Study finds medical marijuana could help patients reduce pain with opiates

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

A UCSF study suggests patients with chronic pain may experience greater relief if their doctors add cannabinoids ? the main ingredient in cannabis or medical marijuana ? to an opiates-only treatment. The findings, from a small-scale study, also suggest that a combined therapy could result in reduced opiate dosages.

More than 76 million Americans suffer from chronic pain ? more people than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined, according to the National Centers for Health Statistics.

"Pain is a big problem in America and chronic pain is a reason many people utilize the health care system," said the paper's lead author, Donald Abrams, MD, professor of clinical medicine at UCSF and chief of the Hematology-Oncology Division at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (SFGH). "And chronic pain is, unfortunately, one of the problems we're least capable of managing effectively."

In a paper published this month in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, researchers examined the interaction between cannabinoids and opiates in the first human study of its kind. They found the combination of the two components reduced pain more than using opiates alone, similar to results previously found in animal studies.

Researchers studied chronic pain patients who were being treated with long-acting morphine or long-acting oxycodone. Their treatment was supplemented with controlled amounts of cannabinoids, inhaled through a vaporizer. The original focus was on whether the opiates' effectiveness increased, not on whether the cannabinoids helped reduce pain.

"The goal of the study really was to determine if inhalation of cannabis changed the level of the opiates in the bloodstream," Abrams said. "The way drugs interact, adding cannabis to the chronic dose of opiates could be expected either to increase the plasma level of the opiates or to decrease the plasma level of the opiates or to have no effect. And while we were doing that, we also asked the patients what happened to their pain."

Abrams and his colleagues studied 21 chronic pain patients in the inpatient Clinical & Transitional Science Institute's Clinical Research Center at SFGH: 10 on sustained-release morphine and 11 on oxycodone. After obtaining opiate levels from patients at the start of the study, researchers exposed them to vaporized cannabis for four consecutive days. On the fifth day, they looked again at the level of opiate in the bloodstream. Because the level of morphine was slightly lower in the patients, and the level of oxycodone was virtually unchanged, "one would expect they would have less relief of pain and what we found that was interesting was that instead of having less pain relief, patients had more pain relief," Abrams said. "So that was a little surprising."

The morphine group came in with a pain score of about 35, and on the fifth day, it decreased to 24 ? a 33 percent reduction. The oxycodone group came in with an average pain score of about 44, and it reduced to 34 ? a drop of 20 percent. Overall, patients showed a significant decrease in their pain.

"This preliminary study seems to imply that people may be able to get away perhaps taking lower doses of the opiates for longer periods of time if taken in conjunction with cannabis," Abrams said.

Opiates are very strong powerful pain medicines that can be highly addictive. They also can be deadly since opiates sometimes suppress the respiratory system.

As a cancer doctor, Abrams was motivated to find safe and effective treatments for chronic pain. Patients in the cannabis-opiates study experienced no major side effects such as nausea, vomiting or loss of appetite.

"What we need to do now is look at pain as the primary endpoint of a larger trial," he said. "Particularly I would be interested in looking at the effect of different strains of cannabis."

For instance, Delta 9 THC is the main psychoactive component of cannabis but cannabis contains about 70 other similar compounds with different effects. One of those is cannabidiol, or CBD. It appears to be very effective against pain and inflammation without creating the "high" created by THC.

"I think it would be interesting to do a larger study comparing high THC versus high CBD cannabis strains in association with opiates in patients with chronic pain and perhaps even having a placebo as a control," Abrams said. "That would be the next step."

###

Article: http://www.nature.com/clpt/journal/v90/n6/full/clpt2011188a.html

University of California - San Francisco: http://www.ucsf.edu

Thanks to University of California - San Francisco for this article.

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Sen. Marco Rubio has book deal for memoir

ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS NOV. 26-27, FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2011 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. As numbers grow, GOP Latino leaders facing questions of own families' immigrant past. More Latino Republicans are seeking and winning elected office and their families' background are becoming under increased scrutiny from some liberal Latino activists. Experts say it's a reaction to Latino Republicans' conservative views on immigration, and the scrutiny into their background is a new phenomenon that Latino Democrats rarely faced. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

ADVANCE FOR WEEKEND EDITIONS NOV. 26-27, FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2011 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. As numbers grow, GOP Latino leaders facing questions of own families' immigrant past. More Latino Republicans are seeking and winning elected office and their families' background are becoming under increased scrutiny from some liberal Latino activists. Experts say it's a reaction to Latino Republicans' conservative views on immigration, and the scrutiny into their background is a new phenomenon that Latino Democrats rarely faced. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Sen. Marco Rubio has a book deal.

