Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.

The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.

The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.

In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.

That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.

In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.

"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."

The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.

But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.

In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.

The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.

Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.

"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.

Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.

"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.

Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.

"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.

___

Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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Iran hedges on nuclear talks with six powers or U.S.

MUNICH (Reuters) - Iran said on Sunday it was open to a U.S. offer of direct talks on its nuclear program and that six world powers had suggested a new round of nuclear negotiations this month, but without committing itself to either proposal.

Diplomatic efforts to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear program, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West suspects is intended to give Iran the capability to build a nuclear bomb, have been all but deadlocked for years, while Iran has continued to announce advances in the program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said a suggestion on Saturday by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden that Washington was ready for direct talks with Iran if Tehran was serious about negotiations was a "step forward".

"We take these statements with positive consideration. I think this is a step forward but ... each time we have come and negotiated it was the other side unfortunately who did not heed ... its commitment," Salehi said at the Munich Security Conference where Biden made his overture a day earlier.

He also complained to Iran's English-language Press TV of "other contradictory signals", pointing to the rhetoric of "keeping all options on the table" used by U.S. officials to indicate they are willing to use force to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

"This does not go along with this gesture (of talks) so we will have to wait a little bit longer and see if they are really faithful this time," Salehi said.

Iran is under a tightening web of sanctions. Israel has also hinted it may strike if diplomacy and international sanctions fail to curb Iran's nuclear drive.

In Washington, Army General Martin Dempsey, the top U.S. military officer, said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that the United States has the capability to stop any Iranian effort to build nuclear weapons, but Iranian "intentions have to be influenced through other means."

Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his comments on NBC's program "Meet the Press," speaking alongside outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Panetta said current U.S. intelligence indicated that Iranian leaders have not made a decision to proceed with the development of a nuclear weapon.

"But every indication is they want to continue to increase their nuclear capability," he said. "And that's a concern. And that's what we're asking them to stop doing."

The new U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, has said he will give diplomacy every chance of solving the Iran standoff.

THE BEST CHANCE

With six-power talks making little progress, some experts say talks between Tehran and Washington could be the best chance, perhaps after Iran has elected a new president in June.

Negotiations between Iran and the six powers - Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and Germany - have been deadlocked since a meeting last June.

EU officials have accused Iran of dragging its feet in weeks of haggling over the date and venue for new talks.

Salehi said he had "good news", having heard that the six powers would meet in Kazakhstan on February 25.

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who coordinates the efforts of the six powers, confirmed that she had proposed talks in the week of February 25 but noted that Iran had not yet accepted.

Kazakhstan said it was ready to host the talks in either Astana or Almaty.

Salehi said Iran had "never pulled back" from the stuttering negotiations with the six powers. "We still are very hopeful. There are two packages, one package from Iran with five steps and the other package from the (six powers) with three steps."

Iran raised international concern last week by announcing plans to install and operate advanced uranium enrichment machines. The EU said the move, potentially shortening the path to weapons-grade material, could deepen doubts about the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel's mission to stop its arch-enemy from acquiring nuclear weapons was "becoming more complex, since the Iranians are equipping themselves with cutting-edge centrifuges that shorten the time of (uranium) enrichment".

"We must not accept this process," said Netanyahu, who is trying to form a new government after winning an election last month. Israel is generally believed to be the only country in the Middle East with nuclear weapons.

(Additional reporting by Myra MacDonald and Stephen Brown in Munich, Dmitry Solovyov in Almaty, Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai and Jim Wolf in Washington; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Will Dunham)

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Scotland Yard stole dead children's identities: report

LONDON: London's Metropolitan Police stole the identities of some 80 dead children and issued false documents in their names for use by undercover officers, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday.

The force authorised the practice over three decades for officers attempting to infiltrate protest groups, without informing the children's parents, the broadsheet said.

Its investigation described officers creating aliases based on the dead children's details and being issued with documents such as passports and driving licences in their names.

Some officers reportedly spent up to a decade pretending to be these people.

Scotland Yard said it did not currently authorise the practice and had launched an investigation into "past arrangements".

"We appreciate the concerns that have been raised," the force said.

"We can confirm that the practice referred to in the complaint is not something that would currently be authorised."

