* Team suspected of breaking rules with tyre test

* Case against Ferrari is closed

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes team and tyre supplier Pirelli could face heavy sanctions after Formula One's governing body summoned them to an international tribunal for allegedly carrying out a 'secret' test in breach of the rules.

The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) said in a statement on Wednesday that they had decided to act after conducting a full enquiry into the test that took place in Spain between May 15-17.

Mercedes used their current race car with Britain's 2008 world champion Hamilton and Germany's Nico Rosberg - the winner from pole position in Monaco on May 26 - sharing the driving over three days.

Rivals have accused the team of gaining a significant competitive advantage from the test and behaving in an 'underhand' fashion.

Pirelli dispute that, saying they were testing tyres for 2014 and Mercedes did not know what compounds were being used.

Article 22.1 of Formula One's 2013 sporting regulations bars in-season testing with "cars which conform substantially with the current Formula One technical regulations in addition to those from the previous or subsequent year."

However, Pirelli are allowed, under their commercial contract, a number of 1,000km tests and have previously used a 2010 Renault which they say is some four seconds a lap slower than the 2013 machinery.

Ferrari, who conducted a similar 1,000 km test at the same Barcelona circuit in April but with a 2011 car and test driver, faced no further action because they were not deemed to have contravened the regulations.

No time was set for the tribunal, which could impose stiff sanctions against Mercedes if they are found to have acted illegally.

NEW ENGINE

Already under fire for their quick-wearing 2013 tyres, Pirelli have been pressing to be allowed to test with more up-to-date cars to that they can prepare for the significant challenge of a new V6 engine next year.

The Italian company has yet to agree a contract with the teams and FIA for 2014, however, which has added to their frustration.

Ferrari and world champions Red Bull had made official protests at last month's Monaco Grand Prix when word about the Mercedes test first filtered out, catching other teams by surprise.

It subsequently emerged that Ferrari had also conducted a test from April 23-24 - before the Spanish Grand Prix won by Ferrari's Spanish driver Fernando Alonso.

The Monaco stewards sent a report to the FIA who then sought further information from Pirelli, Mercedes, Ferrari and other teams.

The FIA said its president, Frenchman and former Ferrari team principal Jean Todt, had decided to close the case regarding Ferrari because the use of a 2011 car "is not deemed to contravene the applicable FIA rules."

In the case of Mercedes, the FIA statement said Todt found that "it results from the inquiry that the conditions of this testing may constitute a breach of the applicable FIA rules.

"The FIA International Tribunal is called upon to make a decision in compliance with the FIA Judicial and Disciplinary Rules," it added.

The order Wednesday was met with praise from advocates for girls' and women's rights and scorn from social conservatives and other opponents, who argue the drug's availability takes away the rights of parents of girls who could get it without their permission. It is the latest in a series of rulings in a complex back-and-forth over access to the drug.

The brief order issued by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan permitted two-pill versions of emergency contraception to immediately be sold without restrictions, but the court refused to allow unrestricted sales of the Plan B One-Step contraceptive until it decides the merits of the government's appeal. It did not specify why the two-pill versions were being allowed now, though it said the government failed to meet the requirements necessary to block the lower-court decision.

Department of Justice spokeswoman Allison Price said the government was reviewing the court's order.

Anna Higgins, director of the Family Research Council's Center for Human Dignity, where she focuses on issues including conception and end-of-life care, said the ease of access to the drug was a problem. She described the court's order Wednesday as "confounding."

"Our reaction in general is a concern for the safety of young girls and the rights of parents," she said.

Center for Reproductive Rights President Nancy Northup called the day of the court's order a "historic day for women's health."

"Finally, after more than a decade of politically motivated delays, women will no longer have to endure intrusive, onerous and medically unnecessary restrictions to get emergency contraception," she said in a statement.

The center's litigation director, Julie Rickelman, said the government has two weeks to decide whether to appeal the 2nd Circuit's decision on the stay to the full appeals court or the Supreme Court. Even if there is no appeal of the stay ruling, it was unclear how soon drugstores would move the two-pill emergency contraception from behind the counter. She said she hoped the pills would be available without restriction within a month.

