NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - There is not enough evidence to recommend for or against screening for oral cancer, a government-backed panel said today, due to a lack of data on possible benefits and harms tied to screening.

The most common causes of oral cancer are cigarette smoking and alcohol as well as the sexually-transmitted human papillomavirus, or HPV. The American Cancer Society estimates 36,000 people will be diagnosed with oral cancer in 2013 and close to 7,000 will die of the disease.

Evidence is lacking on whether screening can accurately detect oral cancer and if earlier treatment of cancers found during those tests improves long-term health, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) found.

"It's not that oral cancer screening has been shown to be ineffective or too risky or that it's been shown to be effective. The huge problem is a lack of studies," said Dr. Maura Gillison, who researches head and neck cancers at The Ohio State University in Columbus.

Researchers found just one study of the effect of oral cancer screening on deaths from cancer, an Indian trial that tracked 192,000 people over nine years. That study did not show screening saved lives overall, but a second look suggested smokers and alcohol drinkers benefited from the cancer checks.

Seven other studies that looked specifically at detection of oral cancer during screening found a wide range of accuracy rates in healthcare workers' positive and negative diagnoses. Those studies were largely conducted in places with more oral cancers than the U.S., such as India and Taiwan, the Task Force noted.

None of the trials estimated how many people suffer screening-related harms, such as from further tests and treatments tied to false-positives.

The new recommendations, currently in draft form, will be available for public comment through May 6 here: http://bit.ly/cy0SzP.

Gillison, who is not part of the USPSTF, said it's still a good idea for doctors and dentists to know the early signs of oral cancer, including red or white patches, ulcerations or a mass in the mouth or swelling of the lymph nodes.

Researchers "are trying to alert primary care providers to the signs of a cancer, so that there isn't a delay in appropriate diagnosis and treatment," Gillison said. "We are all in favor of increased knowledge, increased awareness."

"This is not a recommendation about what to do if you have a symptom," agreed Dr. Albert Siu, co-vice chair of the USPSTF from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

"If you find something in your mouth, if you're concerned about something in your mouth, by all means bring it to the attention of your doctor or your dentist," he told Reuters Health.

For people without symptoms, he said, the lack of evidence one way or another makes screening an individual call.

"If you have risk factors - heavy smoking, heavy alcohol use - it's something to discuss with your doctor in terms of if it's worth looking in your mouth to check," Siu said. "I think that's something that would be reasonable."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/cy0SzP U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, online April 8, 2013.

LONDON (Reuters) - Politicians in Germany and France say they will press for Google Inc to be quizzed on corporate income tax after a Reuters report highlighted how the company employs sales staff in the UK while telling the tax authorities that sales are made from Ireland.

The report showed the company advertised for "sales" staff to "negotiate" and "close" deals, although a Google executive had told parliament its London-based employees did not sell to UK clients. British lawmakers plan to call Google to testify again to a parliamentary committee to clarify what work it does in Britain.

Currently Google has no taxable presence in France, Germany or Britain in relation to its advertising business, from which it makes almost all its profit, allowing the company to operate almost tax-free in these countries. Whether staff in a country sell could have a big impact on its tax bill, tax lawyers and academics say.

Like Google UK, Google designates its French and German units as providers of marketing and support services to Google Ireland, which pays most of its turnover to an affiliate in Bermuda; and gives the subsidiaries enough to cover their costs and generate a small taxable profit.

In April, Google advertised dozens of French and German-based positions in job categories that fall within the area it describes as "selling". It has now changed many adverts, but several staff based in France and Germany still say on networking website LinkedIn that they fulfill sales roles.

In 2011, French tax authorities raided Google in an investigation of whether its Paris office does sales work, and the country has asked the company for 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in back taxes. In Germany, where one advert told candidates for "Enterprise Account Manager (Munich)" that they would "seal the deal and help make the world a more Googley place", one lawmaker said he would call for an investigation.

Google spokesman Peter Barron said the company follows tax rules in every country where it operates; references to selling in job ads reflected the fact Google liked to hire people with a sales background.

He declined to say whether staff in France or Germany did engage in negotiation of contracts or closed deals.

"We accept that the wording of some job adverts may have been confusing, and we are working to make it clearer," he said.

"FALSE DELOCALISATION"

In France, the company's own website says its Paris office is "the hub for all sales activity in Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa".

Pierre-Alain Muet, vice-president of the National Assembly's finance commission and a member of the ruling Socialist party, said he planned to quiz Google about the apparent inconsistencies when it appears before a parliamentary committee this month looking into how multinationals structure themselves to minimize tax bills.

