NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children born after being exposed to the flu during pregnancy may have a nearly four-fold higher risk of later developing bipolar disorder, according to a small new study.

The senior researcher said the results can't prove that a mother's bout of flu while pregnant causes her child to develop the mental disorder, but the association does suggest that some cases might be prevented.

"The idea is that if influenza is playing a causal role - and we can't say that from one study - there is a vaccine," Dr. Alan Brown, a professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at Columbia University in New York, told Reuters Health.

"It's affordable and also I would argue that there are other things that pregnant women could do. For example, hand washing and staying away from people with the flu," Brown said.

Previous studies had already established a link between a mother's flu infection while pregnant and her child's increased risk of developing schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder that often comes with hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.

Bipolar disorder shares some traits of schizophrenia, but also differs because it includes alternate cycles of mania and depression - although one type of bipolar diagnosis involves mania alone.

Past research into the link between people's risk of bipolar disorder and their mother's flu has produced mixed results, Brown and his colleagues write in JAMA Psychiatry.

For the new study, Brown's group looked for a connection between flu exposure and children's bipolar diagnoses in data from a study that involved soon-to-be mothers living in Alameda County, California, between 1959 and 1966.

Using the mothers' medical records and follow up information about their children, the researchers had information on 92 kids who were exposed to the flu while in the womb, and on 722 who were not.

Of the children exposed to the flu, about 9 percent were later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. That compared to about 3 percent of the kids who were not exposed.

"What we found is that (schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) share at least this in common. Maternal influenza is related to bipolar disorder," Brown said.

He added, however, that they did not see an association between bipolar disorder and a mother's common cold or other upper respiratory infections.

And until more studies are done, Brown said he and his colleagues can only guess at what is behind the link between flu and bipolar disorder.

"We think there is an inflammation going on in the fetus due to this infection and it can alter key aspects of brain development and function," Brown said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/11YJ3oD JAMA Psychiatry, online May 8, 2013.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took his second-term "schmooze offensive" to the golf course on Monday, bonding in a bipartisan foursome as Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss hit a hole-in-one.

Obama, an avid golfer with a respectable 17 handicap, rarely takes politics to the greens, preferring instead to golf with friends and staffers far out of the sight of the reporters who travel with him.

But he invited Chambliss and two other senators to play the south course at the Andrews military base in suburban Washington, part of his effort to advance his second-term agenda by having better relationships with Congress. .

Chambliss hit a five iron 156 yards for a surprise hole in one on the 11th hole. The feat was the talk of Washington, but the Georgia Republican was modest about the shot.

"It was pretty special. The ball actually flew the route I wanted it to go," Chambliss told reporters back at the Senate, after the game was cut short after 15 holes due to a vote.

"I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have a hole in one. Anyone who says having a hole-in-one is skill, they're living in another world," he said.

Obama paired up with Democrat Mark Udall of Colorado, the top-ranked golfer in Congress as measured by Golf Digest in 2011. The magazine estimated Udall's handicap at 2.

But the hole-in-one helped deliver the match to Chambliss and Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has a 2.1 handicap.

"The president got it out of the hole and handed it to me, and then they brought the flag out later. He signed the flag, and everybody signed the flag, and it was pretty neat," said Chambliss, who has golfed for 40 years, and has a 7.4 handicap.

Obama has waged bitter fights with Congress over how best to tame the deficit and on proposed new gun control laws after December's school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

But the president has also been criticized for failing to work more closely with the Senate and House of Representatives. He has responded in recent months by hosting dinners and lunches with small groups of lawmakers from both parties to try to find common ground on issues.

Chambliss said the foursome did not discuss immigration reform, a top priority for Obama, which begins to wind its way through Congress this week.

Chambliss said the foursome talked "a little bit" about the crisis in Syria, cybersecurity and fiscal issues.

"Actually, I told him since I'd made a hole-in-one, he ought to give us everything we want on entitlement reform," Chambliss quipped.

But it was not a day for detailed policy debates.

"This was a day to get away from the office and the president seemed like he enjoyed himself and I know the three of us did, and it was just like playing with my usual Saturday morning foursome," Chambliss said.

"There was a lot of jawing back-and-forth on short putts," said Chambliss, who plans to frame the ball and flag. "It was just a fun day."

Obama golfed 113 times in his first term, according to Mark Knoller of CBS News, who keeps statistics on the president.