"What it does mean is that generic two-pill products are going to be readily available to women without age restrictions, on any drugstore shelf," Rickelman said. "It'll be like buying Tylenol. You'll be able to go get it off the drugstore shelf, no ID, at the regular counter."

Dr. Georges Benjamin, of the American Public Health Association, said the court was right to allow women of child-bearing age to have access to emergency contraception, saying he was "hopeful that the full appeals court, when it finally decides, will have the same view."

The government has appealed U.S. District Judge Edward Korman's underlying April 5 ruling, which ordered emergency contraceptives based on the hormone levonorgestrel be made available without a prescription, over the counter and without point-of-sale or age restrictions.

The government asked the judge to suspend the effect of that ruling until the appeals court could decide the case, but the judge declined, saying the government's decision to restrict sales was "politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent." He also said there was no basis to deny the request to make the drugs widely available.

The government had argued that "substantial market confusion" could result if the judge's ruling were enforced while appeals were pending, only to be later overturned.

The morning-after pill contains a higher dose of the female progestin hormone than is in regular birth control pills. Taking it within 72 hours of rape, condom failure or just forgetting regular contraception can cut the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent. But it works best within the first 24 hours. If a girl or woman already is pregnant, the pill has no effect. It prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg.

The Food and Drug Administration was preparing in 2011 to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill with no limits when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius overruled her own scientists in an unprecedented move.

The FDA announced in early May that Plan B One-Step could be sold without a prescription to those 15 and older. Its maker, Teva Women's Health, plans to begin those sales soon. Sales had previously been limited to those who were at least 17.

Korman, the judge, later ridiculed the FDA changes, saying they established "nonsensical rules" that favored sales of the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill and were made "to sugarcoat" the government's appeal.

He also said they place a disproportionate burden on blacks and the poor by requiring a prescription for less expensive generic versions of the drug bought by those under age 17 and by requiring those over age 17 to show proof-of-age identification at a pharmacy.

Plan B One-Step is the newer version of emergency contraception the same drug but combined into one pill instead of two.

___

Neergaard reported from Washington.

"I am confident the Physician Services Organization for Patient Care will save local practices," said Stephen L. Brotherton, MD, president of the Texas Medical Association (TMA). "Texas doctors are determined to make health care better and more affordable for Texans.

"To do that, we need to shift the balance of power away from the government and the large hospital systems, and back to the patients and their physicians."

In addition to TMA, the Dallas County Medical Society (DCMS) and Harris County Medical Society (HCMS) are key members of the Physician Services Organization for Patient Care. The center will bring in new and existing physician groups, health plans, and technology vendors as needed to test and develop effective new care models.

"The health care landscape is changing dramatically for solo physicians to large group practices," said DCMS President Cynthia Sherry, MD. "This new organization will help all types of physicians deal with this great change. DCMS is proud to partner with TMA to provide these essential tools to physicians. Together we will help physicians meet quality benchmarks for patient care, leverage information technology, and compete successfully in changing financial models. The real winners will be patients."

"The Physician Services Organization for Patient Care will provide services to help physicians navigate the changing health care delivery system," said HCMS President Russell W. H. Kridel. "The best use of a physician's time is in directly taking care of the patient one on one, not in dealing with red tape, reporting measures, and compliance regulations. This is exactly what is needed to maintain the sacred patient-physician relationship. It's very exciting to see new innovative projects like this that can help physicians spend more time with their patients."

The organization will offer services that bolster physicians' clinical and financial autonomy, tailored to a practice's current level of sophistication. A key element will be providing physicians easy access to data to measure and improve their clinical performance and their financial viability.

"This is a physician-driven enterprise to improve patient care," said TMA Board of Trustees member Dan McCoy, MD, who chaired the task force that developed the project plan. "The Physician Services Organization for Patient Care will use the latest technology and data analytics tools to bolster the bedrock of our profession: the patient-physician relationship."

For example, one service might help physicians comb through their data to identify chronically ill patients who need extra help to stay as healthy as possible and stay out of the hospital. Another might align primary care physicians and specialists to better coordinate the care they provide to their common patients.

"The market is shifting rapidly. Physicians are under tremendous pressure to change what they've been doing. But no one is helping them do that," Dr. Brotherton said. "This is a very high priority."