"If this is true then it seems to me that the tax administration can already intervene ... It would no longer be a case of fiscal optimization, but of an operation in a country that's being falsely delocalized," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Muet said he would publish a report on the topic in July, with the aim of making legislative proposals to close tax loopholes.

Philippe Marini, senator with France's UMP centre-right opposition party, said the evidence from France would boost the case the French tax authority already has against Google.

Marini, who heads the Senate's finance commission, has pushed for a tax on online advertising and ecommerce since 2010.

MORE THAN LOOPHOLES

In Germany, Sven Giegold, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the German Green Party, said he would call on the tax authority in Hamburg, where Google Germany is based, to investigate the company's affairs.

Google should publicly explain the apparent discrepancy between the different statements it has made about the nature of its German unit's business, he said.

A spokesman for the German government said taxation was a matter for state tax authorities, as Germany does not have a single federal tax administration. The Hamburg tax office did not respond to a request for comment.

Giegold said the Reuters report showed tax authorities across Europe needed to act more firmly and not just blame shortcomings in international tax law for allowing companies to get away with paying low or no tax.

"The potential to limit tax avoidance by transnational corporations from the point of national tax authorities is tremendous," he said.

Google does not disclose its French or German sales but from 2006 to 2011, according to statutory filings, Google generated $18 billion in revenues from the UK, whose economy is roughly comparable to France's and smaller than Germany's.

The company paid $16 million in UK taxes over the period. It had an income tax bill of 19 million euros in Germany, and 13 million euros in France.

(Additional reporting by Annika Breidthardt in Berlin and Jean-Baptiste Vey in Paris; Edited by Sara Ledwith and William Waterman)

(This story corrects paragraph 3 to show Google not having taxable presence in France and Germany referred to Google Inc's core business. Google units are subject to tax on any profit from fees from affiliates. See tax charges in paragraph 22 as in original)

BOSTON (Reuters) - Writer Dan Baum, a self-described Jewish liberal Democrat and a gun enthusiast since childhood, strapped a revolver to his side in 2009 and set off on an 18-month, 15,000 mileexploration of the U.S. firearms culture.

His book, "Gun Guys: A Road Trip," was released this month amid a gun-control debate rekindled by the December 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Baum, who lives in Boulder, Colorado, says it was a challenge to write for two polarized audiences: liberals and fiercely protective gun lovers.

He spoke to Reuters about America's gun culture, semi-automatic weapons and what he learned about himself from writing the book.

Q: Are you a gun guy, or were you acting?

A: I'm a gun guy, and I live in a world of anti-gun people. Being a liberal Democrat, my whole social world is among people who dislike guns and dislike gun people.

Q: What should gun-control advocates know about America's gun culture?

A: Guns are cool; they're fun; they're mechanically gorgeous; they last forever.

But the really deep stuff is - we have a lot of freedom in this country to own guns. Our gun laws bespeak a trust in the people. And for the gun guys, this is really what America is about.

The ones who mostly buy guns are straight, white, middle-aged men, rural, who have not finished college, and that is a demographic that has seen their world collapse in all kinds of ways. The NRA (National Rifle Association) comes along and whispers in their ear, "Yeah, you're pissed, you know why? Because the liberals want to take away your guns."

Gun guys derive tremendous pride from being able to manage these incredibly dangerous devices safely, and then along come these pointy-headed urban liberals who have never had any guns, and they want to tell you that you can't be trusted with this device. It is unimaginably offensive.

I'm not asking you to like these people. But I'm asking you to listen to them. They are not just testosterone-poisoned death freaks.

Q: And what can the 100 million U.S. gun owners do to lower the temperature?

A: Gun guys have to get serious about locking up their guns. Most of the bad (stuff) that happens with guns in the United States happens with guns that some law-abiding gun owner left unattended.

The problem is, gun guys do not see themselves as responsible for gun violence. Gun guys have to accept, I have to accept, that my guns affect you.

Q: You quote a prediction that President Obama would push for gun control if re-elected.

A: I lost a $100 bet with a guy. I said there's no way that the Democrats are going to make another serious run at gun control. I think they're going to pay big time. Until the gun-control push after Sandy Hook, we had a chance of taking the House (of Representatives) ... Now we have no chance.

Q: Is it wrong to focus on controlling semi-automatic rifles, particularly the AR-15.?

A: It's ignorant. The gun-control world is trying to pass off the AR-15 as some kind of bizarre outlier of the gun world, when in fact it's all anybody wants to shoot.

Q: What did you learn about yourself through this book?.

A: I am no less a Democrat, I am no less an Obama supporter. But I really understand the conservative lament that we are becoming a nation of weak, disrespected, over-managed individuals.

Q: You depicted conversations and scenes at which you were not present. How did you come about your story-telling style.?

