NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teenagers are more likely to have hearing loss if their mothers smoked during pregnancy, according to a new study that included audio tests of close to 1,000 youth.

Researchers said that although the link was "relatively modest," even limited hearing loss can have implications for kids' learning and social skills - so it's important to reach out to those who might need help, and to prevent as much exposure as possible.

The findings "should be part of all our efforts to get people not to smoke, and especially not to smoke when they're pregnant," said Dr. Michael Weitzman, a child health researcher from the New York University School of Medicine, who led the study.

Past research has tied smoking during pregnancy to a range of childhood problems, including asthma and learning disabilities.

In another study, Weitzman and his colleagues found exposure to secondhand smoke during adolescence was linked to hearing loss, based on blood tests for nicotine-related products (see Reuters Health story of July 18, 2011 here: http://reut.rs/ns1p0b).

This time, they analyzed data on a group of 12- to 15-year-olds who underwent hearing tests in 2005-2006 as part of a national health survey, and whose parents were asked about smoking in pregnancy. The hearing exams were done in both ears to see if kids had any trouble picking up on sounds at different pitches.

Just over 16 percent of youth had moms who smoked while pregnant, the study team reported in JAMA Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery.

Those kids were especially at risk for hearing loss at the lower frequencies of human speech: one in six had hearing problems in one ear, compared to one in 14 whose moms didn't smoke.

Weitzman said many teens with mild hearing loss don't realize they have a problem, but that it can lead to irritability and trouble in school.

What's more, he told Reuters Health, it's possible the mild hearing loss measured in some adolescents will only get worse in adulthood.

Hearing researcher Abbey Berg from Pace University in New York said the findings "make sense" given what is known about risks to the baby when a woman smokes during pregnancy, including reduced oxygen flow.

"There are also toxins in the cigarettes as well that we don't even know necessarily what those are and what the effects of those are," said Dr. Josef Shargorodsky, from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.

"There are so many other risks of smoking in pregnancy," Shargorodsky, who wasn't involved in the research, told Reuters Health. "Preventing exposures is the most important thing."

Berg, who also didn't participate in the new study, said children who have been exposed can be counseled growing up about how to prevent further damage to their hearing.

"These kids could be monitored and hearing conservation and hearing education could be started at a very young age," she told Reuters Health.

Weitzman agreed that it's important to spot young people with hearing trouble early.

"Parents might really want to consider having their 12- to 15-year-olds have hearing tests if they smoked during pregnancy," he said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/122kUjJ JAMA Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, online June 20, 2013.

The 52-year-old went from 10 shots behind pacesetter Michael Allen at the halfway mark of the tournament to a five-stroke victory in Omaha, Nebraska.

Perry, a winner of 14 PGA Tour titles including a trio of trophies at the Memorial Tournament, said the victory at Omaha Country Club was the highlight of his career.

"Today's round was probably the greatest round I've ever played," said Perry, who had a 13-under-par total of 267.

"I just was spoton with all my irons. I putted like Ben Crenshaw. It all just came together for me. It's just been a remarkable month. I've had a great run."

Perry, who two weeks ago won the Senior Players Championship, shot a 64 in the third round and finished with a seven-under round on Sunday.

Fellow American Fred Funk, who shot a final-round 68 for eight-under-par 272, was in second place.

Another stroke back were Rocco Mediate (66) and Corey Pavin (67) on 273, with Allen a further shot behind after finishing with a two-over 72.

"He put it to us. Six-under yesterday and seven-under today. Backtoback, it's kind of what he did two weeks ago at Fox Chapel," said Funk. "He just smoked the field on the weekend. That's what you got to do. He just lapped us."

Perry erased the previous record for the biggest comeback after 36 holes in a senior major, which was seven strokes.

The Kentuckian also set a new standard for the lowest score over the final 36 holes of the U.S. Senior Open at 127, three better than the old mark, and tied records for lowest 72-hole total, lowest score for the last 54 holes (200), and the lowest final-round score.

For Perry, who came agonizingly close to winning a PGA Tour major, winning a national Open was the sweetest of victories.