Added Don Read, MD, of Dallas, a member of the TMA Board of Trustees, "This is the most important thing TMA has done since tort reform."

About the Texas Medical Association:TMA is the largest state medical society in the nation, representing more than 47,000 physician and medical student members. It is located in Austin and has 120 component county medical societies around the state. TMA's key objective since 1853 is to improve the health of all Texans.

About the Dallas County Medical Society: DCMS unites and empowers physicians to support the health of all residents in the metropolitan region. DCMS is a professional organization of approximately 6,400 local physicians, medical students, and residents dedicated to serving Dallas area patients.

About the Harris County Medical Society: HCMS, established in 1903, is the professional society for physicians in Harris County. It is the largest county medical society in the nation, with a membership of more than 11,000 physicians and medical students. Its mission is to be the leading advocate for its member physicians, their patients, and the community, in promoting the highest standards of ethical medical practice, access to quality medical care, medical education, research, and community health.

Contacts: Steve Levine (512) 370-1380; cell: (512) 750-0971; email: Pam Udall (512) 370-1382; cell: (512) 413-6807; email: Brent Annear (512) 370-1381; cell: (512) 656-7320; email: Lauren Cowling, DCMS; (214) 413-1447; cell: (214) 215-0060 Jennifer Snyder, HCMS; (713) 524-4267; email:

. Check outfor interesting and timely news on health care issues and policy.

SOURCE Texas Medical Association

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2. Maverick Vinales (Spain) KTM 1:57.669

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The Superland park near Tel Aviv came under fire after reports emerged this week that it designated separate visiting times for groups of Jewish and Arab children. The reports sparked outrage and touched on the already sensitive relations between the country's Jews and Arab.

Several Israeli officials lashed out at the park, with one even calling for it to be shut down, and the country's attorney general was asked to look into the matter. Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said he was "shocked and embarrassed" about the incident.

The park said it had merely sought to accommodate requests from certain Jewish and Arab schools who wanted to hold separate end-of-school events at the park and that while it may have erred in judgment, it did not act out of malice.

The park said it would appeal to the Education Ministry for guidelines in such cases in the future.

"There has never been, isn't and never will be expressions of racism at the Superland," a statement from the park said. "We apologize before Jews and Arabs who were offended by the Superland's agreement to the schools' requests and will act to implement guidelines on this issue on a national level."

Arabs make up about 20 percent of Israel's 8 million residents and often complain of being treated as second-class citizens. Some Israeli Jews consider the minority to be disloyal for sympathizing with the country's enemies.

The amusement park uproar comes just days after a hawkish Israeli lawmaker submitted a controversial bill that would prioritize Judaism over democracy in matters of religion and state in Israel, a move widely perceived to be a swipe at Arabs.

So my earliest impressions of Twitter were similar to what a lot of people thought, which was that it was a mass text message board that anytime someone you were friends with farted, you would find out about it.

And as much as I enjoy my friends farts, I want to savor them, I want them to be special, you know?

The most important three things about me are, Im a dad, a husband and a comedian. I think thats about it. Im mostly boring compared to all the garbage that you read about online. Ive always been a weirdo.

Why do you say that youve always been a weirdo?

Ive always enjoyed silly, funny, outrageous, insane things for their entertainment value. Im addicted to laughing and making other people laugh so I spend most of my waking moments either trying to make funny things or consume them -- for better or for worse. My life has a singular focus, certainly.

If I were a woman, when I encountered sexism Id be like BRB, Im gonna go *MAKE A HUMAN* IN MY BODY LIKE A MAGICAL GOD, YOU SAD OAF.

What were you doing before Twitter?

Im guessing Twitter has changed that.

Yeah, very, very dramatically. I am able to now sell places out on the road, which is the greatest thing that ever happened, as far Im concerned. Its afforded me insane opportunities. As I said, I was pursuing all the classic avenues that a comedian does to make a living beforehand, but Twitter pretty much pole-vaulted me into another universe. So Im very cognizant of that.

Youre sort of a poster boy for the success a comedian can have by making himself known through Twitter. Has anyone from Twitter reached out to you?

