Creating Passionate Users

At 0630 AEDT on Friday, the local unit was trading at 90.40 US cents, up from 90.23 cents on Thursday. And the Australian share market looks set to open higher following gains on Wall Street after a batch of data reinforced optimism that the US economy is recovery. ELSEWHERE: BRUSSELS - All 28 EU member states have now signed up to an agreement to combat tax evasion after Austria and Luxembourg dropped their objections to a plan first mooted in 2008, officials say. MOSCOW - Standard & Poor's has revised the outlook on Russia's credit rating to negative from stable on rising political and geopolitical risks linked to the raging Ukraine crisis and accompanying Western sanctions. WASHINGTON - First-time claims for US unemployment benefits climbed last week, but the overall trend continued to head slowly downward, new government data shows. WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes in the United States have dipped in February, driven by rising home prices and severe winter weather, the National Association of Realtors says. LONDON - British regulators have fined an ex-Credit Suisse trader for attempting to rig the price of government bonds in order to profit from the Bank of England's quantitative easing program. LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas - The Arkansas Supreme Court has overturned a $US1.2 billion ($A1.33 billion) judgment against Johnson & Johnson in a lawsuit challenging the pharmaceutical company's marketing of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal.

With so many chronic diseases, the center point you can tie back to is obesity, said Candi Possinger, a registered dietitian and manager of nutrition services with Catholic Medical Partners, the doctor arm of the regional Catholic Health System. Were seeing these chronic diseases happening at a younger age because of the obesity epidemic, Possinger said. Never before would I see a 5-year-old with off-the-charts cholesterol levels and diabetes and things that were seeing now because, unfortunately, this child might have been obese since age 2. So these diseases weve always thought of as adult onset, were seeing in adolescents and children. Possinger, 40, grew up outside Albany, and came to Western New York at the behest of her then-boyfriend and now husband, Brian Possinger, a Buffalo native and graduate of the Albany School of Pharmacy. He asked her to come for a year, and register in the first dietetics program at the University at Buffalo. That was 14 years ago.

The United States estimated that Russia has approximately 20,000 forces in the peninsula. U.S. Markets Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)- 16,418.68 (-0.21%) S&P 500- 1,877.17 (-0.05%) NASDAQ- 4,334.45 (-0.04%) EURO STOXX 50 Price EUR- 3,092.79(-0.08%) FTSE 100 Index- 6,889.45 (-0.35%) Deutsche Borse AG German Stock Index DAX- 9,265.50 (-0.91%) Asia Pacific Markets Hong Kong Hang Seng Index- 22,264.93 (-1.75%) Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 Index- 2079.79 (-3.25% Stocks in Focus The stock price of 3D Systems Corporations( NYSE:DDD ) declined 5.07% to $63.90 per share after Barrons commented that shares of the company are overvalued. The company is trading at a price to earnings multiple of 84, which is considered by Barrons to be wild considering the fact that its earnings per share is projected to slightly decline this year. The shares of Chiquita Brands International Inc ( NYSE:CQB ) gained 10.70% to $12 per share after the company agreed to acquire FYFFES PLC ORD EURO.06 ( LON:FFY ) for $526 million in a stock-for-stock transaction.

Obesity prevalence remains high and thus it is important to continue surveillance. A bit different than the major win in the obesity epidemic the press trumpeted in their headlines. Moreover, though the study describes the decrease in obesity in the 2- to 5-year-old age range as significant, it also discloses the sample size. Only 871 of the people in the survey were in that age range, meaning that staggering drop in obesity was reflected in about 70 kids. But that didnt stop newspapers from plucking the bright bit of news out of an overall grim report. Obesity Rate for Young Children Plummets 43% in a Decade reported The New York Times, further explaining that the drop offered the first clear evidence that Americas youngest children have turned a corner in the obesity epidemic. The Washington Post reported that the data provided another encouraging sign in the fight against one of the countrys leading public health problems, but didnt mention the sample size. And the Atlanta Journal-Constitution quoted the New York Times coverage, calling the decline stunning. The Philadelphia Inquirer trumpeted the drop with a misleading headline : Obesity Rate Shows Signs of Leveling Off, though the body of the article read much more pessimistically, quoting the studys author in the third graf, saying her data showed no change in youth or adults. So much for leveling off. The press releases for the study make it a bit clearer how one small statistic came to dominate the story of the newly released data.

Canada's obesity rates triple in less than 30 years

and N.B. have highest rates of obesity, while rates are lower in western provinces CBC News Posted: Mar 03, 2014 5:08 PM ET Last Updated: Mar 04, 2014 10:19 PM ET Canada's obesity rates triple in less than 30 years 1:56 Related Stories CMAJ: Current and predicted levels of obesity in Canada (Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.) Obesity rates in Canada have tripled between 1985 and 2011, according to a study from Memorial University in St. John's. Obesity rates surged 200 per cent between 1985 and 2011 among Canadian adults over age 18. (CBC) Dr. L.K. Twellsanalyzed national and provincial data from a number of Canadian health surveys conducted in that time period.

At this point, the Nikkei Average is up 0.6%, having started down 0.7%, while the Topix is 0.8% higher. Some of the tech exporters have helped lead the turnaround, with NEC up 2.7%, Renesas Electronics up 3.4%, and Nintendo up 2.5%. On the other hand, industrial Nidec is still down 2.9% its not clear why, though the firm said in a U.S. filing that it has yet to buy any shares under its stock-buyback program launched in late January. Retailers have also swung to some solid gains: Aeon is up 2.2%, J.Front is up 2.1%, and Seven & I is up 3%. Fast Retailing, though up 0.9%, is underperforming its peers after posting a 0.8% rise for its Uniqlo chain February sales in Japan, a sharp slowing from Januarys 15% jump.

SpiceJet shares were down 0.7 per cent at Rs 13.60. Recenlty, BoAML had come out with a buy rating on the stock with a target of Rs 25. (Read: SpiceJet says ready for price wars with GoAir, IndiGo ) BoAML says SpiceJet is taking steps for turning around its operations and the stock is heavily oversold. Any improvement in operations could trigger a sharp rally, it added. ( See more brokerage calls ) 3:05 p.m.

Today's Stock Market: The Five Biggest Stories to Watch

(Nasdaq: CMCSA ) to pay an undisclosed premium to improve video streaming quality and prioritize content to its customers.It is the first deal between an Internet service provider and online streaming service company centered on improving content streaming and follows reports that Netflix quality had declined in recent months across Comcast's network. The deal raises significant concerns about the growth of digital infrastructure in the nation, as Netflix users already use 33% of the bandwidth in the country. Digital Payment Systems Evolve: At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA ) unveiled its new MasterPass in-app payment system. Mastercard's new app system, set for delivery in the second quarter of 2014, will eliminate the need to store credit card data across multiple apps within a user's phone. Customers can instead make a purchase through one-click option while using a different app and link directly to one centralized Mastercard account. Time to Rethink this Deal: At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK ) presented three new "Nokia X" branded phones running on the Android system, a strong shift from its traditional reliance on Microsoft Corp.'s (Nasdaq: MSFT ) Windows Phone 8 operating platform.