A: I ask a lot of questions. If I can go see the place where it happened I do that. I try to talk to as many people who were there as I can. It takes time to get that out of people. I'm writing about ordinary people and I try very hard to portray them the way they want to be portrayed.

Q: You've also written about the drug wars. How does the gun-control effort compare?

A: The gun issue, like the drug issue, is used to avoid talking about all kinds of stuff that's much more central. We have gone out of our way to avoid having any sense of collective care. If we have people wigging out and killing people, maybe it's because we have created a society where everybody is extremely alienated and extremely stressed. And it's getting more so, because the one percent are getting an increased amount of wealth, leaving less for the rest of us.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Paul Simao)

[More from BGR: ]

This article was

But when Holmes got to page 13, there it was againThe Suns regular topless featurelarger than life, and larger than the images of female sporting prowess: it had just been moved back 10 pages for the occasion. It really pissed me off, Holmes says. The paper is always showing pictures of men in suits doing things, while women just stand around in their underpants.

It was that night, lying awake and annoyed, Holmes resolved to start the No More Page3 campaign. But taking on a national institution isnt easy.

For the past 43 years, if you turned over the front page of Britains bestselling newspaper, youd invariably be confronted by a pair of naked breasts. Their appearance might change. In the past, the girls on the page were often teenagers with breasts that looked augmented and improbable; more recently, theres been a move toward a more natural and less adolescent look. But every daily edition of the tabloid has, for almost half a century, promoted an idea of female availability. So prominent is Page 3 that satirical magazine Private Eye accorded the papers proprietor the moniker Rupert Thanks for the Mammaries Murdoch.

In the early 70s, the novelty was a succs du scandale. Murdoch had already bought the worlds bestselling English-language newspaper in 1969, the now shuttered News of the World, which thrived historically on murder and salacious sex exposs. But the daily Sun, which he acquired soon after, had a staid reputation. So Murdoch ordered a redesign to mimic the more successful Daily Mirror, and added a topless model on the inside pagean innovation actually started by a rival Australian paper in 1966.

In the subsequent furor, The Sun was banned from some public libraries, but peddling soft porn didnt exactly hurt sales. Combined with canny TV advertising and stories focused on football and soap stars, The Sun became Britains most popular selling newspaper within a decade, selling more than 4million copies a day by the time of Margaret Thatchers election in 1979.

Though often referred to as a bit of fun, Page 3 has been an icon of Murdochs tabloid project. Like The Suns famous headline when the Argentine cruiser, the Belgrano, was torpedoed by a British submarine during the 1982 Falklands warGotcha!the daily pin-up helped sum up the chirpy shock-jock tone. Page 3 appealed to a male constituency of working-class conservatives, who still enjoyed the social permissiveness of the 60s. Those who disapproved were killjoys, snobs, censorious feminists.

When during a parliamentary debate in 1986 over a law banning sex-education materials the Labour politician Clare Short suggested Page 3 would be a better candidate, she was ferociously vilified. The YouTube video showing her being jeered by male M.P.s is a lesson in how what purports to be a celebration of the female form quickly lurches into misogyny. Nearly 20 years later The Sun was still on the attack, with an editorial: Fat, jealous Clare brands Page 3 porn. When it comes to breasts and the British press, the personal is political.

So Page 3 is a peculiarly British battleground in the culture wars. Its prominent in one of the most famous editions of The Sun. On the morning of the 1992 general election, after a front page attacking Labour leader Neil Kinnock, the feature pictured a large, middle-aged woman in Victorian underwear, wearing a clownish red wig with the caption: Heres what Page Three will look like under Kinnock.

The next day, as the Conservative Party was returned for an unexpected fourth successive victory, the front page featured the same clownish figure, dancing in front of the Houses of Parliament, underneath the headline Its the Sun Wot Won It!

Ten years later, taking on Page 3 wasnt any easier. Rebekah Brooks, close confidante of the Murdoch family, said she planned to get rid of the feature when she took over the editorship of The Sun in 2003. But even the ultimate insider and Queen of Fleet Street couldnt actually get rid of the bare-breasted symbol of male liberty, though obvious implants and just 16 models were frowned upon.

Brooks was felled by the phone-hacking scandal, and dozens of senior Sun reporters and editors have been arrested in related bribery allegations over the last year, but the current editor Dominic Mohan vociferously defended Page 3 in the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics as an innocuous British institution. News International might have been holed below the waterline, but if the ship was going down, the seminaked women were going last.

However, Mohan hadnt reckoned on Holmes. Though she had never been involved in a campaign before, within days, Holmes had created a petition at Change.org urging Mohan to drop the bare boobs from The Sun newspaper. She adroitly deployed the laddish tabloid tone for her counterattack. We are asking very nicely, Holmes wrote, using a cheeky humor that has made the campaign hard to dismiss as some dour academic feminism. Television presenters Philip and Holly dont flash up pictures of Danni, 19, from Plymouth, in just her pants and a necklace, on This Morning, do they, Dominic?