"It means a lot to win a national Open. For me to have that now attached to my name, (it is) the greatest win I've ever had," he said.

"To lose a Masters in a playoff (2009) and lose a PGA Championship in a playoff (1996), heartbreak. All I felt was heartbreak.

"To finally get it all together and to finally have a major two majors - attached to my name, is very sweet."

Perry began the final round two shots behind Allen, but back-to-back birdies from the second hole set the tone for his brilliant finish.

After a bogey at the fifth, Perry made four birdies in a row to make the turn at five-under 30, needing only 10 putts as he took command of the championship.

In winning the U.S. Senior Open, Perry became the 11th player to win back-to-back senior majors.

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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 Republicans believe a low turnout among whites cost them the 2012 election, and that these voters can be reenergized through "libertarian populism," which "suggests that Republicans can regain their former glory without changing much of anything — no need to reach out to nonwhite voters, no need to reconsider their economic ideology." But the "missing white voter" theory has since been proven incorrect, Krugman writes, and the Republican platform to restrict Medicaid and food stamps actually hurts these white voters, particularly in swing states.to the last line of the column: "You could argue that destroying the safety net is a libertarian act. But populist it isn’t." And  writes to "Read the whole thing. Pass it on. You'll be glad you did." 

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While adding touch input to screens is not a bad thing, people being able to adapt quickly to touch as a primary form of user interface input on larger PCs does not happen overnight, Bajarin writes. Early on, Apples scientists studied the kinesiology of arm movements in relationship to keyboards and mice, and concluded that implementing any gestures into the user interface worked best through a trackpad. The company also determined that picking the hand up from the keyboard area and moving it to touch the screen was unnatural, and factored that into the final decision to add gestures to the Magic Trackpad instead.

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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Ava DuVernay, the writer and director behind "Middle of Nowhere," has been tapped to direct Martin Luther King biopic, "Selma," an individual familiar with the project told TheWrap.

The upcoming film follows the iconic Civil Rights movement leader, played by "Middle of Nowhere" star David Oyelowo, marching in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery.

Lee Daniels was once attached to direct, but ditched the project to tackle "The Butler," instead. Oyelowo also stars in "Butler," an August 16 release from the Weinstein Co., which has been battling Warner Bros. over rights to the title.

Brad Pitt's production company, Plan B, is producing "Selma" with Pathe UK and Christian Colson of Cloud Eight Films.

Paul Webb wrote the screenplay, and has been continuing to develop it with DuVernay since April. The writer-director won Best Director at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for "Middle of Nowhere," her second feature.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia killer who was sentenced to die on Monday for the beating death of a fellow inmate won a temporary reprieve just three hours before his scheduled execution by a judge who cited concerns over the state's new law governing lethal injections.

Warren Lee Hill, 53, had been sentenced to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. (2300 GMT).

But Fulton County Superior Court Judge Gail Tusan stayed the execution until at least Thursday so she could hear more arguments from Hill's lawyers who say the new law is unconstitutional because it shrouds in secrecy a drug used to execute Georgia citizens.

The law, which prohibits the release of information about the lethal drug's manufacturer, was passed in March after the state's cache of the sedative drug expired and national and international pressure made it more difficult for states to obtain it for executions, according to Hill's attorneys.

Hill was set to be executed using a dose of pentobarbital provided to the state by an unnamed manufacturer.

Hill killed a fellow prisoner, Joseph Handspike, in August 1990 by beating him to death. Hill was already serving a life sentence for the 1986 shooting death of his 18-year-old girlfriend, Myra Wright.

In addition to the injection issue, Hill's attorneys argue that he should not be executed under Georgia's law that bans capital punishment for mentally disabled inmates. State prosecutors say that early examinations showed that Hill has the capacity to understand his execution and argue that it should move forward.

According to court records, Hill scored 69 on one intelligence test and in the 70s on other examinations. Mental disability is generally defined as having a score of 70 or below on intelligence tests, Hill's attorneys said.

In February, Hill's lawyers filed affidavits in a Georgia court by three doctors who found Hill competent 13 years ago but who now believe he is mentally disabled.