He played with House Republican Speaker John Boehner (handicap: 7.9) in June 2011 and has played twice with Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn (11.3) from South Carolina, in August 2009 and again a year later, Knoller said.

So far in his second term, he has golfed about a dozen times, including his first-ever round with Tiger Woods, the world's top-ranked golfer.

Golf handicaps are a measure of ability and a lower handicap signifies a better player.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

(Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's choice of gastric banding has prompted questions about why he opted for a weight-loss procedure less favored by bariatric surgeons and patients.

Lap-Band stirred excitement a decade ago when the anti-obesity device was introduced in the United States. The adjustable silicone cuff filled with saline is placed around the upper part of the stomach. That creates a small pouch less than 1 inch across that limits how much food one can consume at a sitting. The patient also feels full sooner, and can thereby shed weight.

In early 2011 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration extended the approved use of Lap-Band to include use by some people who are barely obese. At the time, manufacturer Allergan Inc, better known for its Botox wrinkle treatment, said the new criterion would make 26 million Americans eligible for the product.

The company's high hopes were quickly dashed, however, when sales plunged from almost $300 million in 2008 to $160 million in 2012 because of concerns about Lap-Band's effectiveness. Most studies find that although some gastric-band patients lose 100 pounds or even more, in general gastric bypass produces more, and more enduring, weight loss. Allergan is now trying to find a buyer for the product line and earlier this year said it considered Lap-Band a "discontinued operation.

Another important reason for Lap-Band's decline is growing evidence that a form of bypass surgery called Roux-en-Y may be more effective in treating type 2 diabetes, which typically develops in adulthood and is linked to obesity.

Christie has not explained why he chose banding instead of a bypass, but experts who were not involved in his case pointed out several possibilities, including that he may not have needed to treat diabetes. In the past, Christie has described himself as healthy despite his weight.

"If he didn't have any other medical problems, that could have come into the decision-making," said Dr Jaime Ponce, president of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery.

Gastric banding is also a simpler procedure. Its rate of major complications is 0.9 percent, reports the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, compared to 3.6 percent for gastric bypass. That means less likelihood of post-operative infection, blood clots, blood loss or other serious problems.

About 200,000 people in the United States had weight-loss surgery in 2009, the last year for which data are available, according to the bariatric surgery society. Gastric bypass accounted for about half of the procedures and lap banding for about one-quarter.

REROUTING THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

The three main forms of bariatric surgery cost $11,500 to $26,000, according to the surgery society. Medicare, the federal government's health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, pays for them in patients who have a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or greater plus one additional obesity-related condition, such as diabetes or sleep apnea, and who meet certain other requirements. Many commercial insurers have similar policies.

In gastric bypass, a surgeon reroutes the digestive system so that the stomach empties directly into the middle of the small intestine, bypassing a section called the duodenum and jejunum. That has the effect of limiting the absorption of calories. And since the surgery also makes the stomach much smaller, it limits how much someone can eat at a time.

In sleeve gastrectomy, a surgeon staples the stomach vertically. That has the effect of decreasing its volume by more than 85 percent, creating a tube- or banana-shaped pouch that, like banding, reduces the amount of food that can be consumed and absorbed.

Complications from the banding cuff include the possibility that it will erode the stomach or slip out of place, requiring corrective surgery, said Ponce, who is also the co-medical director for bariatric surgery at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Banding can reduce the severity of type-2 diabetes only if it leads to significant weight loss. But Roux-en-Y targets the underlying metabolic causes of diabetes, and blood glucose levels improve even before there is significant weight loss, said Dr Francesco Rubino of Catholic University in Rome, a pioneer in Roux-en-Y.

The more modest procedure also often fails to produce the significant and enduring weight loss that patients hope for. "One of the unfortunate reactions the body has to (smaller intake) is to decrease its energy expenditure," said Rubino.

As the body adjusts its metabolism to near-starvation conditions, it burns fewer calories to maintain basic metabolism. That can cause weight to plateau before patients reach their ideal size.

Even more distressing to gastric-band patients, they can regain weight. That can happen if they force too much food into the stomach, stretching it and thereby loosening the band, or if they eat mostly calorie-dense foods.

By contrast, with gastric bypass "there are more mechanisms at work that counter the body's reaction to weight loss," said Rubino. In particular, a study released this year found, the re-plumbing of the gastrointestinal tract alters the microbes that live in the gut, increasing the population of bacteria associated with leanness and decreasing those that contribute to obesity.