I was summoned to headquarters maybe a year-and-a-half ago and we just shot the breeze. They kinda wanted to know what I liked about it, what I didnt like. And we just sort of had a little brain-smush together, and that was fun. Any time Ive interacted with anyone who works at Twitter-- you know, theyre pretty youth-savvy and interesting and interested in what Im doing and what people are doing with Twitter.

Im curious to hear what you told them you didnt like.

I told them that for my purposes, I need no bells and whistles. I am after the pure experience of what can I get in 140 characters. Twitter for me could be a white box that I put jokes in. Im very interested, of course, in how many people share my jokes or are retweeting, but thats literally the only bell I need. I need no others.

But I dont have any real standing complaints about Twitter. If I graded it as a service I might give it an A, instead of an A+; but, you know, what is perfect in this world, other than Adeles porcelain complexion and melodious voice? Not much.

When are we going to see a Rob Delaney show?

I dont know! I just wrote a pilot for the BBC. And I just gave that to them. Maybe theyll like that, maybe they wont, but it was my latest effort to make a television show. Its a sitcom about a husband and a wife and their children.

Do you have a British accent?

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Holder's invitation/olive branch was extended to Washington representatives of various media outlets indone to his reputation and agency. Revelations that the Department of Justice had subpoenaed a broad swath ofand issued a search warrant naming a Fox News reporter, James Rosen, asmet with fierce criticism from the media. And from the president's Republican opposition, of course; Senator Ted Cruz of Texas yesterday deemed the Rosen accusation to beand "part and parcel of a pattern of this administration of not respecting the Bill of Rights."

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And, thanks to that Politico attendee, we have a clear sense of what happened. The organization's media reporter, Dylan Byers, reports on the discussion in

But Holder stopped short of offering any concrete changes to the guidelines.

"Holder also indicated," Byers later continues, in his story about the off-the-record meeting, "that the decision to label Fox News reporter James Rosen as an “aider and abettor” in a criminal investigation wasn’t necessary." 

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The story also quotes Byers' boss, the Politico guy in the room.

And then another "journalist at the meeting," who said that the group "discussed trying to revise [existing] language so that reporters don’t need to be defined as co-conspirators in order to execute search warrants."

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If this seems like a fairly loose definition of "off-the-record" — it is. In , Byers notes that "Justice Department officials agreed that the journalists could discuss publicly in general some of the ideas that were discussed during the course of what otherwise an off the record meeting." Which ideas and what specifics didn't end up in the press is left to the imagination.

Despite not being one of the attendees, the Times managed to wring 1,100 words out of the gathering and Holder's push for revised rules around investigation. The paper cites sources in the room for its report; since there were only five people there, it's possible that the Times' sources overlap with Politico's.

Such an update, according to "an adviser familiar with the deliberations" granted anonymity by the paper, could include creating a requirement that the attorney general be required to review subpoenas for emails as well as phone records. As it stands,only requires such a review for "telephone toll records." This is an important point for efforts toduring testimony earlier this month. If he reviewed the Rosen search warrant, which it appears likely that he did, it could strengthen the argument that his statements to the House Judiciary Committee were duplicitous. (The Department of Justicedownplaying the suggestion.)

Both the Times and Politico make clear that nothing was cemented during the conversation. If the goal was for media outlets to offer feedback on Justice policies, that apparently occurred — at least from a small number of media outlets. If the goal was to develop revised procedures or to rebuild relationships between Holder and the press, that probably didn't. If anything, it provided another chance for the press to lambaste the Justice Department. If the goal was to have a private conversation in which the government and the media could discuss meeting mutual needs, that didn't happen at all.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Losing weight may ease psoriasis and improve quality of life for some overweight people with the chronic skin disease, new research from Denmark suggests.

But the trial may have been too small to fully flesh out that link, and researchers said future studies will have to follow larger groups of patients for more time to make definitive conclusions.

"The results, I would say, are promising," said Dr. Joel Gelfand, a dermatologist from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia.

"It's still excellent advice to patients who are overweight with psoriasis to lose weight."

According to the National Institutes of Health, more than three percent of U.S. adults have psoriasis, which is characterized by itchy, painful plaques on the skin.

Over the years, researchers have learned that obese people are more likely to develop psoriasis than their thinner peers and tend to have more severe disease. That could be due to more body-wide inflammation among people carrying around extra fat.