Key to the campaign was also the line of attack: Holmes wasnt complaining about erotica, or even soft porn, but to it being so prominent in a family paper: As one of her online petitioners wrote, Boobs arent news. So why are they in the newspaper?

For the past two years, Alison Webster, an award-winning photographer, has been the chief Page 3 photographer and the woman responsible for the marked shift toward health and beauty. When approached for a response to Holmess initiative Webster says, We have a policy of not commenting, because it gives their campaign more publicity. Its so stupid, Webster continues. Just a bunch of feminists and nonfeminists ... People should be able to make their own choices.

In response to the Well, dont buy the newspaper line, Holmes retorts: I dont buy that argument. The paper isnt bought and read in isolation, We all have to live in a society that says, Shut up and get your tits out.

But the campaign is not without its critics, even from self-professed feminists. The columnist Rowan Pelling, formerly editor of The Erotic Review, agrees with Holmes that Page 3 is demeaning. Its just not high on my list of concerns, she says. I wouldnt want my two young boys to see Page3we dont have it in the house anywaybut Im much more worried about mens magazines like Nuts and Loaded, she said. Those lads mags encourage boys to send in naked pictures of their girlfriends, Pelling pointed out. And dont get me started on the Internet ...

Despite resistance and ennui in some quarters, Holmess campaign was quick to take off. It wouldnt have been possible without social media, Holmes says. Twitter helped us approach opinion formers and celebrities, while Facebook linked us all up. In the next few manic months, Holmes got to know hundreds of other women through the Internet who felt the same. Some had disturbing stories of male intimidation, abuse, and even rape, allegedly inspired by the newspapers constant insistence on entitlement to womens bodies.

Given its heavily concentrated ownershipfour male proprietors control 70percent of the British national pressthis was a not cause likely to be taken up by Fleet Street. But social media allowed Holmes to bypass the mainstream media. Celebrities started retweeting links to the petition. Tony Blairs former press supremo, Alastair Campbell, approached on the street by a campaigner, also lent his support on Twitter. And then the extraordinary happened this February. A Tweet Murdoch campaign finally elicited a response.

Using the #nomorepage3 tag @Kazipooh tweeted: Seriously, we are all so over page 3it is so last century! Astonishingly the 82-year-old replied: page three so last century! You maybe [sic] right, dont know but considering. Perhaps halfway house with glamorous fashionistas.

It seemed that, thanks to the extraordinary direct access of the peer-to-peer networks, the campaign might have achieved success in only six months. But it was not to be. Before long, former Labour deputy prime minister John Prescott broadened the attack. I see youre considering axing The Suns Page 3, he tweeted. While youre at it, cut pages 1-2 and 4-76 too. Within days, Murdoch had retracted and complained about politically correct hypocrites who scream about Sun.

Realizing she needed to change tactics, Holmes took a page from the playbook of Avaaz and Political Scrapbook, two websites instrumental in getting Murdochs News of the World closed down after it was revealed its journalists had hacked the phone of a murdered schoolgirl, Milly Dowler. Since Murdoch and The Sun wouldnt budge, she decided to go after the advertisers.

So far, the toy manufacturer Lego has decided not to renew a sponsorship deal with the tabloid. And the upmarket supermarket chain Waitrose is considering removing The Sun from its shelves. Earlier this month, the British Girl Guides expressed its support, and Holmes is currently lobbying Prime Minister David Cameron to ask him if he agrees with the Girl Guides about the demeaning effect of the iconic piece of sexism in the national press. As I write, the online petition is hovering just under the 100,000 mark. The battle for Page 3 is far from over.

Related from The Daily Beast

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Jets cut quarterback Tim Tebow on Monday, ending his ill-conceived stint in the Big Apple and leaving one of the most hyped players in the National Football League (NFL) facing an uncertain future.

The Jets notified Tebow of their decision to waive him after just one season at a voluntary team workout on Monday morning.

"We have a great deal of respect for Tim Tebow," Jets' head coach Rex Ryan said in a statement. "Unfortunately, things did not work out the way we all had hoped.

"Tim is an extremely hard worker, evident by the shape he came back in this offseason. We wish him the best moving forward."

The decision to release Tebow came just two days after the Jets acquired West Virginia University quarterback Geno Smith at the 78th annual NFL Draft.

The Jets already had five quarterbacks, including former first-round draft pick Mark Sanchez, who struggled so badly last season that he lost his starting spot, prompting speculation that someone had to go.