In the affidavits, one doctor called the earlier evaluation for the state "extremely and unusually rushed" while another said his opinions were "unreliable because of my lack of experience at the time."

A third doctor cited "advances in the understanding of mental retardation" since 2000.

However, in court documents, the state of Georgia said the three state doctors reviewed "extensive materials" before concluding in 2000 that Hill was not mentally disabled, and were thoroughly cross-examined by Hill's attorneys at the time.

The doctors noted in 2000 that Hill had been a recruiter for the U.S. Navy, budgeted his money and was a "father figure" for his siblings, the state said in court documents.

In 1988, Georgia became the first U.S. state to enact a law banning the execution of mentally disabled defendants. But according to death penalty experts, Georgia has perhaps the toughest standard in the nation for defining mental disability, requiring proof "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Last week, an Atlanta-based non-profit group, All About Developmental Disabilities, called for Georgia to change its death penalty law to lower the standard for proving mental disability.

Hill's execution would be the 19th in the United States this year, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

(Editing by Karen Brooks, Andrew Hay and Leslie Adler)

The 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 victory was much closer than the score indicated. While Murray won the first set fairly handily he had to fight back from a 1-4 game deficit in the second set and a 2-4 deficit in the third.

The last game was indicative of the whole set and may go down as one of the greatest and most nerve-wracking ever played in a Wimbledon final. Murray quickly reached 40-love on points and the brink of victory via several Djokovic errors and a big first serve.

But thentrembled.

Djokovic put away a forehand after a long rally to pull to 40-15. The Serb pounded a short second serve from Murray for a winner to reach 40-30. The score was tied at deuce after Murray sent a backhand long.

Twice Djokovic forced break point, the second time via an astounding angled drop shot. Murray saved both, but was the tide turning? Djokovic is a master of comebacks and it seemed he was turning up his game.

But Djokovic failed to put away an overhead and Murray had his advantage. After a long rally with both players all-out Djokovic netted a backhand and it was over.

I have no idea what happened on that last point, admitted a dazed Murray on-court after the Duke of York awarded him the coveted trophy.

The lastto take Wimbledon was the great Fred Perry in 1936. Perry won a career Grand Slam, adding wins at the French, Australian, andchampionships to his Wimbledon crown during his career. But eventually he became disillusioned with Britain, moved to the US, and became a naturalized US citizen. He served in the US military during World War II.

For a time in the 1970s it seemed Britains John Lloyd might break his nations Wimbledon drought. In 1977 he became the first Brit to reach the final of a Grand Slam in the open tournament era at the . But he lost to New Yorks own Vitas Gerulaitis in five sets and never got that close to a major championship win again. Today he may be best remembered as US tennis legend s first husband.

Murray has long been seen as the best British player since Perry. He lost the Wimbledon final last year to Roger Federer and tearfully told the crowd he was getting closer.

Today he made good on that assessment. For Britain it may be the greatest moment in international sports since 1966, when the United Kingdom hosted soccers World Cup and the English home squad won in a thrilling match against West Germany that was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation.

England scored twice in extra time to set off a national party.

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LONDON (Reuters) - A rare Mercedes race car became the most expensive car ever sold at auction when an anonymous bidder bought it for 19.6 million pounds ($29.6 million) at a sale in Britain on Friday.

The 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 in which five-time Formula 1 World Champion driver Juan Manuel Fangio won two grands prix, also became the most expensive Mercedes-Benz ever sold, auction house Bonhams said.

"We've just witnessed history in the making," Bonhams Motoring Director James Knight told Reuters from the sale at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in southern England.

The previous auction record was held by a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, which sold for $16.39 million in 2011.

The 2.5-litre straight-8 Mercedes-Benz driven by Fangio already had a storied history. The driver's 1954 victories in the German and Swiss Grands Prix were the first successive wins by the Mercedes-Benz Formula 1 team in the German racing crew's post-World War Two comeback.

The car competed in five world championship-qualifying Grand Prix races. After Fangio's 1954 Swiss Grand Prix win, the W196R was retired to the Daimler-Benz Museum.