Christie, seen as a possible 2016 contender for the White House, told the New York Post on Monday that his decision to undergo the procedure was motivated by his family's concern for his health, not political ambition.

Because the risks and benefits of weight-loss surgery need to be assessed individually for each patient, experts caution that people considering one of the procedures should not be swayed by Christie's decision.

When public figures undergo bariatric surgery it can affect perception of the procedures for good and for ill. "Some patients may understand that this is a medical necessity and not a shameful thing so these examples may help more patients get proper care," said Rubino. But "some patients may decide to seek the same operation as the VIP when it may or may not be the best surgical option for their own case."

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson and Sharon Begley; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Prudence Crowther)

That includes being mentally tough enough for the verbal abuse he'll surely hear in places like Philadelphia, where the San Diego Chargers play their first road game next season, and Oakland's infamous "Black Hole."

"After the couple months I've been through, I think I'm pretty prepared," Te'o said Saturday in his introductory news conference. "As far as going into another stadium, you can't worry about that stuff. You're with your family, you're with your brothers out there. That's all that matters. That's all you can really pay attention to. Yeah, it's a football game, and you play with the guys that you've prepared with, and you focus on what's important, and that's making sure that when the Chargers walk off, we're victorious."

The Chargers' rookie brain trust, general manager Tom Telesco and coach Mike McCoy, said they weren't bothered by the scrutiny Te'o has been under the last four months. The Chargers traded up in the second round to pick the star Notre Dame linebacker.

Te'o visited with Telesco and McCoy in San Diego before the draft and gave his version of what happened with the girlfriend hoax and his poor play in Notre Dame's blowout loss to Alabama in the national championship game.

"I just concentrate on me being me," said Te'o, who seemed relaxed in facing the media. "What I learned from that is you can control certain things and you can't control other things. So, learn to control the things you can and leave the things you can't control up to those people. I was just happy to get out there and share my side of the story, to just tell them that hey, what happened was what happened and what I'm here to do is play football. Hopefully guys saw that."

Te'o said Friday that he had expected to go in the first round on Thursday night. He was with his family in Hawaii when the first round came and went without him being drafted. The Chargers took him with the 38th pick overall after trading spots in the second round with Arizona and giving the Cardinals their fourth-round pick.

Te'o said he's been welcomed by his new teammates, with quarterback Philip Rivers being the first to text him with congratulations. He's even getting on well with Alabama right tackle D.J. Fluker, the Chargers' first-round pick.

Te'o became the butt of national jokes after it was revealed he was duped into an Internet romance with a girlfriend he never met.

The too-good-to-be-true story began with Te'o's incredible performances after learning his grandmother and what he believed was his girlfriend had died within hours of one another in September. Te'o said it inspired him to play his best football all season, and it was so compelling that it helped turn Te'o into a Heisman Trophy contender as he was leading the Fighting Irish to an undefeated regular season and into the national title game.

On Dec. 26, Te'o notified Notre Dame officials that he had received a call from his supposedly dead girlfriend's phone three weeks earlier.

The school investigated and after Deadspin.com broke the story of the fake girlfriend athletic director Jack Swarbrick announced at a news conference that Te'o had been duped. Ronaiah Tuiasosopo, 22, later said he created the online persona of Lennay Kekua, a nonexistent woman who Te'o said he fell in love with despite never meeting her in person.

Te'o struggled in Notre Dame's loss to in the national championship game to Alabama and its offense full of future NFL draft picks.

One of those players, Fluker, was drafted by the Chargers with the 11th overall pick Thursday night. Fluker posed for a group photo with Te'o and California wide receiver Keenan Allen, the Chargers' third-round pick. Fluker then stood to the side as Allen and then Te'o answered questions.

"He's one of the funniest dudes in the world," Te'o said of Fluker. "Having D.J. on our team and the energy he brings to the game, if you watch him on the field he's one of the meanest dudes but off the field he's one of the coolest guys to get to know. Now we're here and Keenan's here. We all knew each other before we came here. We're very lucky to be here."

Te'o said he's dealt with the circus the last few months by "just finding time for myself. I found time for myself with my family. I found a lot of peace and a lot of joy just hanging out with my friends, hanging out with my family. Me going back to Hawaii was the best thing that happened to me, just to be around my family."

