Sex to burn calories? Authors expose obesity myths

Fact or fiction? Sex burns a lot of calories. Snacking or skipping breakfast is bad. School gym classes make a big difference in kids' weight.

All are myths or at least presumptions that may not be true, say researchers who reviewed the science behind some widely held obesity beliefs and found it lacking.

Their report in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine says dogma and fallacies are detracting from real solutions to the nation's weight problems.

"The evidence is what matters," and many feel-good ideas repeated by well-meaning health experts just don't have it, said the lead author, David Allison, a biostatistician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Independent researchers say the authors have some valid points. But many of the report's authors also have deep financial ties to food, beverage and weight-loss product makers — the disclosures take up half a page of fine print in the journal.

"It raises questions about what the purpose of this paper is" and whether it's aimed at promoting drugs, meal replacement products and bariatric surgery as solutions, said Marion Nestle, a New York University professor of nutrition and food studies.

"The big issues in weight loss are how you change the food environment in order for people to make healthy choices," such as limits on soda sizes and marketing junk food to children, she said. Some of the myths they cite are "straw men" issues, she said.

But some are pretty interesting.

Sex, for instance. Not that people do it to try to lose weight, but claims that it burns 100 to 300 calories are common, Allison said. Yet the only study that scientifically measured the energy output found that sex lasted six minutes on average — "disappointing, isn't it?" — and burned a mere 21 calories, about as much as walking, he said.

That's for a man. The study was done in 1984 and didn't measure the women's experience.

Among the other myths or assumptions the authors cite, based on their review of the most rigorous studies on each topic:

—Small changes in diet or exercise lead to large, long-term weight changes. Fact: The body adapts to changes, so small steps to cut calories don't have the same effect over time, studies suggest. At least one outside expert agrees with the authors that the "small changes" concept is based on an "oversimplified" 3,500-calorie rule, that adding or cutting that many calories alters weight by one pound.

—School gym classes have a big impact on kids' weight. Fact: Classes typically are not long, often or intense enough to make much difference.

—Losing a lot of weight quickly is worse than losing a little slowly over the long term. Fact: Although many dieters regain weight, those who lose a lot to start with often end up at a lower weight than people who drop more modest amounts.

—Snacking leads to weight gain. Fact: No high quality studies support that, the authors say.

—Regularly eating breakfast helps prevent obesity. Fact: Two studies found no effect on weight and one suggested that the effect depended on whether people were used to skipping breakfast or not.

—Setting overly ambitious goals leads to frustration and less weight loss. Fact: Some studies suggest people do better with high goals.

Some things may not have the strongest evidence for preventing obesity but are good for other reasons, such as breastfeeding and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, the authors write. And exercise helps prevent a host of health problems regardless of whether it helps a person shed weight.

"I agree with most of the points" except the authors' conclusions that meal replacement products and diet drugs work for battling obesity, said Dr. David Ludwig, a prominent obesity research with Boston Children's Hospital who has no industry ties. Most weight-loss drugs sold over the last century had to be recalled because of serious side effects, so "there's much more evidence of failure than success," he said.

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Online:

Obesity info: http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Stock futures flat as earnings roll in; data on tap

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures were little changed on Thursday ahead of data on the labor market and a slew of corporate earnings reports.

Facebook Inc shares lost 4.6 percent to $29.83 in premarket trading. The company doubled its mobile advertising revenue in the fourth quarter but that growth trailed some of Wall Street's most aggressive estimates.

Qualcomm Inc gained 6.3 percent to $67.55 in premarket trading after the world's leading supplier of chips for cellphones beat analysts' expectations for quarterly profit and revenue and raised its financial targets for 2013.

Investors will look to weekly initial jobless claims data at 8:30 a.m. ET (1330 GMT) for clues on the health of the labor market ahead of the payrolls report on Friday. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 350,000 new filings compared with 330,000 in the prior week.

The S&P 500 <.spx> is up 5.3 percent for the month, as legislators in Washington temporarily sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of automatic tax increases and spending cuts that could have derailed the economic recovery, and amid improving economic data and better-than-expected corporate earnings.

But the benchmark index has stalled recently and is virtually flat for the week, hovering near the 1,500 mark, as investors look for more catalysts to justify further gains.

"We've got a handful of economic data today that might move the needle for the market and we've got plenty to contemplate as we continue to get through a plethora of earnings reports as well, so I'm not surprised to see us sideways," said Art Hogan, managing director of Lazard Capital Markets in New York.

