain in the pelvic area. (Normally, people need to urinate no more than seven times a day, according to the American Urological Foundation Association.) Pain is usually experienced in flare-ups that can be related to menstruation, having sex, stress, and illness. It often resembles a urinary tract infection, but testing shows no evidence of bacteria.

What you can do: There are no reliable tests or remedies for interstitial cystitis, but a thorough medical exam can point to treatment of other possible causes of the symptoms. Treatment of interstitial cystitis itself often focuses on medications and lifestyle changes that can help sufferers better manage their symptoms. For example, many people have success with dietary changes, avoiding foods that irritate the bladder, such as caffeine and acidic items.

8. Bladder message: Falling organs

What it is Especially following childbirth, women are vulnerable to a condition called bladder prolapse -- which refers to the dropping of the organ from its customary position, sometimes into the vaginal opening. This happens because the pelvic floor muscles and ligaments of the "hammock" that supports the bladder have been weakened by stress. Heavy lifting, chronic coughing (as by a smoker), obesity, and menopause (because of shifting hormones) can also lead to prolapse.

What you may notice: Frequent urination or urge incontinence; not feeling relief after urinating; discomfort or pain in the vagina, pelvis, groin, or lower back; heaviness in the vaginal area (which may ease when lying down).

What you can do: For mild cases, shoring up weak muscles with physical therapy can be effective. More extreme cases may need estrogen replacement therapy, electrical stimulation, or a pessary (vaginal support device) to provide better support for the organs. Surgery can be an effective last resort.

 

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9. Possible bladder message: Dehydration

What it is: Dehydration simply means the body doesn't have as much liquid as it should. Anyone can become dehydrated, although older adults are especially vulnerable. Common causes: having diarrhea and/or vomiting, sweating a lot through exercise or because of fever, and being diabetic (elevated blood sugar levels lead to more frequent urination as the body tries to get rid of the excess).
What you may notice: Abnormally dark (amber to brown) or strong-smelling urine. The appearance of urine isn't a highly reliable indicator of health problems (aside from blood in the urine), says the Dean Clinic's Adam Tierney. Whether it's cloudy or fizzy or a particular hue often has more to do with diet and medication than an underlying disorder. When it looks dark and concentrated, however, dehydration is a concern.
Other symptoms of dehydration: Decreased urine output, headache, lethargy or sleepiness, dry skin and dry mouth, dizziness, and increased confusion.
What you can do: Fluid replacement resolves dehydration. The form of fluid may depend on the severity of the situation. An IV, for example, is used in advanced cases. For more mild dehydration, consuming frequent, small amounts of clear liquids helps, or a doctor may suggest an oral rehydration solution. To avoid dehydration, make sure older adults, in particular, drink six to eight cups of liquid a day or consume foods high in liquid content, such as soup and watermelon.

10. Possible bladder message: Cancer

What it is: Cancer can develop in the bladder, the kidneys, the renal pelvis (the area of the kidneys where urine is collected), or the ureter (the tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder). Transitional cell cancer of the renal pelvis and ureter is a common form of cancer, where cancerous cells in the lining of these parts travel to other parts of the body.
What you may notice: Blood in the urine (which may appear pinkish, brownish, or red), pain while urinating, or a frequent urge to urinate whether or not anything is produced. More often in men, tumors may also block the normal traffic of urine and cause overflow incontinence, in which you can't control output well.
What you can do: See a doctor. Symptoms that might signal cancer of the urinary system can mean many other things besides cancer. But they always merit medical help, to rule out other problems and to pinpoint a diagnosis.

Coffee, Alcohol, and More That May Affect RA

 

Rheumatoid arthritis

By Tammy Worth
About 1.3 million Americans are affected by rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease thought to be caused by genetic and environmental factors.

Strong medication can help prevent joint destruction and painful symptoms.

But there are other things that may affect RA risk and symptoms. In the big picture, these play relatively minor roles in RA (compared to, say, taking the right medication).