The Florida Republican has signed with Sentinel, a conservative imprint of Penguin Group (USA), for a memoir tentatively scheduled for Fall 2012. Sentinel announced Monday that the book was currently untitled.

Rubio, 40, is a tea party favorite who has often been mentioned as possible running mate on the 2012 GOP presidential ticket. The Cuban-American Rubio has said he would not accept such an offer because he's focused on being a U.S. senator.

The freshman senator caught some heat in October for embellishing his family's Cuban credentials, implying that his parents escaped Fidel Castro when they actually immigrated nearly three years before Castro seized power.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2011-12-05-Books-Rubio/id-feb01cbebbf649f7bc5601dd9ee3f0f6

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Instant view: Service sector growth slows in November (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? The pace of growth in the vast U.S. services sector slowed in November to the slowest since January 2010, according to an industry report released on Monday.

New orders for U.S. factory goods fell in October for the second straight month, suggesting a possible softening in the manufacturing sector, which has supported the economic recovery.

COMMENTS:

MARC PADO, U.S. MARKET STRATEGIST, CANTOR FITZGERALD & CO. IN SAN FRANCISCO

"We are still showing growth within the ISM so it's not as if we went into negative territory it's just not as strong as you would like to see ... Overall an unimpressive ISM services number ... The focus is really on Europe this week. It will refocus back to our economy and our market next week."

ANDREW WILKINSON, CHIEF ECONOMICS STRATEGIST, MILLER TABAK & CO., NEW YORK

"There was a little bit of disappointment in the headline. The drag was largely from the employment component in the headline and while that is negative it does not necessarily support a downturn in the employment picture. The other components in the report, however, were broadly positive. Overall the economy continues in expansion territory."

ALEXANDER CHEPURKO, FOREIGN EXCHANGE ANALYST, FOREX CLUB, NEW YORK

"The market cares more about the European situation, the euro zone summit in particular and the ECB rate decision which will probably be a cut. Also the Greek budget vote on Wednesday. The data in the U.S. is divergent from that of Europe. The data in Europe is showing a recession and even if the U.S. data is not smashing, it still gives a bias to a lower euro against the U.S. dollar."

CARY LEAHEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR AND SENIOR ECONOMIST, DECISION ECONOMICS, NEW YORK

"This series has been pretty flat for the last six months and this survey shows a slow-moving service sector. That is pretty much in line with the market sense that though the economy has improved, it is still not growing very quickly. This is the first disappointing indicator we've seen in the last couple of weeks.

"The report supports the view that fourth-quarter GDP will reflect some investment in inventory. This is a second-tier report and does not generate the kind of interest that follows the manufacturing report that arrives a few days earlier."

MICHAEL YOSHIKAMI, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF INVESTMENT STRATEGIST AT YCMNET ADVISORS IN WALNUT CREEK, CALIFORNIA

"This shows the economy is clearly beginning to recover, and those who had been forecasting another recession will probably have to start rethinking things. But while the (ISM services) number is an improvement, we shouldn't get too excited because we still have subpar GDP growth and stubbornly high unemployment. But this is a good number and I think it will be a positive for the market."

VIMOMBI NSHOM, ECONOMIST, IFR ECONOMICS, A UNIT OF THOMSON REUTERS

"October factory orders fell by 0.4%, and with revisions represent the second month of contractions after September now shows orders having fallen 0.1% (had been a gain of 0.3%) due to a larger drop in durables. Both types of goods fell, durables were down 0.6% and nondurables were down 0.3%, with transportation responsible again for the decline as orders would have been up 0.2% excluding transportation (and up 0.9% in September)."

(Americas Economics and Markets Desk)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111205/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_ism_services

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Is Child Sexual Abuse on the Rise?

Image: Flickr/Lisa Ann Rogers

With the stream of accusations of child sexual abuse not losing any gusto lately, from the ever-growing charges against former Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky to allegations of such behaviors by assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine, it'd be easy to assume a real upsurge in such abuse.

But that may not be the case.?