Keith Vaz, chairman of the British parliament's home affairs committee, described the practice as "gruesome".

"It will only cause enormous distress to families who will discover what has happened concerning the identities of their dead children," he told the Guardian. "This is absolutely shocking."

One unnamed officer, who adopted the fake identity of Pete Black while operating undercover in anti-racist groups, told the newspaper he felt he was stomping on the grave" of the four-year-old boy whose identity he used.

Another argued that the practice could be justified on the grounds that it was for the "greater good".

Both officers worked for a Scotland Yard unit called the Special Demonstration Squad, which was disbanded in 2008.

The Guardian said it had seen a document indicating that around 80 officers used dead children's identities between 1968 and 1994.

- AFP/jc

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Gujarat’s good show in urban projects puts UPA in a spot

NEW DELHI: Gujarat's high rating in urban infrastructure development projects under the Centre's flagship JNNURM scheme seems to have become a new headache for the government at a time when UPA-2 would like to highlight its achievements before the next national polls.

So far, a majority of models suggested by the Union urban development (UD) ministry to state governments are from Gujarat, whether it's self-financing of a road project or intelligent traffic system for safe public transport.

While another 'best model' in public transport system has become a reality in BJP-ruled Karnataka, only one Congress-ruled state has followed suit — Rajasthan with 'Alwar Vahini'.

In recent months, the UD ministry has issued four circulars on successful transport models which it recommended to state governments to adopt/emulate. The latest one was the Centre pushing the Surat model of developing an outer ring road without any government investment. Under this model, the project would generate about Rs 11,960 crore over five years against an investment of Rs 5,796 crore.

Earlier, the ministry had asked the states to follow the G-Auto model of Ahmedabad where a cluster of auto rickshaws is managed through a common control room. The advisory for states had come after the Nirbhaya gang rape incident. "There is no doubt that Gujarat has the best performance when it comes to urban infrastructure development and this cannot be ignored by anyone. So, there is nothing wrong if the Centre has asked others to learn and set such examples," said a ministry official.

However, for the Congress-led UPA, this is a sour pill to swallow and allow Narendra Modi's government to take the credit of successfully demonstrating best models of urban development.

In fact, now with the Cabinet allowing the UD ministry to sanction new projects and capacity building of cities and municipal bodies till March 2014 totaling an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, the ministry is likely to take a decision on the criteria of sanctioning projects — success rate or population.

On January 31, the ministry issued an office memorandum stating that projects to be sanctioned are under the sub-mission of JNNURM relating to Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) and Urban Infrastructure Development for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT).

This should bring some relief to the UPA. The latest data on completion of UIG and UIDSSMT till December end publicized by the ministry shows that Arunachal Pradesh had 75% completion in both the categories, which is the highest. AIADMK-ruled Tamil Nadu ranked second with 68% completion and Andhra Pradesh came third with 57%. Gujarat ranked fourth in this category with 54% of projects getting completed.

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New rules aim to get rid of junk foods in schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — Most candy, high-calorie drinks and greasy meals could soon be on a food blacklist in the nation's schools.

For the first time, the government is proposing broad new standards to make sure all foods sold in schools are more healthful.

Under the new rules the Agriculture Department proposed Friday, foods like fatty chips, snack cakes, nachos and mozzarella sticks would be taken out of lunch lines and vending machines. In their place would be foods like baked chips, trail mix, diet sodas, lower-calorie sports drinks and low-fat hamburgers.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government's effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department would set fat, calorie, sugar and sodium limits on almost all foods sold in schools. Current standards already regulate the nutritional content of school breakfasts and lunches that are subsidized by the federal government, but most lunchrooms also have "a la carte" lines that sell other foods. Food sold through vending machines and in other ways outside the lunchroom has never before been federally regulated.

"Parents and teachers work hard to instill healthy eating habits in our kids, and these efforts should be supported when kids walk through the schoolhouse door," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

Most snacks sold in school would have to have less than 200 calories. Elementary and middle schools could sell only water, low-fat milk or 100 percent fruit or vegetable juice. High schools could sell some sports drinks, diet sodas and iced teas, but the calories would be limited. Drinks would be limited to 12-ounce portions in middle schools and to 8-ounce portions in elementary schools.