"Whether you look at the fears over sequestration (broad government spending cuts set to take effect March 1) which is next month's business, or you consider the jackrabbit start to the year that is not sustainable, or you start to contemplate the weak patches in the economic data stream that we have seen in pieces - all of that combines for a wall of worry for this market to climb and it's building."

Also at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT), the Commerce Department will release December personal income and spending data; economists expect a 0.8 percent rise in income and a 0.3 percent increase in spending.

United Parcel Service Inc lost 2.1 percent to $79.49 in premarket trading after the world's largest parcel delivery company reported a net loss in the fourth quarter after a $3 billion one-time charge from pension accounting, and forecast that 2013 earnings would rise 6 percent to 12 percent.

Later in the session at 9:45 a.m. (1445 GMT), the Institute for Supply Management Chicago releases January index of manufacturing activity. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a reading of 50.5 compared with 50.0 in December.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.5 point and were slightly below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 5 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 7 points.

Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday morning shows that of the 192 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings this season, 68.8 percent have exceeded expectations, a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above the average since 1994.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to have risen 3.8 percent. That's above the 1.9 percent forecast from the start of the earnings season, but well below a 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings growth forecast on October 1, the data showed.

WMS Industries Inc surged 56.2 percent to $25.57 in premarket after the company agreed to be acquired by Scientific Games Corp for $26 per share in cash. Scientific Games advanced 1.8 percent to $9.09.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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IHT Rendezvous: A Story Known Far and Wide, in Denmark at Least

Until this month, if the Danish director and screenwriter Nikolaj Arcel was known at all in the English-speaking world, it was as the co-writer of the screenplay for the original version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.” But after winning two prizes at the Berlin Film Festival a year ago, the latest film he directed, “A Royal Affair,” is now getting attention in Hollywood as one of the five contenders nominated for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film.

“A Royal Affair” is set in the late 18th century, in the court of Christian VII, the mentally ill king of Denmark. A German doctor with progressive political and medical ideas, Johann Friederich Struensee, is hired to attend him, but after some initial improvement in the king’s behavior, things begin to take an unexpected direction: the doctor fills Christian with the revolutionary ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau at the same time he secretly becomes the lover of the young English-born queen, Caroline.

The film is the fifth Mr. Arcel has directed and features Mads Mikkelsen, who has appeared in “Casino Royale” and “Clash of the Titans,” as Struensee and Alicia Vikander, seen most recently in “Anna Karenina,” as Caroline. This week Mr. Arcel, 40, spoke by telephone from Denmark, where he is at work on a new project, about the genesis and objectives of “A Royal Affair.” Here are edited excerpts from that interview:

Your film portrays an episode virtually unknown outside Denmark. How well-known is it among Danes in the 21st century?

This is probably one of the most famous historic episodes in Denmark, and I would say that every single Dane knows about it. But it’s funny, because as soon as you cross the border, nobody knows it. So basically it’s only Denmark, where it’s taught in schools.

Did this story fascinate you as a child?

Yes, as it did most Danish kids. Of course you can’t understand the complexities of it when you’re in second or third grade, but what you can understand is that a beautiful young girl married a crazy king and had an affair with a rebellious revolutionary doctor. The adventure of it got to me as a kid.

So why hadn’t a movie version of this story been made earlier?

It’s a very ambitious project. I knew a lot of people had been trying to make the film for many, many years; obviously it’s been a bit of a holy grail for Danish filmmakers. But of course because of financing and various other problems, I guess it didn’t get made.

I never thought I would be crazy enough to try and do it. But then eventually after my third film, I thought, “O.K., if nobody is going to do this film, maybe I should give it a go.” Then cut to five years later, because it did actually take that long to get it done.

To tell the story, you opted to make a genre film, somewhat in the style of the costume dramas that the British do so well. Why did you take that approach?

Denmark is known for smaller sort of films, the Dogme films and small dramas, but what my entire career has been about has been making films that are very non-Danish in their look and way of storytelling. So I always find joy in trying to do something that has never been done in Denmark before. In this case it was the big, epic, lavish sort of costume drama.

When you talking about your films looking non-Danish, what do you mean?

I was part of a generation raised on American films, on the films of the ’70s, the new Hollywood, and I was a big fan of those. We grew up with a healthy mix of Hal Ashby, Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg and Lucas, and you can see that in other filmmakers my age now in Denmark. They have a slightly more Americanized way of telling stories, a slightly more lavish scope and are making films that are a little bit more genre and not so much dramas that are about divorce and death and family. We like to tell slightly bigger stories. I’m a big political nut myself, so a lot of my films have politics.

It’s interesting to hear you say that, because I thought you were using the costume drama and romantic triangle in “A Royal Affair” to deal a lot with politics, and not just 18th-century politics but also issues that confront us today.