First, Sandusky was accused of sexually molesting at least eight boys over the past 15 years; he has pleaded not guilty to the more than 40 charges against him.

Then last week Fine of Syracuse University was fired amid accusations of sexual abuse. So far three men, including two former Syracuse ball-boys, have come forward stating that Fine molested them as minors.

Neither Sandusky nor Fine has been found guilty of any crime, but these are only the latest in what seems to be a year filled with news reports about sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Earlier this year an ABC News investigation revealed that USA Swimming (the governing body for the sport up to and including the U.S. Olympic team) has banned for life nearly 40 swimming coaches over the last decade because of sexual misconduct. [Child Abuse: Why People Look the Other Way]

So what's going on?

According to the nation's top experts, children are actually safer from physical and sexual abuse than they have been for decades. A National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect issued by the Department of Health and Human Services found that both physical and sexual abuse of children have dropped significantly over the past 20 years: From 2005 to 2006, an estimated 553,000 children suffered physical, sexual or emotional abuse, down 26 percent from the estimated 743,200 abuse victims in 1993. And between 1993 and 2005, the number of sexually abused children dropped 38 percent, while number of children who experienced physical abuse fell by 15 percent and those who were emotionally abused declined by 27 percent.

In fact, incidence of sexual abuse of children began to drop two decades ago, according to Dr. David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.

In his book "Childhood Victimization: Violence, Crime and Abuse in the Lives of Young People" (Oxford 2008), Dr. Finkelhor notes, "The child victimization declines of the 1990s were something new, and not simply the extension of trend lines from the past. For example, available data on child abuse show strong increases in all forms of maltreatment from the mid-1970s into the 1990s. After a short plateau, the sexual abuse decline seemed to start in 1992, and the physical abuse decline gained momentum after 1996. Many analysts did not interpret the earlier rise as necessarily indicative of a real increase in child maltreatment but rather as the result of a new public and professional mobilization to identify and report cases. But some data suggested real increases in the 1980s."

Overall, Dr. Finkelhor told LiveScience.com, "There is very little evidence that child sexual abuse is on the rise in the U.S., and considerable evidence that it is declining, including data from law enforcement, child protection and surveys of victims themselves." He added that though the prevalence of child sexual abuse worldwide is hard to assess, "there are some indicators of decline in other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom."

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Honda Recalls 304,000 Vehicles Worldwide For Air-Bag Problem

TOKYO -- Honda Motor Co. is recalling 304,000 vehicles globally for air-bags that may inflate with too much pressure in a crash, send metal and plastic pieces flying and cause injuries or deaths.

Honda said there have been 20 accidents so far related to this problem, including two deaths in the U.S. in 2009.

The Japanese automaker announced the recall Friday, which affects the Accord, Civic, Odyssey, Pilot, CR-V and other models.

The recall spans 273,000 vehicles in the U.S., some 27,000 in Canada, nearly 2,000 vehicles in Japan and another 2,000 in other countries.

The latest recall is an expansion of recalls for the same problem in 2008, and again carried out in 2009, as well as last year. The recall now covers about 2 million vehicles worldwide, according to Tokyo-based Honda.

Honda spokesman Hajime Kaneko said the cause was the use of incorrect material in the chemical used to deploy air bags.

But that problem was found later to affect more vehicles than initially estimated, and the recall had to be expanded, he said. Honda is expecting no more recalls linked to this problem, he said.

Also included in the latest recall are 912 air-bag service parts sold for installation in vehicles for collision repair and other reasons, Honda said.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/honda-recalls-airbags_n_1124859.html

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Romney attacks Gingrich as Washington insider

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, center, visits with former President George H.W. Bush, his wife Barbara and their dogs Mimi and Bibi, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, at their home in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, center, visits with former President George H.W. Bush, his wife Barbara and their dogs Mimi and Bibi, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, at their home in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

FILE - In this June 13, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participate in a presidential debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Suddenly Mitt Romney is fighting a two-front political war. The Republican presidential contender has skated along for much of the year as GOP challengers surged and faded, but now he faces an unexpected, more serious threat from Newt Gingrich _ just as Barack Obama's team is sharpening its criticism of Romney, the president's likeliest foe next fall. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Presidential candidate Mitt Romney stepped up attacks on rival Newt Gingrich Friday, labeling Gingrich as a Washington insider who is unlikely to win the Republican nomination.