The standards will cover vending machines, the "a la carte" lunch lines, snack bars and any other foods regularly sold around school. They would not apply to in-school fundraisers or bake sales, though states have the power to regulate them. The new guidelines also would not apply to after-school concessions at school games or theater events, goodies brought from home for classroom celebrations, or anything students bring for their own personal consumption.

The new rules are the latest in a long list of changes designed to make foods served in schools more healthful and accessible. Nutritional guidelines for the subsidized lunches were revised last year and put in place last fall. The 2010 child nutrition law also provided more money for schools to serve free and reduced-cost lunches and required more meals to be served to hungry kids.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has been working for two decades to take junk foods out of schools. He calls the availability of unhealthful foods around campus a "loophole" that undermines the taxpayer money that helps pay for the healthier subsidized lunches.

"USDA's proposed nutrition standards are a critical step in closing that loophole and in ensuring that our schools are places that nurture not just the minds of American children but their bodies as well," Harkin said.

Last year's rules faced criticism from some conservatives, including some Republicans in Congress, who said the government shouldn't be telling kids what to eat. Mindful of that backlash, the Agriculture Department exempted in-school fundraisers from federal regulation and proposed different options for some parts of the rule, including the calorie limits for drinks in high schools, which would be limited to either 60 calories or 75 calories in a 12-ounce portion.

The department also has shown a willingness to work with schools to resolve complaints that some new requirements are hard to meet. Last year, for example, the government relaxed some limits on meats and grains in subsidized lunches after school nutritionists said they weren't working.

Schools, the food industry, interest groups and other critics or supporters of the new proposal will have 60 days to comment and suggest changes. A final rule could be in place as soon as the 2014 school year.

Margo Wootan, a nutrition lobbyist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said surveys by her organization show that most parents want changes in the lunchroom.

"Parents aren't going to have to worry that kids are using their lunch money to buy candy bars and a Gatorade instead of a healthy school lunch," she said.

The food industry has been onboard with many of the changes, and several companies worked with Congress on the child nutrition law two years ago. Major beverage companies have already agreed to take the most caloric sodas out of schools. But those same companies, including Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, also sell many of the non-soda options, like sports drinks, and have lobbied to keep them in vending machines.

A spokeswoman for the American Beverage Association, which represents the soda companies, says they already have greatly reduced the number of calories that kids are consuming at school by pulling out the high-calorie sodas.

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Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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Former SEAL Killed at Gun Range; Suspect Arrested

A man is under arrest in connection with the killing of former Navy SEAL and "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle, the most deadly sniper in U.S. history, and another man at an Erath County, Texas, gun range, police said.

"We have lost more than we can replace. Chris was a patriot, a great father, and a true supporter of this country and its ideals. This is a tragedy for all of us. I send my deepest prayers and thoughts to his wife and two children," "American Sniper" co-author Scott McEwen said in a statement to ABC News.

ABC affiliate WFAA-TV in Dallas reported that Kyle and a neighbor of his were shot while helping a soldier who is recovering from post traumatic stress syndrome at a gun range in Glen Rose.

The suspect, identified as Eddie Routh, 25, was arrested in Lancaster, Texas, after a brief police chase, a Lancaster Police Department dispatcher told ABC News.

Routh was driving Kyle's truck at the time of his arrest and was held awaiting transfer to Texas Rangers, according to police.

Investigators told WFAA that Routh is a former Marine said to suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Authorities identified the other man who was killed with Kyle as 35-year-old Chad Littlefield.

AP Photo/The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Paul Moseley

PHOTOS: Notable Deaths in 2013

Kyle, 38, served four tours in Iraq and was awarded two Silver Stars, five Bronze Stars with Valor, two Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medals, and one Navy and Marine Corps Commendation.

From 1999 to 2009, Kyle recorded more than 150 sniper kills, the most in U.S. military history.

After leaving combat duty, Kyle became chief instructor training Naval Special Warfare Sniper and Counter-Sniper teams, and he authored the Naval Special Warfare Sniper Doctrine, the first Navy SEAL sniper manual. He left the Navy in 2009.

"American Sniper," which was published last year in 2012, became a New York Times best seller.

Kyle was also an advocate for his fellow service members suffering from PTSD, creating a foundation to help with their treatment.