Yes, the big fight between conservatism and idealism. When I was writing, it was general feelings that I had about things that are still being discussed. When we were at Berlin, it was very timely because of the Arab Spring. Everybody thought we had done a film about the Arab Spring. And then when it came to America, it was the presidential election, and everybody in the U.S. thought we did a film that spoke to the American political situation. But this just goes to show that these are discussions that never end. We’re still discussing the same issues.

So the debate in the film about whether to inoculate the population against smallpox is a kind of stand-in for current issues like global warming and whether the 1 percent should pay more in taxes?

Yes, and you can even relate it to the health care discussion: should we use money to make sure that people are healthy? The conservatives at court are saying we don’t have money for that, we’ll just inoculate the wealthy— which is something that still goes on, I think.

Lars von Trier is listed as one of the executive producers of “A Royal Affair.” Could you talk a bit about his participation in the project?

He’s a friend and obviously a mentor to me and to almost every Danish filmmaker. I asked him to be the main consultant for the screenplay and also in the editing. He came in and read the screenplay at various stages and gave his notes and came up with some ideas. He was the one, for example, who suggested that we follow both Caroline and Struensee instead of following just one of them. He said, “You should go epic and spend the time it takes to be with both of them, instead of just one.” And that was very good advice.

And in the editing process?

He also came into the editing room and sat with us for a couple of weeks. He gives very good, concise notes, he’s very good at that. The good thing about Lars is that he’s a brutal guy. He will just tell you if something doesn’t work, and he will tell you right away ‘I hate that’ or ‘I love that.’ (Laughs)

Specifically, he did help us take out some overexplaining at certain points. We thought the audience wouldn’t get certain things, but he said, “Take this out, delete this scene, you don’t need that.” He is basically the mentor of this film.

I know you’re being told you’ve got an uphill climb, being in the same category as Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” but you sound like you’re pleased just to be one of the nominees.

Yes, of course. I mean, who wouldn’t be? I think that being nominated for an Oscar is something quite joyful and if you start really stressing that you want to win, then you get … I think winning is not the important thing. It’s really an honor to be in the company of Haneke and some of these other directors. I’ll just be happy with that for now. (Laughs)

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'Kid President' Has a Pep Talk for the World

By Dahvi Shira and Stephen M. Silverman

01/30/2013 at 08:30 AM EST

"Kid President" Robbie Novak

Listen up! Kid President has some words of wisdom to share.

The young, self-proclaimed child chief of the United States doesn't identify himself by name in his video, apparently preferring that his message get all the attention.

"Life is not a game, people," says the tux-wearing "chief executive" – identified by Tennessee's Jackson Sun as 9-year-old Robbie Novak, a third-grader at East Chester Elementary School – says on a video posted on his Kid President website.

"Life isn't a cereal, either," he says in the video, which has already been viewed on YouTube 3 million times. "Well, [rolls eyes], it is a cereal. And if life is a game, aren't we all on the same team? I mean really, right? I'm on your team. Be on my team. This is life, people. You've got air coming through your nose. Heartbeat. That means it's time to do something!"

In between quoting Robert Frost and Journey, emotive little Robbie gives a special shout-out to a certain basketball legend who starred in a certain basketball film.

"In high school, what if [Michael Jordan] had quit if he didn't make the [basketball] team?" Kid President says. "He would have never made Space Jam. And I love Space Jam. What would be your Space Jam? What would you create that would make the world awesome? Nothin' if you keep sitting there."

Continuing his pep talk while dancing in the middle of a football field, he says, "This is your time, this is my time, this is our time. We can make every day better for each other. If we're all on the same team, let's start acting like it. We've got work to do. We were made to be awesome."

The Jackson Sun says Robbie's father, David Novak, works at Freed-Hardeman University’s FHU, and the videos are produced by Robbie's brother-in-law (his older sister's husband), Brad Montague, who runs the university’s social media.

"He is without the doubt the funniest kid I've ever met," Montague told the newspaper. "He’s intelligent and quick witted. He always has a smile and keeps it positive.'

Robbie's also got a few famous friends. He's posted Tweets and photos of him and Josh Groban, among others. His blog posts include photos accompanied by upbeat quotes that say things like, "Treat everybody like it's their birthday" and "Don't be in a party. Be a party."

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Soldier with new arms determined to be independent

BALTIMORE (AP) — After weeks of round-the-clock medical care, Brendan Marrocco insisted on rolling his own wheelchair into a news conference using his new transplanted arms. Then he brushed his hair to one side.