"It's more than one thing that causes it, but obesity is probably one of the factors that can bring on psoriasis," Gelfand, who wasn't involved in the new study, told Reuters Health. Genetics also plays a role.

Conversely, Gelfand said there's been some suggestion that losing weight may ease psoriasis symptoms, based on reports of people who had bariatric surgery and saw their skin condition improve.

For the new study, researchers led by Dr. Peter Jensen from Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte wanted to shed more light on how weight loss influences psoriasis.

They randomly assigned 30 overweight and obese people with psoriasis to go on a 4-month weight-loss diet of 800 to 1,200 calories per day and another 30 to stick to typical nutrition guidelines.

By the end of the study, participants in the diet group had lost an average of 35 pounds, on average, compared to just one pound in the non-diet group.

Dieters had a borderline larger improvement in their psoriasis severity and the amount of their body covered by psoriasis plaques. They started the study with an average severity score of 4.8, on a scale of 0 to 72. By 4 months, that had fallen to 2.5.

Non-dieters saw only a slight drop in their psoriasis cover and severity, from 5.5 to 5.2.

People in the weight-loss group also reported greater improvements in their quality of life during the study period, Jensen and his colleagues wrote Wednesday in JAMA Dermatology.

The diet was tied to some mild side effects, including headaches and dizziness. One patient complained of being hungry throughout the study, the researchers reported, and another "consumed large amounts of sugar-free licorice, resulting in hypokalemia (low potassium) that normalized after he was instructed to stop eating licorice."

Gelfand said that because patients started out with mild to moderate psoriasis, they didn't have much room to improve when they lost weight. That, combined with the small group size, limits some of the conclusions that can be taken from the study.

"The next step would be to do a much larger study in patients who have more severe psoriasis," Gelfand said.

In the meantime, he said weight loss can have other benefits for heavy people with psoriasis, such as improving how they respond to some medications and lowering their risk of heart disease.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/18B9WmV JAMA Dermatology, online May 29, 2013.

But like all sources of energy, wind power comes at a cost one that's too often borne by eagles, hawks, falcons, owls and other birds.

Wind turbines kill more than 573,000 birds each year in the United States, according to , including federally protected species like bald eagles and golden eagles. []

Even bats are falling victim to wind-turbine blades: The Pennsylvania Game Commission estimates that more than 10,000 bats are killed in the state each year by wind turbines, thereports.

Of course, birds die from other causes, too: Structures like glass-walled office buildings and utility towers, vehicular collisions and carnivorous animals (including domestic cats) kill far more birds each year than wind turbines do.

Though it can appear as though theyre turning at a slow, almost relaxed pace, wind-turbine blades actually move very rapidly: The outer tips of some turbines' blades can reach speeds of 179 mph (288 kilometers per hour) and can easily slice off an eagle's wing.

And when hawks, falcons and eagles are flying, they're usually looking down at the ground for prey, not glancing up to watch for a knifelike blade whipping down on them from above.

"There is nothing in the evolution of eagles that would come near to describing a wind turbine," Grainger Hunt, a raptor specialist with the Peregrine Fund, told the AP. "There has never been an opportunity to adapt to that sort of threat."

Compounding the problem is the design of some wind turbines: The lattice work found on older models makes an ideal perch for larger birds of prey, so they're attracted to the same spires that are also a death trap.

Wind-farm siting is another factor. Many wind farms, like the Altamont Pass Wind Farm in northern California, were constructed in the middle of important migratory routes and are surrounded by prime raptor habitat.

Altamont Pass has come under fire for being one of the deadliest wind farms in the world. One study found almost 10,000 birds die each year beneath the wind-turbine blades at Altamont, and most of them are federally protected raptors or are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Journal reports.

As the number of maimed and dead birds grows, several solutions have been proposed to stem the grisly mutilations of birds and bats occurring at wind farms. Siting wind turbines in areas with lower bird populations is one option.

And newer turbine designs, such as those without lattice frames and with vertical-axis rotors, can reduce the deadly impact that wind turbines have on bird populations worldwide.

It's working at Altamont: Modernizing older turbines and placing them away from certain corridors has reduced the death rate for some bird species by 50 percent, according to .

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