Still, here are some factors to keep in mind.

Smoking

One factor that affects RA is smoking, says Susan Goodman, MD, a rheumatologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

"Smoking clearly has an impact—it makes it worse and increases the likelihood of getting it," she says. "There clearly is something about smoking that is a bad actor."

RA nonsmokers have fewer swollen, painful joints than smokers, research suggests. RA smokers are three times as likely to have rheumatoid factor—a sign of more severe disease—and twice as likely to have joint damage.

Coffee

The link between coffee or tea and RA is debatable, Dr. Goodman says.

Research has suggested that decaf coffee (four or more cups a day) can increase the risk of getting RA, but caffeinated coffee has no impact, and tea may reduce risk. Other research found no correlation between decaf and RA. 

One issue, though, is that coffee may make some RA medications, such as methotrexate (Rheumatrex, Trexall), less potent.

"There is not a consistent message there," Dr. Goodman notes. Check with your doctor; it may be fine to have a cup of joe.

 

 

Alcohol

In a recent study in the journal Rheumatology, researchers asked about 1,800 people about their alcohol-drinking habits and RA.

They found that people who had at least one drink three or more days a week were four times less likely to have RA than nondrinkers.

Also, RA patients who did drink tended to have milder symptoms than those who didn't.

Jurors hear Jackson doctor detailing treatments

Prosecution witness Sade Anding testifies during Dr. Conrad Murray's trial in the death of pop star Michael Jackson in Los Angeles, Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2011. Dr. Conrad Murray has pleaded not guilty and faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Michael Jackson's death. (AP Photo/Mario Anzuoni, Pool)

LOS ANGELES — Dr. Conrad Murray says in a police interview played for a jury that he spent months trying to help Michael Jackson with his insomnia, giving him nightly infusions of an anesthetic until realizing the singer was becoming addicted.

Given two days after the King of Pop died, Murray is heard in the more-than two hour recording describing his relationship with the star, the medications he gave him and the efforts to save his life.

Murray's account, in an interview played publicly for the first time Friday, was so detailed and graphic that Jackson's sister, Rebbie, arose and rushed from the courtroom during the description of the singer's death scene.

Murray sounded calm, speaking in a lightly accented voice. As he neared the end of his story, emotion crept in.

"I loved Mr. Jackson," he told the detectives. "He was my friend. He opened up to me in different ways. I wanted to help him ... I cared for him. I had no intention of hurting him. I did not want him to fail."

He added, "I realized Michael Jackson had a dependency and I was trying to wean him off it."

The June 27, 2009, interview outside a noisy hotel ballroom gave police their first hint that Jackson's death was not from natural causes and that he had been given the powerful anesthetic propofol in an effort to cure his extreme insomnia.

"He's not able to sleep naturally," Murray told the detectives early in the interview.

Prosecutors contend that Murray was reckless by giving Jackson propofol outside a hospital setting and without proper monitoring equipment. They claim he gave the singer a lethal dose of the drug and other sedatives on the day Jackson died.

Defense attorneys say Jackson gave himself the lethal dose after Murray left the room. Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he could face up to four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license.

Jurors got about two-thirds of the way through the interview and will hear the remainder of the interview — and some of its most emotional moments — when the trial resumes on Tuesday.

According to a transcript released Friday, detectives asked Murray about his actions at the hospital after Jackson was declared dead, which led the doctor to describe telling the singer's mother and children that the singer had died.

Paris Jackson, the doctor said, was worried about being an orphan and expressed questions about why her father was dead.

"'Dr. Murray, you said you save a lot of patients, you know, you save people with heart attacks and you couldn't save my dad,'" Murray told the detectives Paris Jackson, then 11-years-old, said.

"'I know you tried your best, but I'm really sad," he continued, recounting her words. "'I will wake up in the morning, and I won't be able to see my daddy.'"

Murray's account disclosed a long history of Jackson's reliance on propofol.