Such simple tasks would go unnoticed in most patients. But for Marrocco, who lost all four limbs while serving in Iraq, these little actions demonstrate how far he's come only six weeks after getting a double-arm transplant.

Wounded by a roadside bomb in 2009, the former soldier said he could get by without legs, but he hated living without arms.

"Not having arms takes so much away from you. Even your personality, you know. You talk with your hands. You do everything with your hands, and when you don't have that, you're kind of lost for a while," the 26-year-old New Yorker told reporters Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Doctors don't want him using his new arms too much yet, but his gritty determination to regain independence was one of the chief reasons he was chosen to receive the surgery, which has been performed in the U.S. only seven times.

That's the message Marrocco said he has for other wounded soldiers.

"Just not to give up hope. You know, life always gets better, and you're still alive," he said. "And to be stubborn. There's a lot of people who will say you can't do something. Just be stubborn and do it anyway. Work your ass off and do it."

Dr. W.P. Andrew Lee, head of the team that conducted the surgery, said the new arms could eventually provide much of the same function as his original arms and hands. Another double-arm transplant patient can now use chopsticks and tie his shoes.

Lee said Marrocco's recovery has been remarkable, and the transplant is helping to "restore physical and psychological well-being."

Tuesday's news conference was held to mark a milestone in his recovery — the day he was to be discharged from the hospital.

Next comes several years of rehabilitation, including physical therapy that is going to become more difficult as feeling returns to the arms.

Before the surgery, he had been living with his older brother in a specially equipped home on New York's Staten Island that had been built with the help of several charities. Shortly after moving in, he said it was "a relief to not have to rely on other people so much."

The home was heavily damaged by Superstorm Sandy last fall.

"We'll get it back together. We've been through a lot worse than that," his father, Alex Marrocco, said.

For the next few months, Marrocco plans to live with his brother in an apartment near the hospital.

The former infantryman said he can already move the elbow on his left arm and rotate it a little bit, but there hasn't been much movement yet for his right arm, which was transplanted higher up.

Marrocco's mother, Michelle Marrocco, said he can't hug her yet, so he brushes his left arm against her face.

The first time he moved his left arm was a complete surprise, an involuntary motion while friends were visiting him in the hospital, he said.

"I had no idea what was going through my mind. I was with my friends, and it happened by accident," he recalled. "One of my friends said 'Did you do that on purpose?' And I didn't know I did it."

Marrocco's operation also involved a technical feat not tried in previous cases, Lee said in an interview after the news conference.

A small part of Marrocco's left forearm remained just below his elbow, and doctors transplanted a whole new forearm around and on top of it, then rewired nerves to serve the old and new muscles in that arm.

"We wanted to save his joint. In the unlucky event we would lose the transplant, we still wanted him to have the elbow joint," Lee said.

He also explained why leg transplants are not done for people missing those limbs — "it's not very practical." That's because nerves regrow at best about an inch a month, so it would be many years before a transplanted leg was useful.

Even if movement returned, a patient might lack sensation on the soles of the feet, which would be unsafe if the person stepped on sharp objects and couldn't feel the pain.

And unlike prosthetic arms and hands, which many patients find frustrating, the ones for legs are good. That makes the risks of a transplant not worth taking.

"It's premature" until there are better ways to help nerves regrow, Lee said.

Now Marrocco, who was the first soldier to survive losing all four limbs in the Iraq War, is looking forward to getting behind the wheel of his black 2006 Dodge Charger and hand-cycling a marathon.

Asked if he could one day throw a football, Dr. Jaimie Shores said sure, but maybe not like Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco.

"Thanks for having faith in me," Marrocco interjected, drawing laughter from the crowd.

His mother said Marrocco has always been "a tough cookie."

"He's not changed that, and he's just taken it and made it an art form," Michelle Marrocco said. "He's never going to stop. He's going to be that boy I knew was going to be a pain in my butt forever. And he's going to show people how to live their lives."

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Associated Press Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione in Milwaukee and AP writer David Dishneau in Hagerstown, Md., contributed to this report.

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Stock futures point to lower open after weak GDP read

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a slightly weaker open on Wednesday following an unexpected contraction in fourth-quarter economic activity.

The first read showed gross domestic product fell 0.1 percent, far below expectations for growth of 1.1 percent. However, a read on private sector employment topped forecasts, with the ADP National Employment report showing 192,000 jobs added in January, higher than the 165,000 expectation.

Futures dipped modestly following the GDP data; previously, they had indicated a flat open for equity markets, which have surged in recent sessions.

"This is one chink in the armor of the recent better-than-expected economic indicators. This will make people start to get wary," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at John Thomas Financial in New York. "If it turns out Sandy and the fiscal cliff were the reasons for (the contraction), people will shrug it off."