In an interview on "Fox & Friends," Romney repeatedly pointed to Gingrich's decades of service in the House of Representatives and elsewhere in government.

"I must admit that Newt has had a very extensive, long record of working in Washington with various governmental and non-governmental agencies, and I just don't think that's the background that's ideally suited, one, to replace (President) Barack Obama, and number two, to lead the country," Romney said. "This is not a matter of that America needs better lobbyists, or better deal-makers, better insiders ? I think America needs a leader."

Romney also disputed Gingrich's claim that Gingrich would win the nomination.

"I'm going to be the nominee," Gingrich said Thursday in an interview with ABC.

When asked if he disagreed, Romney said: "I sure do."

"Let me tell you, over the last year, they've been a lot of people that have been real high in the polls that are not high in the polls anymore," Romney said. "So you know there's this funny thing in America, it's called the election, and to win the election, you've got to earn it."

Romney offered his own prediction. "I'm confident that this will be a successful campaign," he said. "Self-aggrandizing statements about polls are not going to win elections."

The comments represent Romney's most aggressive attacks yet on Gingrich, who has risen in national polls in recent weeks and is currently viewed as the chief conservative alternative to Romney. And while Romney has seen others conservative candidates rise, only to fall back, Gingrich is already a national figure with significant policy expertise ? and there is less than a month before voting begins in Iowa, leaving Romney less time to attack.

Romney's comments came a day after Gingrich said he wanted to stay above-board, telling The Associated Press while campaigning in Iowa, "I'm not going to focus on Romney or anybody else." He made the comment just days after saying in South Carolina that he was "a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney" and added: "It's wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one election."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2011-12-02-Romney-Gingrich/id-81272d9dce26484184730cdeb0a04ac4

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Arabian artifacts may rewrite 'Out of Africa' theory

Newfound stone artifacts suggest humankind left Africa traveling through the Arabian Peninsula instead of hugging its coasts, as long thought, researchers say.

Modern humans first arose about 200,000 years ago in Africa. When and how our lineage then dispersed has long proven controversial, but geneticists have suggested this exodus started between 40,000 and 70,000 years ago. The currently accepted theory is that the exodus from Africa traced Arabia's shores, rather than passing through its now-arid interior.

However, stone artifacts at least 100,000 years old from the Arabian Desert, revealed in January 2011, hinted that modern humans might have begun our march across the globe earlier than once suspected.

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   4. Arabian artifacts may rewrite 'Out of Africa' theory

Now, more-than-100 newly discovered sites in the Sultanate of Oman apparently confirm that modern humans left Africa through Arabia long before genetic evidence suggests. Oddly, these sites are located far inland, away from the coasts.

"After a decade of searching in southern Arabia for some clue that might help us understand early human expansion, at long last we've found the smoking gun of their exit from Africa," said lead researcher Jeffrey Rose, a paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Birmingham in England. "What makes this so exciting is that the answer is a scenario almost never considered."

Arabian artifacts
The international team of archaeologists and geologists made their discovery in the Dhofar Mountains of southern Oman, nestled in the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.

"The coastal expansion hypothesis looks reasonable on paper, but there is simply no archaeological evidence to back it up," said researcher Anthony Marks of Southern Methodist University, referring to the fact that an exodus by the coast, where one has access to resources such as seafood, might make more sense than tramping across the desert.

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On the last day of the research team's 2010 field season, the scientists went to the final place on their list, a site on a hot, windy, dry plateau near a river channel that was strewn with stone artifacts. Such artifacts are common in Arabia, but until now the ones seen were usually relatively young in age. Upon closer examination, Rose recalled asking, "Oh my God, these are Nubians ? what the heck are these doing here?"

The 100-to-200 artifacts they found there were of a style dubbed Nubian Middle Stone Age, well-known throughout the Nile Valley, where they date back about 74,000-to-128,000 years. Scientists think ancient craftsmen would have shaped the artifacts by striking flakes off flint, leading to distinctive triangular pieces. This is the first time such artifacts have been found outside of Africa.

Subsequent field work turned up dozens of sites with similar artifacts. Using a technique known as optically stimulated luminescence dating, which measures the minute amount of light long-buried objects can emit, to see how long they have been interred, the researchers estimate the artifacts are about 106,000 years old, exactly what one might expect from Nubian Middle Stone Age artifacts and far earlier than conventional dates for the exodus from Africa.

