SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - San Francisco city leaders, after losing a key round in court against the cell phone industry, have agreed to revoke an ordinance that would have been the first in the United States to require retailers to warn consumers about potentially dangerous radiation levels.

In a move watched by other U.S. states and cities considering similar measures, the city Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to settle a lawsuit with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association by accepting a permanent injunction against the right-to-know cell phone ordinance.

The group had alleged the law violated its free-speech rights, and the settlement marked a victory for the industry as the Federal Communications Commission considers a reassessment of safe radiation exposure limits adopted in 1996.

"This is just a terrible blow to public health," Ellen Marks, an advocate for the measure, said outside the supervisors' chambers. She said her husband suffers from a brain tumor on the same side of his head to which he most often held his mobile phone.

The industry association has asserted the San Francisco ordinance, if put into effect, would mislead consumers about the relative risks posed by cell phones, contrary to the FCC's determination that all wireless phones legally sold in the Unites States are safe.

The group's members include some of the nation's largest cell phone carriers and manufacturers, including Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Samsung and Apple.

Deputy City Attorney Vince Chhabria said a federal appeals court decision last year upholding a preliminary injunction against the measure signaled that trying to win the case at trial would be a long shot. If the city lost, a judge could have awarded the industry group as much as $500,000 in attorneys' fees, he said.

The 2011 ordinance mandated warnings that cellular phones, including smartphone devices, emit potentially cancer-causing radiation. The statute, which a judge blocked before it took effect, also would have required retailers of the devices to post notices stating that World Health Organization cancer experts have deemed mobile phones "possibly carcinogenic."

Supervisor David Campos reluctantly supported the settlement. "I think the legal reality is that if we don't approve the settlement, we're talking about having to pay $500,000 in legal fees," he said.

Chhabria said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling had left San Francisco in the position of having to prove that scientists concurred about the hazards of cell phones and that the FCC no longer believes they are safe.

Despite mounting evidence the phones may cause brain tumors, scientists disagree and are hesitant to draw conclusions.

Dr. Gabriel Zada, a neurosurgery professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine, found in a 2012 study that the age-adjusted incidence of malignant tumors in the parts of the brain closest to where people hold their phones rose significantly from 1992 and 2006 in California. But Zada told Reuters he could not draw any conclusions about the dangers of cell phones from his findings.

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit research organization, had pushed for San Francisco's right-to-know law.

"If the nation's experience with tobacco taught us anything, it is that it is dangerous to wait until there is scientific consensus about a potential health threat before providing consumers with information on how they can protect themselves," said Renee Sharp, the group's research director.

Mobile phones are tested to ensure their emissions fall within FCC limits considered safe. The limits, however, fail to reflect the latest research or actual conditions under which mobile phones are used, liked being held in a pocket directly against the body while talking through an earpiece, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The FCC last month agreed to consider revising its 17-year-old guidelines.

(Editing by Steve Gorman, Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)

A California assemblyman has an ambitious plan to found a fourth system of higher education in California. The New University of California is proposed in addition to the existing University of California, California State University, and California Community College systems. This New Universitybut instead, would award degrees based on one's abilities in a skill or subject.

Details of the Bill

Bill AB 1306 was proposed by Republican Assemblyman Scott Wilk from Santa Clarita, who wants to make college more accessible to Californians. The goal of the proposed university would be to allow students to gain the required knowledge via online courses or any other source before taking a university-administered exam. Upon passing, the student would receive credit for the course, and with enough credit, the appropriate degree could be conferred. "This bill would allow students to use whatever approach works best for them to obtain the knowledge needed to receive a college education, whether that is online courses, paid courses, or self-directed study," said a statement from Wilk's office.

Possible Effect on Education Costs

The cost of education under this proposed plan would be greatly lowered, as students would only be required to pay an examination fee, as well as a few minimal administration fees in order to receive credit and a degree. Thehave risen in California, with UC in-state tuition topping $13,000 per year, CSU tuition at $7,000, and even California Community College tuition above $1,000 per year for the first time in history. The New University of California system could significantly lower the cost of obtaining a college degree.

The New University of California would be organized in a manner similar to the University of California, with a board of 11 trustees and a chancellor. Exam development would likely be contracted to other organizations and would hopefully follow other pre-established exam criteria. The bill was introduced in February and will go before the Committee on High Education for hearings on April 23.