What should people know about him?

"I'm just a regular 22-year-old kid," Te'o said. "I just love to hang out with friends, love to play football. Just normal. Just like everybody else."

Te'o said his biggest influences were the late Junior Seau, who starred with San Diego for 13 seasons, and Ray Lewis, who retired after leading Baltimore to the Super Bowl win against San Francisco.

"It starts off with Junior," Te'o said. "Me being a Polynesian-Samoan kid, you look up to Junior. He's a Samoan man who was a trailblazer for kids like me. Everybody knows what Ray Lewis does, not only as a player but what he does as a teammate, rallying his guys, being that leader. When he says something, people listen. I've always watched that, the enthusiasm, energy and tenacity."

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Eric Church, Luke Bryan and Miranda Lambert are the lead nominees for this year's CMT Music Awards.

The trio of country music's newest stars are nominated for the top honor, video of the year, along with nine others.

The show airs live June 5 on CMT from Nashville, Tenn. Jason Aldean and Kristen Bell host.

Aldean, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and first-time nominees Florida Georgia Line have three nominations each. Nine others have two nominations apiece, including Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood.

A news release says fan voting is open at the network's website until June 2. Six finalists for video of the year will be announced at the top of the show, and fans will choose a winner during the broadcast.

___

CMT is owned by Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks.

The judge ruled that Brian Shivers' cystic fibrosis made him an unlikely member of the gun gang that killed the unarmed soldiers, and wounded six other people, as they collected pizzas outside their base.

They were the first military personnel killed in Northern Ireland since 1997, when most Irish Republican Army members declared a cease-fire. Friday's verdict means nobody has been convicted of the killings.

The 47-year-old Shivers was originally convicted of the murders last year but won the right to a retrial on appeal.

(Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service has rejected a reward claim made by a whistleblower, former banker Joseph Insinga, who had sued the agency in a closely watched case.

In a letter dated April 15, the IRS told Insinga that he was not entitled to a reward. A copy of the letter was provided to Reuters by his attorney Andrew Carr.

The information Insinga gave to the IRS in May 2007 about several companies, which he alleged dodged taxes, did not result in collection of any additional taxes, the IRS said.

Insinga will appeal the rejection, Carr told Reuters by email.

Insinga had sued the IRS last year, trying to force it to announce a determination on his claims after years of being kept in the dark about the status of his case.

Other whistleblowers and lawyers had hoped the Insinga case would bring more clarity to how the IRS handles whistleblower claims, said Bryan Skarlatos, a tax lawyer at the firm of Kostelanetz & Fink who represents taxpayers and whistleblowers.

A 2006 overhaul of the IRS whistleblower program gave informants involved in it the right to appeal a rejection to the Tax Court. Insinga has 30 days to file. So far, no such appeal has been successful.

Dean Zerbe, a lawyer who represents whistleblowers, said Insinga's case has been helpful. "The court showed that they are not going to take the IRS's word as gospel," Zerbe said.

The IRS has been criticized for moving too slowly to embrace the whistleblower program. At an April 10 hearing about new rules for the program, IRS officials were told by lawyers that informants worry their tips are not welcome.

At a Senate hearing on Tuesday, Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller said whistleblowers are "vital" to tax collecting where "there are blindspots for us ... in the offshore area."

(Reporting by Nanette Byrnes in Chapel Hill and Patrick Temple-West in Washington; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Phil Berlowitz)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc said on Wednesday the number of people playing its online games dropped dramatically in the first quarter, a development that overshadowed better-than-expected revenues and sent its stock tumbling in after-hours trade.

Shares fell 10 percent to $2.99 in extended trading.

The San Francisco-based publisher behind games like "FarmVille" and "Words With Friends" said its number of monthly players continued its decline to 253 million, the lowest figure since the number peaked at 331 million at the end of the third quarter of 2012.

On an adjusted basis, Zynga reported earnings of 1 cent per share, beating analyst expectations of a loss of 4 cents per share. But the company also projected that its second-quarter loss would be between 3 to 5 cents per share, exceeding the 1 cent per share loss analysts had expected.

"The second quarter guidance is light," said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia. "We continue to think that any hope for real growth for this nebulous company really depends on what it can do in real-money gaming."