"It's all just incredibly exciting," Rose said.

Arabian spring?
Finding so much evidence of life in what is now a relatively barren desert supports the importance of field work, according to the researchers.

"Here we have an example of the disconnect between theoretical models versus real evidence on the ground," Marks said.

However, when these artifacts were made, instead of being desolate, Arabia was very wet, with copious rain falling across the peninsula, transforming its barren deserts to fertile, sprawling grasslands with lots of animals to hunt, the researchers explained.

"For a while, South Arabia became a verdant paradise rich in resources ? large game, plentiful fresh water, and high-quality flint with which to make stone tools," Rose said.

Instead of hugging the coast, early modern humans might therefore have spread from Africa into Arabia along river networks that would've acted like today's highways, researchers suggested. There would have been plenty of large game present, such as gazelles, antelopes and ibexes, which would have been appealing to early modern humans used to hunting on the savannas of Africa.

"The genetic signature that we've seen so far of an exodus 70,000 years ago might not be out of Africa, but out of Arabia," Rose told LiveScience.

So far the researchers have not discovered the remains of humans or any other animals at the site. Could these tools have been made by now-extinct human lineages such as Neanderthals that left Africa before modern humans did? Not likely, Rose said, as all the Nubian Middle Stone Age tools seen in Africa are associated with our ancestors. [ Photos: Our Closest Human Ancestor ]

It remains a mystery as to how early modern humans from Africa crossed the Red Sea, since they did not appear to enter the Arabian Peninsula from the north, through the Sinai Peninsula, Rose explained. "Back then, there was no land bridge in the south of Arabia, but the sea level might not have been that low," he said. Archaeologists will have to continue combing the deserts of southern Arabia for more of what the researchers called a "trail of stone breadcrumbs."

The scientists detailed their findings online Nov. 30 in the journal PLoS ONE.

Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook.

? 2011 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45501635/ns/technology_and_science-science/

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Slowdown sparks scramble to shore up China growth

Chinese women walk past a billboard showing a box full of gold coins and jewelry, outside a shopping mall in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up flagging economic growth as exports weaken, abruptly reversing course after they spent two years struggling to cool an overheated expansion and surging inflation. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Chinese women walk past a billboard showing a box full of gold coins and jewelry, outside a shopping mall in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up flagging economic growth as exports weaken, abruptly reversing course after they spent two years struggling to cool an overheated expansion and surging inflation. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A commuter walks past an advertisement billboard showing photos of Chinese people with smiling faces, inside a subway station in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up flagging economic growth as exports weaken, abruptly reversing course after they spent two years struggling to cool an overheated expansion and surging inflation. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Tourists walk past a woman selling variety winter hats near Tiananmen Gate in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up flagging economic growth as exports weaken, abruptly reversing course after they spent two years struggling to cool an overheated expansion and surging inflation. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

A worker is silhouetted at a building construction site in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up flagging economic growth as exports weaken, abruptly reversing course after they spent two years struggling to cool an overheated expansion and surging inflation. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Workers are silhouetted at a building construction site in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011. Chinese leaders are scrambling to shore up flagging economic growth as exports weaken, abruptly reversing course after they spent two years struggling to cool an overheated expansion and surging inflation. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

SHANGHAI (AP) ? China's leaders are reversing their two-year effort to cool the economy, seeking to counter slowdowns in manufacturing and property that are dragging growth lower and threatening to spur unrest.

In the latest sign the world's No. 2 economy is weakening faster than thought, business surveys released Thursday showed manufacturing contracted in November for the first time in nearly three years.

That news came a day after Beijing moved to invigorate business activity by easing credit curbs, ending a long campaign to take some fizz out of rapidy expanding economy. China's leaders had resisted easing lending curbs out of fear that opening the spigots might revive an outright investment boom and re-ignite inflation.

High living costs are risky for China's communist leaders because they erode the economic gains that underpin the ruling party's claim to power. But slowing growth is another peril: already news of labor unrest at factories in the south suggests that workers are being squeezed as exporters juggle tight credit and slowing demand.

The decision by the People's Bank of China to reduce the amount of money that China's commercial lenders must hold in reserve by 0.5 percent of their deposits "is a clear signal that Beijing now sees the balance of risks as lying with growth rather than inflation," said Stephen Green, an economist with Standard Chartered in Shanghai.