It was little surprise that it was Tebow, who won the Heisman Trophy as most outstanding U.S. college football player in 2007, that got the chop.

His tenure with the Jets was brief and hugely unsuccessful, both for him and the team. One New York newspaper described it as a circus.

Tebow, a devout Christian whose public displays of religiosity polarized public opinion, did not make any public comment about his axing but did post a Bible verse on his Twitter account.

"Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding...in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight," he tweeted.

CULT FIGURE

Tebow had previously been with Denver, taking the Broncos on an improbable run to the 2011 playoffs, despite criticism and reservations about his ability as a passer.

He had quickly become a cult figure. Deeply religious and with a clean-cut image, he became a magnet for sponsors, signing a range of massive endorsement deals, which earned him an estimated $4 million a year.

His jerseys were among the biggest sellers in the NFL and his trademark touchdown celebration, where he kneeled down in prayer, became known as "Tebowing."

In early 2012, the Broncos signed future Hall of Fame quarterback Peyton Manning after he had become a free agent, and traded Tebow to the Jets.

The Jets said they planned to use Tebow on special teams and 'wildcat' plays, as a complement to Sanchez, but the experiment failed and Tebow-Mania never quite took off in the New York.

Tebow, 25, spent most of each game stuck on the bench and the Jets, who missed the playoffs, were ridiculed for acquiring him and not playing him when Sanchez struggled.

Tebow's immediate future remains uncertain. Most NFL pundits said he was unlikely to be claimed in the short term because of his high salary, but once he clears waivers, he would be able to sign with any team as a free agent.

He had previously linked with the Jacksonville Jaguars, his hometown team, but the Jaguars had ruled that out. Other teams have said they might interested in him, in a different position from quarterback.

FINANCIALLY SECURE

Another option could be the Canadian Football League, although he would not be guaranteed a starting spot there either.

"If he wants to come to Canada he would be in the same situation as the one he was in with New York," Jim Popp, the general manager of the CFL's Montreal Alouettes, told TSN.

Financially, Tebow's future looks secure. Of his five corporate sponsors, three did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and two said they were undeterred by the quarterback's departure from the Jets.

" is not based solely on football and Tim exceeds his status as a football player," said Steve Wymer, a spokesperson for TiVo.

"Hopefully he'll have a better season this coming year than he did last year, since this clearly this has been a crazy season with the NY Jets."

Lan Kennedy-Davis, the chief executive of SOUL electronics, said her company was "100 percent behind Tim Tebow regardless of his team."

"We support Tim, we like Tim, and he's our ambassador because he stands for greatness - not just in football but in what he does in his life," she said.

(Additional reporting by Atossa Abrahamian in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Congress sifts through a growing number of requests for targeted relief from automatic spending cuts in coming weeks, advocates seeking funding shifts likely will need to tell a compelling story with potential life-or-death consequences.

Requests without such a strong selling point may find it impossible to gain enough bipartisan support as lawmakers vow not to repeat a swift and controversial action last week to save airline travelers from flight delays caused by automatic "sequestration" spending cuts.

Congress was worried about a toxic public backlash when it moved quickly to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to use some airport improvement funds to pay salaries of air traffic controllers, ending furloughs that had delayed thousands of flights across the country.

When members of Congress return from a recess on Monday, there will be no shortage of other requests to shift funds from other budget accounts awaiting them.

The National Park Service faces closures and cutbacks that will cost jobs in communities that depend on the parks as the summer travel season begins. Some 70,000 children may be shut out of the Head Start preschool program for low-income families while funding for Meals on Wheels, cancer research and some treatments for Medicare patients will be cut.

The Pentagon is expected to ask for more authority to move up to $7.5 billion within its budget to cover costs for training and military operations in Afghanistan. With troops still in harm's way, that request likely will face few objections.

More needs will pile up As the across-the-board spending cuts - $85 billion through September 30 - take hold. But most will fall on deaf ears as lawmakers insist that a comprehensive budget deal is needed to resolve sequester cuts, not individual fixes.

"With the possible exception of life-threatening issues, there will be plenty of pleas from people who represent worthy causes that get ignored," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research, an investment consulting firm.

"It's extremely unlikely that House Republicans will be willing to grant exceptions for national parks, Meals on Wheels or teachers," he said.

The sequester cuts that took effect March 1 were conceived in 2011 as a way to force the White House and Congress to find an alternative budget deal rather than have spending cuts kick in automatically. Policymakers failed to reach such an agreement and now must deal with the fallout from the cuts, which total will total $1.2 trillion over 10 years unless replaced.