Ignoring Bigger Problems in Education?

Although no definitive statements have been made by lawmakers or prominent educators, several students at the University of Californiaover the creation of such a university system. ASUC Senator and CalSERVE external affairs vice presidential candidate Nolan Pack told The Daily Californian, "I think the problem is that, while there may be arguments saying that it is cheaper, it circumvents the problem that we are not currently funding our higher education system to where it should be."

While it would provide cheap education, the New University potentially circumvents the problems the current California education system is having. Underfunding andare just some of the many issues plaguing the various higher education systems in the state.

The outlook for European banks as a whole remains shaky, with France's biggest bank BNP Paribasexpected to post a slump in earnings in its own results on Friday.

RBS is seen showing a pretax profit of 800 million pounds ($1.2 billion) but unlike another bailed out bank, Lloyds, its share price is still far below what it was when the last UK government pumped 45 billion pounds into the bank in 2008.

Analysts say the recovery from a 1.4 billion pound loss in the first quarter a year ago will show the bank benefitting from reduced losses on bad loans and a decline in the cost of compensating customers for mis-sold loan insurance.

Chief Executive Stephen Hester has overseen the shedding of around 900 billion pounds in assets and is focusing on lending to British households and small businesses. But he still has major hurdles to overcome.

Britain's financial regulator said in March UK banks must raise 25 billion pounds of extra capital by the end of the year to absorb any future losses on loans. Although the regulator has not yet given specific guidance to individual banks, analysts expect the biggest shortfall to be at RBS.

RBS must also ask European regulators to extend an end-2013 deadline it set for the bank to sell 315 branches as a condition of receiving state aid. A deal to sell the branches to Santandercollapsed and RBS is now targeting a stock market flotation in 2014.

Fellow UK lender Lloyds , also the subject of a public rescue, on Tuesday reported a jump in first-quarter profit, sending shares to a near two-year high and close to the price at which the state could break even if it sold its stake.

But the euro zone's troubles and poor growth across Europe continues to weigh on the financial sector. BNPhas been hit by the stagnation of the French economy and renewed concerns over the government debt with which most banks are still loaded after new shocks from Cyprus and Italy.

French banks are mulling staff cuts and branch closures at their retail networks as fee income dries up.

Analysts on average forecast BNP's net income to fall to 1.53 billion euros ($2.02 billion), compared with 2.87 billion a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.

BNP may give more details on its drive to cut costs and grow in non-euro markets to help rebuild investor confidence. Its shares are down 0.7 percent year-to-date, worse than a 5.1 percent gain for the STOXX Europe 600 banks indexbut better than rival Societe Generale's2.6 percent drop.

The bank's shareholder structure is also in focus after sovereign shareholders Belgium and Luxembourg said they were open to selling equity stakes held in the bank.

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham and Lionel Laurent; editing by Patrick Graham)

The price controls, which were recently tightened, have crimped growth at Shoppers and rivals such as Jean Coutu Group Inc in recent years.

Shoppers Drug Mart's net profit at C$119 million ($117 million), or 59 Canadian cents per share, was in line with analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"In the context of the current environment and the low confidence around the earnings visibility, an in-line quarter was actually a beat for Shoppers," said analyst Kenric Tyghe of Raymond James.

Canada's provinces and territories agreed in January to tighten caps on prices of six widely prescribed generic drugs to cut costs for private and government health programs. Generic drug prices in Canada are among the highest in the world.

The new rules mandate drugstores charge no more than 18 percent of the price of the brand-name equivalent, lower than the previous 25 percent to 40 percent cap. The rules kicked off on April 1.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall then told Reuters that more could be done to cut the cost of generics.

Shoppers Drug Mart's total sales in the quarter rose 4 percent to C$2.49 billion.

A 4.2 percent rise in front-of-store sales, which include over-the-counter medications, food and cosmetics, overshadowed a 3.3 percent gain in pharmacy revenue.

Average prescription value fell 4.8 percent due in part to cuts in the prices of generic drugs.

Total same-store sales, an important measure for retailers, rose 2.5 percent. It increased 3.3 percent at front stores and 1.6 percent at pharmacies.

Shoppers Drug Mart, which also operates the Murale luxury beauty destinations, opened seven stores and acquired four stores in the quarter, taking total number of stores to 1,368.