The European debt crisis and feeble U.S. recovery have weakened demand in China's biggest export market, while at home efforts to curb inflation by cooling the property market are hurting a wide range of industries heavily dependent on housing and other construction.

The worsening conditions are no surprise to Chen Xiaoyan, a saleswoman at the Cangnan Qianku Qingfeng Pet Supplies Craft Factory in Wenzhou, a manufacturing base that has been hit especially hard by tight credit policies, leaving many factories short of operating cash.

"It was hard enough to do business last year. This year is the hardest," said Chen. "Our profit was 30 percent lower last year and it will be down another 10 percent this year," she said. Materials costs have come down in recent months, but labor costs have not, said Chen.

Worries over erring on the side of too fast growth are being overshadowed by greater alarm over a deeper slump as conditions worsen overseas.

"They're stuck," Patrick Chovanec, an associate professor at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management in Beijing said of China's policymakers.

That explains a comment by Vice Premier Wang Qishan to U.S. trade negotiators last week that "an unbalanced recovery is better than a balanced recession," he said.

The Chinese economy is one of the few still growing at a respectable pace, and Beijing's leaders intend to keep it that way.

China's economic growth eased to a still-robust 9.1 percent in the quarter ending in September from 9.5 the previous quarter. But indicators showing export industries and some other areas of the economy were cooling more sharply raised fears of job losses and possible unrest.

In the manufacturing sector, the activity gauge of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing fell an greater-than-expected 1.4 percentage points to 49 in November, well below the 50-level that signifies expansion. That was the first contraction in manufacturing activity since early 2009.

Another manufacturing survey by HSBC showed an even steeper decline, with its PMI dropping to 47.7 in November from 51.0 in October.

The property market also appears to have reached a turning point, at least in the biggest cities. New home sales fell 17 percent by transaction volume in China's top 20 cities in July-September compared with a year earlier.

Sharp discounts by some property developers have angered home buyers who bought when the market was at its peak, with some staging protests or storming real estate company offices.

"They promised us the price of our apartment would never go down, that it would only increase," complained Zhu Hongxia, a property owner in Shanghai who was standing with others outside the office of China Vanke, the country's biggest developer.

"You can't decrease the price suddenly by such a big amount," Zhu said.

While many homeowners have been angered by the drop, the government is seeking to prevent prices from surging further out of reach of most families. Leaders say property curbs will stay in place despite signs the effort to deflate the bubble is reverberating throughout an economy that already was slowing.

China is striving to shift its economy toward greater dependence on consumer demand, rather than construction investment and exports. But they remain key drivers in this developing economy, and the job-scarce U.S. recovery and Europe's recent upheavals do not bode well: export growth has fallen steadily since hitting a peak of nearly 36 percent in March.

China's monthly trade surplus with the 27-nation European Union fell 10.3 percent from a year earlier to $13 billion in October as countries that use the euro common currency struggle to contain a sovereign debt crisis.

___

China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (in Chinese): http://www.cflp.org.cn

___

Business Writer Joe McDonald contributed from Beijing and researcher Fu Ting from Shanghai.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2011-12-01-AS-China-Economy/id-7e1dcb963482431fa274ba5881ac89fc

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Republican of the Week: Jon Kyl (Balloon Juice)

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NCAA men's basketball: Top 25 capsules

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Chace Stanback had a career-high 28 and added 10 rebounds to help UNLV beat top-ranked North Carolina 90-80 on Saturday night in the championship game of the Las Vegas Invitational.

Mike Moser added 16 points and 18 rebounds, Oscar Bellfield had 16 points and nine rebounds, and Anthony Marshall finished with 13 points for the Rebels (7-0).

P.J. Hairston and John Henson each had 15 points for North Carolina (5-1).

After North Carolina took a 42-38 halftime lead, UNLV opened the second half with a 14-0 run as the Tar Heels missed their first 10 shots. The Rebels built a 77-63 lead on Lopez's basket off a rebound with 5:39 left.

Rebels fans stormed the Orleans Arena court after the victory.

The Tar Heels shot 31 percent in the second half.