Last month's flight delays created a mix of pressure from the airline industry and constituents facing a universally loathed problem that both parties could rally around.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, is not inclined to pursue additional one-off measures to deal with sequester, a Democratic leadership aide said. Reid would prefer to press forward with his proposal to simply delay the cuts through September 30 in order to buy more time for a broader budget deal.

"I just don't see another one-off bill that's going to rise to the same level as flight delays," a senior House Republican aide said.

Many House Republicans also are concerned about giving the Obama administration more authority to move money between budget accounts at federal agencies, which circumvents Congress' constitutional powers to direct spending.

In the case of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Republican aide said there is concern that such budget shifts could inadvertently give the agency power to help fund implementation of Obama's healthcare reform law, which many Republicans deeply despise and want to repeal.

SAY NO TO CANCER PATIENTS?

But funding cutbacks for some Medicare cancer treatments and cancer research studies also could be difficult for many lawmakers to resist.

The most concerted effort in this area is a Republican House bill that would exempt Medicare reimbursements on expensive cancer drugs administered at doctors' offices and clinics - one of the few portions of the healthcare program for the elderly that is subject to the sequester. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would have to shift cuts in these reimbursement rates elsewhere under the measure.

The bill's author, Representative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, a Tea Party favorite, argues that because of the sequester, oncology clinics have been sending patients to hospitals to get their drugs.

But hospital treatment costs, which are not subject to sequester, are far higher - an average increase of $6,500 per patient per year, according to one study. Ellmers argues that this circumvents the whole point of sequester spending cuts.

"We don't want to see treatments delayed, and some patients on fixed incomes might skip treatment altogether if they are forced to go across town to a hospital," said Ellmers, who spent two decades as a surgical nurse before winning a seat in Congress in 2010.

The measure has substantial bipartisan support, with 51 cosponsors including 11 Democrats. Separately, 124 House members from both parties signed a letter to the CMS director asking that "any available flexibility be used to direct the cuts away from patients."

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner declined to comment on the bill's prospects for passage, referring questions about it to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

THREAT TO CANCER TRIALS

Cancer research doctors also say further sequester funding cutbacks could ultimately cost lives.

Dr. Scott Lippman, director of the University of California-San Diego Moores Cancer Center, said the sequester will mean fewer clinical trials for promising therapies, and some patients ultimately will be turned away from these trials. Research on new treatments also could be slowed.

"This going to harm patients," Lippman said. "This is going to prevent patients from getting treatments that could save their lives."

At a time when advancements in cancer research are moving very quickly with new gene-based discoveries, he said now is "not the time to be slamming on the brakes."

While no trials have been canceled yet due to sequester alone, research centers are working hard to try to cut everything else that they can, said Dr. Edward Partridge, director of the University of Alabama-Birmingham's Comprehensive Cancer Center. But the choices will be difficult.

"We will do everything we can to maintain our current clinical trial volume," he said. "Even if it's at the expense of new discovery. I hope (sequester) doesn't last too long so that we have to withdraw the possibility of clinical trials for patients. That would be a disaster."

(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Fred Barbash and Bill Trott)

CVS Caremark's first-quarter net income jumped 23 percent to top Wall Street's expectations, as generic drugs continued to improve profitability even though those prescriptions hurt revenue.

Generic drugs, which are cheaper, copycat versions of brand-name medicines, help a drugstore's bottom line because they provide a wider margin between the cost for the pharmacy to purchase the drugs and the reimbursement received. But they hurt drugstore revenue because generics cost less than brand-name drugs.

Drugstores and pharmacy benefits managers, or PBMs, which run prescription drug plans for employers and other customers, have reaped gains for several quarters now from a wave of patent expirations that have hit top-selling drugs. Patents protecting the world's two biggest selling drugs cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix expired in 2011 and 2012, respectively. That has exposed those medicines to intense competition from cheaper generic drugs.

CVS runs the second-largest drugstore chain with 7,400 locations and one of the nation's largest PBMs. It has benefited from the trend so much so that generic drugs now make up more than 81 percent of the prescriptions filled at its retail pharmacies, up from 78.1 percent in last year's first quarter.

"That's probably going to be a trend moving forward," said Vishnu Lekraj, a Morningstar analyst who covers CVS.

He said more generic prescriptions are being filled at pharmacies because they are cheaper, and drug plans are adjusting their formularies, or payment tiers, to encourage that

The Woonsocket, R.I., company said it has spurred greater generic drug use in part by creating a "value formulary" for prescription drug plan customers that limits use of more expensive brand-name drugs.

In addition to generic drugs, CVS said its first quarter results were boosted by a strong flu season and new clients. The company also said prescription drug plans for the government's Medicare program for seniors and disabled people brought more claims to its pharmacy network.

In the quarter, CVS earned $956 million, or 77 cents per share. That compares with earnings of $776 million, or 59 cents per share, in last year's quarter.