John Lennon's first car - a 1965 Ferrari GT coupe - also sold for 359,000 pounds at Goodwood on Friday.

The late Beatle bought the blue Ferrari after he passed his driving test in 1965 and sold it three years later. It had a top pre-sale estimate of 220,000 pounds.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato)

Authorities had feared more victims would be found under the wreckage but none was discovered, said the governor of the Essonne region, Michel Fuzeau.

"We are now assured that there are no more victims," Fuzeau said after the start of the delicate operation by the 700-ton crane. The machine is to remove the cars damaged from the tracks at the small Bretigny-Sur-Orge station. On Friday, four cars slid off the tracks there as the train sped through town, which was not a stop on its journey to central France.

Human error has been ruled out by France's transport minister and the focus of the investigation is on a detached piece of metal in a switching joint on the tracks. The national rail company, SNCF, has already taken blame for Friday evening's crash, which occurred at the start of a busy holiday weekend.

"The SNCF considers itself responsible," rail company chief Guillaume Pepy said. "It is responsible for the lives of its clients."

The packed train, carrying around 385 passengers, was traveling below the speed limit at 137 kph (85 mph) when it derailed, skidded and slammed into the station platform in the small town outside the capital. It was 20 minutes into a scheduled three-hour trip to Limoges in central France.

The crane, sent from northern France, towered over the small buildings that surround the railway station. A smaller crane initially removed benches, street lamps and other urban furnishings to make place for the larger crane outside the station.

The operation is an "extraordinarily difficult technique given that we are in a train station," Pepy said. "For the moment, we don't know how long it could take." He said the operation could last through Sunday, which is the July 14 Bastille Day holiday, and into Monday, stressing the crane's operators will be careful and slow in lifting the cars.

It was not immediately clear whether the damaged cars would be lifted over buildings onto trucks as authorities had indicated or whether the debris would be taken away by rail. There was no immediate sign that the damaged car that was lifted to check for victims had left the tracks.

Pepy, the train authority chief, said investigators found that a 10-kilogram (22-pound) piece of metal he compared to a staple between two rails in a switching system, which guides trains from one track to another, seems to have "detached itself from the rails, lifted and constituted the initial cause of the derailment."

Investigators were looking into how this happened since another train had traveled safely through the station about 30 minutes before. In addition, they were trying to determine why the train's third car was the first to derail.

Pierre Izard, another SNCF official, said the metal piece "moved into the center of the switch and in this position it prevented the normal passage of the train's wheels and it may have caused the derailment."

Although for now it appears track failure was the cause of the crash, Pepy added: "There can be no (definitive) answer in a few minutes, in a few days." He also said that all of the approximately 5,000 metal pieces on switching systems around France will be checked.

The train was about 12 miles (20 kilometers) into its 250-mile (400-kilometer) journey to Limoges.

Passengers and officials in train stations throughout France held a minute of silence at noon to commemorate the accident. Hundreds of thousands of people were expected to take trains this weekend to the coast and mountains and to see family. Summer weekends are always busy on France's extensive rail network, but this one is typically one of the busiest because of Bastille Day.

Fuzeau gave the latest casualty figures, saying that in addition to the dead, 22 people remained hospitalized, two of them in a life-threatening state. Nearly 200 people had initially been treated for injuries, either at the scene or at hospitals.

The crash was the country's deadliest in years, but Transport Minister Frederic Cuvillier said it could have been worse and praised the driver who sent out an alert quickly, preventing a pileup. However, Cuvillier acknowledged that there was some criticism that France hasn't invested enough in maintaining infrastructure.

Willy Colin of the Rail Users Association was among those who claimed the Paris-Limoges inter-city line was neglected in favor of more high-profile fast-train lines. He said on BFM-TV that trains on the line were among the oldest, calling them "garbage trains."

The transport minister said no link can immediately be made between the state of the line and the accident.

"For the moment we have no information that allows us to confirm that the dilapidation of the network was the cause of this derailment," he said on French television.

___

Ganley reported from Paris. Associated Press writer Sarah DiLorenzo also contributed to this report from the French capital.