Travis Cox, the director of FITCO Cares, the non-profit foundation Kyle established, said Kyle's wife Taya and their children "lost a dedicated father and husband" and the country has lost a "lifelong patriot and an American hero."

"Chris Kyle was a hero for his courageous efforts protecting our country as a U.S. Navy SEAL during four tours of combat. Moreover, he was a hero for his efforts stateside when he helped develop the FITCO Cares Foundation. What began as a plea for help from Chris looking for in-home fitness equipment for his brothers- and sisters-in-arms struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became an organization that will carry that torch proudly in his honor," Cox said in a statement.

The fatal shooting comes after week filled with gun-related incidents, as the national debate heats up on what to do about gun violence.

In the past week, a teen who participated in President Obama's inaugural festivities was shot to death in Chicago, a bus driver was fatally shot and a 5-year-old was taken hostage in Alabama, and a Texas prosecutor was gunned down outside a courthouse.

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Turkey says tests confirm leftist bombed U.S. embassy

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A member of a Turkish leftist group that accuses Washington of using Turkey as its "slave" carried out a suicide bomb attack on the U.S. embassy, the Ankara governor's office cited DNA tests as showing on Saturday.

Ecevit Sanli, a member of the leftist Revolutionary People's Liberation Army-Front (DHKP-C), blew himself up in a perimeter gatehouse on Friday as he tried to enter the embassy, also killing a Turkish security guard.

The DHKP-C, virulently anti-American and listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and Turkey, claimed responsibility in a statement on the internet in which it said Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was a U.S. "puppet".

"Murderer America! You will not run away from people's rage," the statement on "The People's Cry" website said, next to a picture of Sanli wearing a black beret and military-style clothes and with an explosives belt around his waist.

It warned Erdogan that he too was a target.

Turkey is an important U.S. ally in the Middle East with common interests ranging from energy security to counter-terrorism. Leftist groups including the DHKP-C strongly oppose what they see as imperialist U.S. influence over their nation.

DNA tests confirmed that Sanli was the bomber, the Ankara governor's office said. It said he had fled Turkey a decade ago and was wanted by the authorities.

Born in 1973 in the Black Sea port city of Ordu, Sanli was jailed in 1997 for attacks on a police station and a military staff college in Istanbul, but his sentence was deferred after he fell sick during a hunger strike. He was never re-jailed.

Condemned to life in prison in 2002, he fled the country a year later, officials said. Interior Minister Muammer Guler said he had re-entered Turkey using false documents.

Erdogan, who said hours after the attack that the DHKP-C were responsible, met his interior and foreign ministers as well as the head of the army and state security service in Istanbul on Saturday to discuss the bombing.

Three people were detained in Istanbul and Ankara in connection with the attack, state broadcaster TRT said.

The White House condemned the bombing as an "act of terror", while the U.N. Security Council described it as a heinous act. U.S. officials said on Friday the DHKP-C were the main suspects but did not exclude other possibilities.

Islamist radicals, extreme left-wing groups, ultra-nationalists and Kurdish militants have all carried out attacks in Turkey in the past.

SYRIA

The DHKP-C statement called on Washington to remove Patriot missiles, due to go operational on Monday as part of a NATO defense system, from Turkish soil.

The missiles are being deployed alongside systems from Germany and the Netherlands to guard Turkey, a NATO member, against a spillover of the war in neighboring Syria.

"Our action is for the independence of our country, which has become a new slave of America," the statement said.

Turkey has been one of the leading advocates of foreign intervention to end the civil war in Syria and has become one of President Bashar al-Assad's harshest critics, a stance groups such as the DHKP-C view as submission to an imperialist agenda.

"Organizations of the sectarian sort like the DHKP-C have been gaining ground as a result of circumstances surrounding the Syrian civil war," security analyst Nihat Ali Ozcan wrote in a column in Turkey's Daily News.

The Ankara attack was the second on a U.S. mission in four months. On September 11, 2012, U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three American personnel were killed in an Islamist militant attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The DHKP-C was responsible for the assassination of two U.S. military contractors in the early 1990s in protest against the first Gulf War, and it fired rockets at the U.S. consulate in Istanbul in 1992, according to the U.S. State Department.