Adjusted earnings totaled 83 cents per share in the most recent quarter, and revenue fell slightly to $30.76 billion. Analysts expected, on average, earnings of 79 cents per share on about $30.37 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

CVS Caremark said it is still benefiting from last year's business split between competitors Walgreen Co., the nation's largest drugstore chain, and Express Scripts Holding Co., the largest PBM. Those companies went several months at the start of 2012 without a new contract to work together, and many Walgreen customers migrated to CVS stores during the impasse because they needed a new place to fill prescriptions.

CVS Caremark CEO Larry Merlo told analysts they remain confident they will keep at least 60 percent of the prescriptions it gained through this year.

CVS Caremark also said Wednesday that it narrowed its forecast for 2013 earnings to a range of $3.89 to $4 per share. That compares to its forecast earlier this year for earnings of $3.86 to $4 per share. Analysts expect, on average, earnings of $3.96 per share.

CVS executives told analysts the company had a strong first quarter, but they narrowed their 2013 forecast instead of raising it to account for federal government funding cuts that will hit Medicare prescription drug coverage and for costs CVS Caremark incurred to consolidate some of its Medicare plans at the start of the year.

"We're very comfortable with where we stand, but we're ... one quarter into a four-quarter year, and we're going to play this out," Chief Financial Officer David Denton said.

CVS shares added 57 cents to close at $58.75 Wednesday. In earlier trading, its shares hit an all-time high of $59.25, according to FactSet.

Wednesday's all-time high topped the previous mark of $58.50 set just last week. The stock has been climbing since the company announced in December that it would raise the quarterly cash dividend it pays shareholders by more than 6 cents, or 38 percent, to 22.5 cents per share.

The share price has already risen more than 20 percent so far this year, and the stock has set and then topped several all-time high prices.

Analysts say investors also like CVS because of the dividend and the company's potential under the health care overhaul. The massive federal law is expected to expand prescription drug coverage to millions of uninsured people starting next year, and that should increase business for drugstores and PBMs.

The event comes amid rapid growth in the number of people who access Facebook from smartphones and tablet computers. More Android integration could help Facebook Inc. attract more mobile advertisers. Though mobile ads were a big concern for Facebook's investors even before the company's initial public offering last May, some of the worry has subsided as the company muscles its way into the market.

Last year, Facebook began showing ads to its mobile audience by shoehorning corporate-sponsored content into users' news feeds, which also include updates from friends and brands they follow. Facebook now faces the challenge of showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

Facebook's event was being held at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Here's a running account of Facebook's event, presented in reverse chronological order. All times are PDT. Presenters include CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Adam Mosseri, director of products; Joey Flynn, product designer. Also appearing were HTC's CEO and AT&T's head of wireless. A question-and-answer session followed the main presentation, which lasted about 45 minutes.

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11:30 a.m.

Here's a list of phones that will be able to run Home at first: HTC's One X and One X Plus and Samsung's Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. The upcoming HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S IV will also be able to run Home. HTC's First will have it already installed.

Facebook says it hopes to extend that to other phones later.

Gartner analyst Brian Blau says he's impressed with Facebook's commitment to update Home once a month with additional features. He says Home "could be a game changer if you are a heavy Facebook user."

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11:15 a.m.

More details are emerging on the new HTC phone. Called First, it will run on Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. It will come with the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram already installed. Cost is $100 with a two-year service agreement. The new device will have a screen that measures 4.3 inches diagonally.

The April 12 sale date happens to be when the iPhone 5 becomes available through T-Mobile.

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11:05 a.m.

Home will be limited to phones running the Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean versions of Android. That's version 4.0 and later. That covers phones made or updated over the past year or so.

Initially, the app will be limited to specific Android models about a half-dozen of them, including Samsung Electronic Co.'s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. It will also work on the upcoming Galaxy S IV. In addition, HTC Corp.'s upcoming First phone will come with Home.

It's not immediately clear what happens if you have Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean but not one of the models listed.

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11 a.m.

Mosseri says ads will eventually come to this new service. It will be interspersed among the items displayed on the home screen, the way Facebook now injects ads into the main news feed showing friends' photos, links and other posts. But in this case, the ads will take up the entire display.

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10:55 a.m.

The new Home service won't be available on Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. Apple's iOS and Mac operating systems include features that integrate Facebook's services, but Zuckerberg says doing something like Home would require a closer partnership.

By contrast, Google makes its Android operating system available on an open-source basis, free for anyone to modify, so it's easier to make changes. That said, Facebook makes it clear it's not making a new version of Android, a practice known as forking. Home is being built on top of Android.

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10:50 a.m.