Jackson told him he had received the drug from doctors in Germany and then from a Las Vegas physician, Dr. David Adams, who came to Murray's office and put Jackson to sleep for hours with the anesthetic. Adams is slated to testify later in the trial.

Adams' lawyer, Liborius Agwara, previously said Adams administered propofol to Jackson four times in 2008 to assist a dental surgeon.

Murray sat next to his lawyers as the tape played in the hushed courtroom. The only sound came from jurors turning pages of the 125-page transcripts given to them.

The doctor's story, interrupted infrequently by detectives' questions, was probably his substitute for testifying in the two-week old trial. It offered him the chance to describe his treatment of Jackson without cross-examination.

The interview made clear that detectives knew nothing about propofol before Murray mentioned Jackson's dependence on it. When Murray said that Jackson had demanded "his milk," his nickname for the drug, Detective Scott Smith asked, "Hot milk?"

No, the doctor said. Murray then described the anesthetic.

Jackson remained awake for hours after returning home around 1 a.m. on June 25, 2009, after rehearsals. "It was 4 o'clock in the morning, and then he complained," Murray said. "'I've got to sleep Dr. Conrad. I have these rehearsals to perform.'"

Jackson threatened to cancel that day's rehearsal, so Murray gave him some more lorazepam.

Over the course of the interview, Murray told police that other doctors had given the anesthetic before. Defense attorney Ed Chernoff told the detectives that Jackson was familiar with how the drug was administered through an IV and certain dosages.

Murray said Jackson actually asked him if he could "push it" through the IV himself and said he had done it before.

The doctor said he did not allow Jackson to do it.

At times during later portions of the interview that will be played Tuesday, Murray expresses his frustration that he didn't know what other doctors were giving Jackson.

But by the end of the interview, it becomes clear that Murray and his attorney sat down with detectives because they thought they had already found three bags filled with medical equipment, syringes and propofol bottles in Jackson's closet. Detectives wouldn't find the items until two days after the interview with Murray.

Murray told the detectives he always put the medications and equipment he used on Jackson away "because he wanted me not to have anything hanging around."

Smith then asked, "Where's your bag where those syringes would be now?"

"Oh, really?" Chernoff replied, according to the transcript.

"I don't have them," Murray replied, before telling the detectives exactly where to find the bags.

During the interview, Murray also told detectives how he took all possible precautions — keeping oxygen and a pulse monitoring machine nearby — and constantly warned Jackson that using propofol was an artificial way to sleep.

Murray said Jackson told him before he agreed to be his personal physician that he might need help. The physician said Jackson told him that he expected to sleep for 15 to 18 hours at a time.

Jackson had battled insomnia before he came to Murray. Repeatedly, Murray said, Jackson talked of cancelling his landmark "This Is It" comeback concert in London if he could not sleep.

"He said he would not satisfy his fans if he was not rested," Murray said. "There was a lot of pressure."

In his account of Jackson's final hours, Murray told of how he infused Jackson with lorazepam and another drug, Versed, during a 10-hour struggle to get the singer to sleep. At one point, he said, he checked to make sure the sedatives weren't leaking out of the IV bag.

"Where was this medicine going? Why was this man not responding?" Murray asked.

When Jackson stopped breathing, Murray added flumazenil, a drug designed to reverse the effects of the two drugs. There is no antidote for propofol.

In the interview, Murray acknowledged that he had left Jackson's side to go to the bathroom "for two minutes." He never mentioned the series of phone calls he made that were later detected on his cell phone records.

Murray recounted how the singer's assistant sought him out in early 2009 to accompany Jackson on his upcoming series of comeback shows. Then he got a call from Jackson, "telling me how elated he was that I was going to join the trip," Murray said.

The doctor said there was no commitment yet, but indicated how impressed he was about the request.

"Michael Jackson asked me to be on his team," Murray said. "I was talking to Michael Jackson himself."