NO. 4 CONNECTICUT 78, NO. 22 FLORIDA STATE 76, OT

PARADISE ISLAND, Bahamas (AP) ? Ryan Boatwright hit three clutch free throws with 7 seconds left in regulation, Napier had 26 points and the Connecticut beat Florida State in overtime in the third-place game in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

The defending national champion Huskies lost to Central Florida in the semifinals.

Boatwright's three foul shots tied it at 71. He finished with 14 points and three assists in 33 minutes.

Jeremy Lamb added 19 points for Connecticut (6-1), which shot 48 percent from the field, including 11 for 25 from 3-point range. Freshman Andre Drummond had 12 points, 10 rebounds, seven blocked shots and three steals.

Michael Snaer scored 20 points for Florida State (5-2), which lost 46-41 to Harvard on Friday. Deividas Dulkys had 14, and Bernard James finished with 11 points and 14 rebounds.

NO. 2 KENTUCKY 87, PORTLAND 63

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) ? Terrence Jones and Darius Miller scored 19 points apiece, Anthony Davis had 13 points and 12 rebounds, and the Wildcats rolled in their final tuneup before playing St. John's and No. 1 North Carolina next week.

Kentucky (6-0) has won every game by double digits, but Portland gave the Wildcats plenty to work on in the coming days after the Pilots (2-4) challenged them with sharp outside shooting and won the rebounding battle, 39-38.

Kentucky used an 18-3 first-half run to take a double-digit lead. After Portland pulled within six in the second half, the Wildcats put on a full-court press as part of an 18-4 run that put the game out of reach.

Nemanja Mitrovic went 6 of 12 from 3-point range and finished with 20 points for the Pilots.

NO. 11 WISCONSIN 73, BYU 56

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (AP) ? Ben Brust scored 21 points on seven 3-pointers and the Badgers won the Chicago Invitational Challenge championship, improving to 6-0 for their best start since the 1996-97 season.

The sophomore reserve was 7 of 10 beyond the arc, making five of his 3s in the second half.

Tournament MVP Jordan Taylor added 18 points, while Mike Bruesewitz and Jared Berggren had 13 points apiece for Wisconsin.

The teams were tied at 42 when Brust hit the first of his trio of 3-pointers during an 11-0 run that gave the Badgers a 53-42 lead with 8:47 to play.

Noah Hartsock paced the Cougars (4-2) with 18 points.

NO. 19 GONZAGA 78, WESTERN MICHIGAN 58

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) ? Robert Sacre scored 15 points to lead Gonzaga to the victory.

Sam Dower added 15 points for Gonzaga (4-0), which was playing its annual game in the off-campus Spokane Arena.

Western Michigan (0-6), coming off an 80-37 loss to Purdue, has yet to play a home game. It shot 41 percent and committed 22 turnovers.

Matt Stainbrook had 11 points in the Broncos' first game against the Zags.

Gonzaga led by eight at halftime, and outscored the Broncos 16-6 at the beginning of the second half. Three straight baskets by Sacre and a layup by Kevin Pangos pushed the lead to 52-34 with 12:20 left.

NO. 20 CALIFORNIA 80, DENVER 59

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) ? Allen Crabbe scored 15 points and matched his career high with 10 rebounds as California remained unbeaten at home.

Crabbe, last season's Pac-10 Freshman of the Year, shot 6 for 9 with three 3-pointers and helped the Golden Bears (5-1) overcome a slow start against the Pioneers (4-1). Cal bounced back from a 92-53 defeat to No. 21 Missouri in the CBE Classic championship game Tuesday night in Kansas City, Mo.

Chris Udofia scored nine points to lead Denver, which was outmuscled inside in losing the rebounding battle 33-20 and outshot from the perimeter. The Pioneers struggled offensively on the heels of an impressive win over Bay Area team Saint Mary's on Wednesday night in Colorado.

Justin Cobbs added a career-best 22 points on 7-for-9 shooting and made all four of his 3-point tries for the Bears.

NO. 25 TEXAS A&M 56, TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI 43

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (AP) ? Elston Turner scored 14 points and Texas A&M used its stifling defense to get the win.

Ray Turner had 13 and eight rebounds for the Aggies (4-1), who played for the first time in eight days and held the Islanders to 27.8 percent shooting. It was the lowest shooting percentage for an Aggies opponent since the first round of

Source: http://www.wavy.com/dpps/sports/ncaa_basketball/men's-basketball%3A-top-25-capsules_3999344

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