Minutes after the event ends, Facebook's stock is up 74 cents, or 2.8 percent, at $26.99.

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10:45 a.m.

Zuckerberg closes the event by expressing his vision of the future, one where people have smartphones and tablet computers rather than desktops and laptops. He says there will be people who have never seen what we call computers these days.

He says Home feeds into that vision.

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10:40 a.m.

While people will be able to install Home themselves, some phone makers will build Home into the phones. HTC Corp. is releasing a phone called First. It will come in four colors red, light blue, white and black. It will run on AT&T Inc.'s 4G LTE cellular network and go on sale April 12 for $100, with advance orders to begin Thursday. A two-year service agreement is required.

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10:35 a.m.

To get Home, simply go to Google's online Play store when it's available. Those with Facebook apps on the phone already will get a prompt to download it. The software will be updated with new features monthly.

It will be available April 12 on certain phones initially.

Facebook isn't making Home for tablet devices for several months, though.

Zuckerberg tells the audience, "We are really proud of Home and we are excited to get (it) into your hands. We think this is the best version of Facebook there is."

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10:30 a.m.

Flynn unveils a feature called chat heads. The idea is to let you communicate with your friends from that home screen, without needing to open an app. You can chat with multiple people at once that way.

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10:25 a.m.

Mosseri describes one of the main features of the new service. It's called cover feed.

He notes that when people look at their phones now, they typically see a clock and perhaps the snippet of an email. That will change if you have the Home service activated. As soon as you turn on your phone, you'll see photos. You can swipe from one to the next from the home screen.

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10:20 a.m.

The new service is called Home. Pictures from your Facebook news feed would take up the entire display screen. Zuckerberg says you'll be seeing the world through people rather than apps.

He gives an example of standing in line at a store and looking down at the phone to see photos of friends and family. It'll be possible to flip through the items. If there's something you like, just double tap on it to "like" it. You can also add comments from the home screen.

With this, Facebook doesn't believe you'll need to go to the Facebook app any more.

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10:15 a.m.

Zuckerberg says Facebook isn't building a Facebook phone, saying a Facebook-centered device might sell 10 million to 20 million units at best. Rather, it's building on the existing Android system to bring this experience to a wider group of Android users.

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10:10 a.m.

Zuckerberg talks about a new way to approach Facebook on phones.

He asks, "Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about?" Better, he says, is to have that experience come right to the home screen, so you're always knowing what is going on around you.

He makes a comparison to the company's news feed feature, which brought friends' posts to a centralized place and reduced the need for people to check their friends' profile pages one by one.

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10:05 a.m.

Zuckerberg walks on stage and addresses the rumors head on: "Today, we're finally going to talk about that Facebook phone."

He then adds that more specifically, Facebook will talk about turning the Android phone into a simple, social device.

He says the bipartisan bill to end furloughs of air traffic controllers is a "Band-Aid" solution rather than a lasting answer to this year's $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester.

The cuts have affected all federal agencies, and flight delays last week left thousands of travelers frustrated and furious and Congress feeling pressured to respond.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced Saturday that it had suspended all employee furloughs and that air traffic facilities would begin returning to regular staffing levels over the next 24 hours.

The FAA's statement said the air traffic system would resume normal operations by Sunday evening.

"Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they've decided it was a bad idea all along," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address, aired Saturday.

He singled out the GOP even though the bill passed with overwhelming Democratic support in both the House and Senate.

The president scolded lawmakers for helping the Federal Aviation Administration while doing nothing to replace other cuts that he said harm federal employees, unemployed workers and preschoolers in Head Start.

"Maybe because they fly home each weekend, the members of Congress who insisted these cuts take hold finally realized that they actually apply to them, too," Obama said.

Rushed through Congress with remarkable speed, the bill marked a shift for Democrats who had hoped the impact of the cuts would increase pressure on Republicans to reverse the broad cuts.

Republicans have rejected Obama's proposal to replace the spending reductions with a mix of spending cuts and tax increases.

"There are some in the Obama administration who thought inflicting pain on the public would give the president more leverage to avoid making necessary spending cuts, and to impose more tax hikes on the American people," said Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania in the Republican address.

Shuster, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the FAA could have averted the flight delays on its own by cutting costs elsewhere and rejiggering work schedules, but chose not to do so.

The bill signed by Obama would let the FAA use up to $253 million from an airport improvement program and other accounts to halt the furloughs through the Sept. 30 end of the government's fiscal year.

Faced with the prospect that emboldened Republicans will push to selectively undo other painful effects of the cuts, the White House said Friday that a piecemeal approach would be impractical, but wouldn't definitely rule out signing other fixes.

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Online:

Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov

GOP address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference

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Follow Josh Lederman at https://twitter.com/joshledermanAP