Zynga has struggled to keep users, who once flocked to its games on Facebook Inc's website. In recent months, Zynga and Facebook have revised their business partnership, as Zynga has sought to establish itself as a more independent gaming network at the risk of receiving less visitor traffic from Facebook.

Zynga has promised investors that it could tap into a potentially lucrative new revenue stream by launching real-money casino games around the world.

The company reported revenues of $263.6 million, down 18 percent from the year-ago quarter but above Wall Street's depressed expectations as the online game maker wrung more sales than expected out of its shrinking user base.

Zynga's quarterly bookings of $229.8 million also topped estimates but represented a 30 percent decline from a year ago.

(Reporting By Gerry Shih; Editing by Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)

TORONTO/MONTREAL (Reuters) - Two men charged with an alleged al Qaeda-backed plot to derail a Canadian passenger train made their first court appearances on Tuesday, and the lawyer for one said his client would fight the charges vigorously. Raed Jaser of Toronto, 35, and Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, face charges that include conspiring "with each other to murder unknown persons for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group."

Canadian February retail sales rise more than expected

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian retail sales in February rose a greater-than-expected 0.8 percent from January, pushed up by higher sales at general merchandise stores and gas stations, Statistics Canada data indicated on Tuesday. The increase was greater than the 0.3 percent advance predicted by market operators. Statscan trimmed January's growth to 0.9 percent, from an initial 1.0 percent.

Canada thwarts "al Qaeda-backed" train plot, Iran denies role

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police have arrested two men and charged them with plotting to derail a Toronto-area passenger train in an operation that they say was backed by al Qaeda elements in Iran. "Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured," Royal Canadian Mounted Police official James Malizia told reporters on Monday.

Ontario says 2012-13 deficit smaller than expected

TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario's budget deficit was C$9.8 billion ($9.54 billion) in 2012-13, down from the minority Liberal government's January forecast of C$11.9 billion, provincial Finance Minister Charles Sousa said on Monday. In the text of a speech to be delivered at a business lunch in Toronto, Sousa said the government will deliver its 2013-14 budget on May 2.

Drop in gasoline prices help keep Canada inflation benign

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's annual inflation rate in March slowed to 1.0 percent from 1.2 percent in February, further underlining how little pressure there is on the Bank of Canada to raise rates any time soon. The main reason for the drop in the annual rate was lower gas prices, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The March rate was slightly less than the 1.1 percent predicted by economists.

Canada wholesale trade unchanged in February

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian wholesale trade unexpectedly remained flat in February from January, held back by lower sales of machinery, equipment and supplies, Statistics Canada data showed on Friday. Market operators had expected a 0.4 percent increase. Statscan revised January's advance to 0.5 percent from an initial 0.3 percent. The volume of sales remained stable.

Honda recalls over 225,000 SUVs and minivans in U.S., Canada

DETROIT (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co is recalling about 225,300 SUVs and minivans in the United States and Canada to replace a part that if not operating could allow the driver to shift out of park without depressing the brake pedal. The Japanese automaker said in the United States it is recalling about 128,000 Honda CR-V SUVs and 59,000 Honda Odyssey minivans from the 2012 and 2013 model years, and 17,500 Acura RDX SUVs from the 2013 model year to replace a part of the brake shift interlock system.

Carney warns of quicker rate hike if household debt not tempered

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney warned on Thursday that interest rates could rise sooner if the growth in household debt, which is related to the housing market, was not tempered. "A concern of the Bank of Canada...has been the pace of growth of household debt, which has been related to dynamics in the housing market. And so a number of measures have been taken to slow that pace," he told a Reuters-sponsored event, noting that the growth rate has fallen "quite nicely" to 3 percent from 13 percent.

Bank of England job will put Carney to the test

LONDON (Reuters) - Mark Carney is gearing up for what some have called a mission impossible: turn around Britain's ailing economy, fix its banks and lead an overhaul of the Bank of England. Currently head of the Bank of Canada, Britain's finance minister called Carney "the outstanding central banker of his generation."

Rowdy Keystone pipeline hearing pits workers vs greens

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - U.S. construction workers, environmentalists and company executives squared off on Thursday at a raucous meeting on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, but it was unclear the gathering changed any minds on the controversial project. U.S. State Department officials hosting the meeting repeatedly called for order at the hearing in Grand Island, Nebraska. It was the first since the department released a 2,000-page report on the environmental impacts of the pipeline in March and more than four years after the project was first floated.