Shares of the company rose 2 percent in early trading to a two-year high of C$45.44. They gave up some of their gains to trade flat at mid-day on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Krithika Krishnamurthy in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Exact's test, which identifies abnormal DNA in cells shed in a patient's stool, detected 92 percent of colorectal cancers and 42 percent of pre-cancerous polyps in a large late-stage study.

"Pre-cancerous sensitivity, which was the key metric investors were looking at, was well below expectations," Wedbush Securities analyst Zarak Khurshid said, adding that "lower pre-cancer sensitivity may limit the eventual addressable opportunity for the test."

Khurshid was expecting a 55 percent detection rate for pre-cancerous polyps.

Exact's non-invasive test was developed to be a more accurate alternative to currently available non-invasive screenings.

The study compared the performance of its Cologuard test to colonoscopy and fecal immunochemical testing that looks for blood in a stool sample.

While a colonoscopy is considered the most accurate method of detecting colon cancer and polyps, many people avoid the recommended test as it involves inserting a flexible tube into the colon.

The trial was conducted on 10,000 patients between the ages of 50 and 84 years, who were at average risk for colorectal cancer.

Madison, Wisconsin-based Exact Sciences plans to submit the study data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of its approval application.

Colorectal cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States, responsible for about 50,000 deaths a year.

The company's shares were down 28 percent to $7.16 before the bell. They closed at $9.97 on Wednesday on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Esha Dey in Bangalore, Additional reporting by Susan Kelly in Chicago; Editing by Roshni Menon)

Greek Orthodox Bishop Tony Yazigi says the kidnapped priests, Bishop Boulos Yazigi of the Greek Orthodox Church and Bishop John Ibrahim of the Assyrian Orthodox Church, were released Tuesday and have arrived safely in the city of Aleppo.

Yazigi said the two bishops were abducted late Monday from the village of Kfar Dael, and their driver was killed by the gunmen.

It was not immediately clear who kidnapped the men.

The Federal Aviation Administration kept planes on the ground because there weren't enough controllers to monitor busy air corridors. Cascading delays held up flights at some of nation's busiest airports, including New York, Baltimore and Washington. Many operations were more than two hours behind schedule.

At one point, the delays were so bad that passengers on several Washington-New York shuttle flights could have reached their destination faster by taking the train.

Nearly a third of flights at New York's LaGuardia airport scheduled to take off before 3 p.m. were delayed 15 minutes or more, according to flight-tracking service FlightAware. Last Monday, just 6 per cent of LaGuardia's flights were delayed.

The situation was similar at Washington's Reagan National Airport, in Newark, N.J., and in Philadelphia, with roughly 20 per cent of flights delayed.

At airports, Monday is typically one of the busiest days, when many high-paying business travellers depart for a week on the road. The FAA's controller cuts a 10 per cent reduction of its staff went into effect Sunday. The full force was not felt until Monday morning.

Travel writer Tim Leffel had just boarded a US Airways plane from Charlotte, N.C., to Tampa, when the flight crew had an announcement.

"They said: 'The weather's fine, but there aren't enough air traffic controllers,'" Leffel said. Passengers were asked to head back into the terminal. "People were just kind of rolling their eyes."

His flight landed one hour and 13 minutes late.

One thing working in fliers' favour Monday was relatively good weather at most major airports. A few wind gusts in New York, snow in Denver and thunderstorms in Miami added to some delays, but generally there were clear skies and no major storms.

However, the furloughs will continue for months, raising the risk of a turbulent summer travel season. And the lack of controllers could exacerbate weather problems, especially spring and summer thunderstorms.

There's no way for passengers to tell in advance which airport or flights will experience delays.

FAA officials have said they have no choice but to furlough all 47,000 agency employees including nearly 15,000 controllers because the agency's budget is dominated by salaries. Each employee will lose one day of work every other week. The FAA has said that planes will have to take off and land less frequently, so as not to overload the remaining controllers on duty.

Critics have said the FAA could reduce its budget in other spots that wouldn't delay travellers.

"There's a lot finger-pointing going on, but the simple truth is that it is Congress's job to fix this," said Rep. Rick Larsen, a Washington Democrat and member of the House aviation panel. "Flight delays are just the latest example of how the sequester is damaging the economy and hurting families across the country."