It has been blamed for previous suicide attacks, including one in 2001 that killed two police officers and a tourist in Istanbul's central Taksim Square. It has carried out a series of deadly attacks on police stations in the last six months.

Friday's attack may have come in retaliation for an operation against the DHKP-C last month in which Turkish police detained 85 people. A court subsequently remanded 38 of them in custody over links to the group.

(Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Tennis: Nadal shrugs off talk of return to number one

VINA DEL MAR, Chile: Rafael Nadal shrugged off talk of reclaiming the world number one spot on Saturday as the 11-time Grand Slam title winner prepared to return after a seven-month injury lay-off.

Nadal, now at five in the world after not having played since his shock second round defeat at Wimbledon in June, will be top seed at the Vina del Mar claycourt event next week.

But he is desperate to cool speculation over whether or not he will be able to return to the top of the rankings, a position currently occupied by Novak Djokovic.

"After seven months without playing, I am not even thinking of the world number one spot. I am just concentrating on doing my best," said the Spaniard.

Nadal was kept off the tour through a recurrence of his long-standing knee injury as well as illness.

Those setbacks meant he missed out on the Olympics, where he was the defending champion, the US Open, the 2012 Davis Cup final as well as last month's Australian Open.

"I am feeling good, but I need to have weeks of competition on the tour. I have to start slowly and with patience," said the seven-time French Open champion.

After playing in Chile, Nadal will head off to Brazil and Acapulco before testing his recovery to the full at the season's opening Masters events in Indian Wells and Miami.

"I don't worry now about running to be able to play the best I can. That can help me progress as far as possible," he said.

But the 26-year-old, whose ranking is at an eight-year low, warned: "I just want to be able to play at an acceptable level after such a long time."

Nadal, playing on a wild card, is top seed at the $410,000 tournament and will play doubles with Argentina's Juan Monaco on Tuesday.

In singles, he has a bye in the first round and will open his campaign at 2100GMT on Wednesday against either Argentina's Guido Pella, the world 97, or a qualifier.

- AFP/de

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Bastawade gives account of how Koda siphoned money

RANCHI: Enforcement directorate officials questioning Anil Bastawade for the past two days have got vital clues on how the close aide of former chief minister Madhu Koda siphoned off money through the hawala channel. The mining kingpin allegedly involved in the Rs 4,000 cr scam, was arrested from Indonesia and brought to India on Tuesday.

According to Times Now reports, Bastawade had confessed to his links with Koda and his two other aides Sanjay Chaudhary and Manoj Punamiya before the ED sleuths. He has also admitted that the money was diverted and invested in mines in the name of making payment for coal imported to India. In reality, the coal never reached India but the payments running in crores of rupees were made to siphon off ill-gotten money for investment in foreign countries.

Sources in the ED told TOI that Bastawde is allegedly feigning illness to avoid interrogation by the officials, yet they have managed to link some important transactions which were done through hawala channel by him to invest the money generated by Koda and his aides in Jharkhand. The ED has taken him on a 10-day remand from the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court of RK Choudhary to tie up the loose ends of the scam, in which Koda and his associates were allegedly involved.

"Bastawade has been charged with receiving money from Koda through hawala and investing it in real estate and mining projects in foreign countries during 2006 and 2008. Documents show that he siphoned off around Rs 250 crore out of Rs 3,500- Rs 4,000 crore generated by Koda and his associates," said a source. "He is very smart and whenever we try to quiz him he shows that he is very sick and cannot tolerate the interrogation session. Despite all his ploys we have managed to get good links that can help in exposing the nexus and siphoning of ill-gotten money to foreign countries by Koda and his associates through Bastawade." said the source after two days of interrogation on Saturday.

The mining kingpin, who had a red corner notice against him by the Interpol, was detained by the Indonesian police on January 21 in Jakarta and later handed over to ED officials who produced him before the special PMLA court on Wednesday. A notice for appearing before the special court was pending against Bastawade since January 25, 2012.

Sources in the CBI, which is also investigating the scam, said they would interrogate Bastawade once the ED completes its interrogation. "We are waiting for the ED to reach to conclusion on basis of the information provided by Bastawade before we start his interrogation," said a CBI officer.

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