Some travel groups have warned that the disruptions could hurt the economy.

"If these disruptions unfold as predicted, business travellers will stay home, severely impacting not only the travel industry but the economy overall," the Global Business Travel Association warned the head of the FAA in a letter Friday.

Deborah Seymour was one of the first fliers to face the headaches. She was supposed to fly Sunday night from Los Angles to Tucson, Ariz. First her 9:55 p.m. flight was delayed for four hours. Then at 2 a.m., Southwest Airlines cancelled it.

"It's pretty discouraging that Congress can't get it together, and now it's reached the point that we can't get on an airplane and fly," Seymour said.

On some routes Monday, it was actually faster to take ground transportation. The 8 a.m. US Airways shuttle from Washington to New York pushed back from the gate six minutes early but didn't take off until almost 10 a.m.

The plane landed at 10:48 a.m. more than two and a half hours late. If travellers instead took Amtrak's 8 a.m. Acela Express train from Washington, they arrived in New York at 10:42 a.m. four minutes early.

Normally, there are 10 air traffic controllers at a regional facility handling arrivals for Los Angeles International Airport. On Sunday night, there were just seven, according to Mike Foote, a local union president with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. A low layer of clouds late compounded the situation.

In such weather, two controllers do nothing but watch planes as they descend below 15,000 feet to ensure they don't veer off course. That allows 68 to 70 planes to land each hour. Because of the furloughs, there were no controllers to do that Sunday, dropping the arrival rate to 42 planes an hour, Foote said.

United Airlines said there were "alarming pockets" of delays and warned that if a solution isn't found, the problem could "affect air travel reliability for our customers."

Delta Air Lines cautioned travellers to expect delays in New York, Philadelphia, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Many flights heading to Florida were seeing delays of up to an hour. By late Monday, delays into Los Angeles were expected to average three hours.

Having just one fewer controller to handle arrivals to Newark Liberty International Airport can result in the airport being unable to use a relief runway to handle peak traffic, reducing arrivals by about 15 per cent, said Dean Iacopelli, a union official at an FAA regional facility for New York's airports.

"It is not just telling one out of 10 people to stay home and so one out of 10 planes get delayed. It's much more complicated that," Iacopelli said.

Prior to the furloughs, if a controller called in sick, there were enough people to take on the extra work, Iacopelli said, or somebody could be asked to work overtime. Now that isn't possible.

The FAA has also furloughed other critical employees, including airline and airport safety inspectors.

In a letter to the FAA Friday, Delta general counsel Ben Hirst asked the agency to reconsider the furloughs, saying it could make the cuts elsewhere and transfer funds from "non-safety activities" to support the FAA's "core mission of efficiently managing the nation's airspace."

Two airline trade associations and the nation's largest pilots union filed a lawsuit Friday asking the U.S. Court of Appeals to halt the furloughs. No hearing date has been set.

The two airline associations Airlines for America, which represents major carriers, and the Regional Airline Association are asking the court to place a moratorium on enforcement of the Department of Transportation's three-hour limit on the length of time airlines can keep passengers waiting inside planes on the tarmac without giving them the opportunity to return to a terminal.

Airlines can be fined as much as $27,500 per passenger for violating the limit. The Transportation Department said it is reviewing the industry's request.

___

Associated Press writers Joan Lowy in Washington and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

___

Scott Mayerowitz can be reached at http://twitter.com/GlobeTrotScott .

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A review of the best evidence for interventions to prevent declining brain power finds that only one - mental exercise - consistently makes a difference.

The analysis of clinical trial results for assorted drugs, supplements and activities still can't say, however, whether the brain training programs that do seem to sharpen mental function also improve people's daily lives or lower their risk of developing dementia.

"All we know is you will do better on certain (cognitive) tests. Whether that delays dementia...remains to be seen," said Dr. Raza Naqvi, the study's lead author and a researcher at the University of Toronto.

Mild cognitive impairment may affect as many as a quarter of people over age 70, according to Naqvi and his colleagues. And perhaps 10 percent of those seniors progress to more serious dementia each year, the researchers write in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Numerous products and activity programs claim to be able to slow mental decline, but nothing has proven a surefire way to preserve brainpower.

"Most physicians have a feeling that there isn't anything out there that has shown strong evidence, otherwise we would all be out there promoting it ourselves," said Naqvi.

To see whether any approach fits that bill, or at least seems promising, Naqvi and his colleagues gathered results from all the randomized controlled trials - the gold standard for research - they could find comparing the mental functioning of adults given a particular treatment to others who received no intervention.

Participants in all the trials were 65 years or older and had no mental decline at the beginning of the experiment.

Drugs, hormone therapy (in both men and women), vitamins and supplements including gingko and omega 3s mostly showed no benefits. Indeed, most of the trials involving estrogen replacement therapy for women showed greater cognitive decline among women taking the hormones.

One study of the drug donepezil, which goes by the brand name Aricept and is approved for use to slow the progression of dementia, found improvements in users' ability to recall facts, but experiments with other medications showed no benefits.

"At this time, none of the medications or pharmacologic therapies have any evidence to support their use," Naqvi told Reuters Health. "I don't want researchers to give up - I think it's important to critically look at potential therapies - but I don't think the evidence is there to recommend a lot of these."

Studies that involved physical activity yielded mixed results; of the three that Naqvi's group reviewed, one found no benefit to memory, but an improvement in mental processing known as "executive function."

Another study found some memory benefits, but no other cognitive improvements, while a third saw no change in the performance on tests given to participants who went through an exercise program.

Only mental training - for which there were three studies - yielded positive results every time.

One large study that included more than 2,800 people offered one of three mental training programs focused on memory, reasoning or processing speed.

The participants randomly assigned to the memory group, for instance, went through 10 hour-long training sessions that taught methods for remembering written material, such as word lists.

Two years after the training programs, people who participated in a mental exercise performed better on related tasks than others who did not participate.

In other words, the memory group did better on memory tests than people who received no special training, while the reasoning group did better on reasoning tests.

The researchers also tested how well people performed on everyday tasks, such as finding a number in a phone book or preparing a meal, and found signs that people performed better if they had been through a mental training program.

"There was some evidence then that...specifically our speed and reasoning interventions had begun to transfer to everyday function," said Michael Marsiske, an associate professor at the University of Florida who was involved in the mental exercise study.

But he added that although mental exercises help boost performance on cognitive tests, "it's too early yet to say whether they actually prevent dementia or decline."

Marsiske said that the new review might overstate the benefits of cognitive training as a result of Naqvi and his colleagues selecting only studies that used the most rigorous experimental methods to include in their analysis.

Naqvi said it's difficult to compare the mental exercises used in the studies to those that are available to consumers, because each one is designed differently.

"Regardless, I still recommend to my patients to remain mentally and cognitively active as long as possible in whatever way is stimulating to them," Naqvi said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/11lMrIJ Canadian Medical Association Journal, online April 15, 2013.

Fernandez-Castano's top-20 finish included a third round in the company of Tiger Woods, following on from the world number one's dropped-ball controversy.

Next stop for the genial Spaniard, nicknamed 'Gonzo', is the venue for the only European Tour event this season in his home country.

"It's an indescribable course, there aren't many left like it, a work of art that must be kept and cared for as if it were a Goya or a Picasso," the 32-year-old told the European Tour website (www.europeantour.com).

"Hopefully, we will get some wind, which is its main defense, to add to the spectacle," added the world number 31.

Fernandez-Castano said he was sad that the financial crisis, which has crippled his country's economy, has also deprived Spain of more top-level tournaments.

"It's a shame that we have only one event in Spain this year, and that's the reason why I am here," said the six-times European Tour winner.

"Had it been a different tournament, I would have taken a break, but it's my national Open. I know that Reale and the other sponsors, together with the Federation, have made a great effort to maintain it, so I'm happy to support it."

Fernandez-Castano has been grouped with compatriot Miguel Angel Jimenez, who is making his return to action after breaking his leg skiing, and Italian teenager Matteo Manassero in the first two rounds.

Jimenez, the oldest winner in European Tour history, said he was not yet 100 per cent fit but wanted to test himself on the El Saler course near Valencia where he tied for third in 2001.

"My leg is improving daily. I work out every morning in the gym and I'm actually a little ahead of schedule on my rehab. I can't wait to be back on Tour with my friends," said the 49-year-old who is making his 599th tour appearance.

(Writing by Tom Pilcher in London, Editing by Ed Osmond)

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Ria Romano, PR ManagerBoatForRent.com786-290-6413