Deeper losses were prevented by a rise in both Boeing Co and Amazon.com Inc , which rallied after earnings, continuing a trend this quarter of high-profile names advancing after results.

Amazon.com Inc rose 8.8 percent to $283.30 in premarket trading a day after reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings and strong revenue growth. The rally put the stock within striking distance of an all-time high.

Boeing Co rose 1.3 percent to $74.60 before the bell after reporting adjusted fourth-quarter earnings that beat expectations. The Dow component also said that while production continued on its Dreamliner jet, which has had technical problems recently, it was suspending delivery until clearance was granted by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Thomson Reuters data showed that of the 174 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings this season, 68.4 percent have been above analyst expectations, which is a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above the average since 1994.

S&P 500 futures fell 2.6 point and were about even with fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 18 points and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 3.25 points.

The S&P 500 has risen for nine of the past 10 sessions, putting it above 1,500, a level market technicians call an inflection point that will determine the overall direction in the near term. The benchmark index is on track to post its best monthly performance since October 2011 as investors poured $55 billion in new cash into stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in January, the biggest monthly inflow on record.

The Dow Jones industrial average has been flirting with 14,000, a level it hasn't seen since October 2007. Many analysts have said markets may need to take a pause at current levels.

The Federal Reserve concludes a two-day meeting on Wednesday, and while the central bank is expected to keep monetary policy on a steady path, intensive debates continue behind the scenes over when the controversial bond-buying program should be curtailed.

In company news, Chesapeake Energy Corp rose 10.5 percent to $20.95 in premarket trading a day after saying Aubrey McClendon would step down as chief executive after a year in which a series of Reuters investigations triggered civil and criminal probes of the second-largest U.S. natural gas producer.

U.S. stocks advanced on Tuesday, led by defensive sectors, in a sign the cash piles recently moving into the market are being put to use by cautious investors to pick up more gains.

(Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)

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IHT Rendezvous: As Asia Grows, So Do Prizes

BEIJING — A new Asian prize that pays more than the Nobel Prize will launch next year, joining an expanding list of cash-rich awards in the region as prosperity and philanthropy grow. Yet one prize – China’s Confucius Peace Prize – set up in 2010 in apparently outraged response to the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo – seems to be unable to establish itself. In fact, as one commentator wrote in the state-run Global Times late last year, “the award has been widely mocked.”

That is unlikely to happen to the Tang Prize, set up by Samuel Yin, a multibillionaire from Taiwan who has pledged to give away nearly all his wealth.

The new prize will award $1.7 million every other year to winners in each of four fields: sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, Sinology, and the rule of law, Science magazine reported. The money will be divided into two parts, an award and a research fund, with the bulk going to the award.

Mr. Yin, head of Ruentex Group, is Taiwan’s seventh-richest person, according to Forbes magazine, worth about $3.1 billion from diversified investments including a hypermarket, insurance and Taiwanese real estate.

The award, announced on Monday in Taipei, “lengthens the list of rich science prizes funded by Asian philanthropists,” Science magazine reported. “Run Run Shaw, a Hong Kong media mogul, in 2002 established the Shaw Prize, which annually confers $1 million for work in astronomy, life science and medicine, and mathematical sciences.”

“Three other major science prizes in Japan hand out about $550,000 to each winner annually,” including the Kyoto Prize (technology, basic science, arts and philosophy), the Japan Prize (environment, energy and infrastructure, and health care and medical technology), and the Blue Planet Prize (environmental research.)

Mr. Yin hopes the new prize will “encourage more research that is beneficial to the world and humankind, promote Chinese culture, and make the world a better place,” according to a press release.

Academia Sinica, which oversees Taiwan’s premier research labs, will be responsible for the nomination and selection process, Science reported. The prize is named after the Tang dynasty, a high point in Chinese civilization and multiculturalism.

Yet if awarding prizes for science is relatively straightforward, awarding prizes for peace is far more controversial, as the ongoing debacle with the Confucius Peace Prize shows.

Its travails have been widely reported, with this story in Time magazine summing up some of the major issues, which include “wacky” nominee lists and a controversial founder, the Peking University professor and staunch Chinese ultra-nationalist Kong Qingdong, who claims to be a 73rd-generation offspring of Confucius himself and who early last year caused a storm of controversy after calling Hong Kong people “dogs” and “thieves.”

Time said the prize, awarded by “an obscure mainland group” (the China International Peace Research Center) was “a clumsy attempt to divert attention from the fact that the world’s most famous peace prize had just gone to a jailed Chinese dissident.” The government has reportedly dissociated itself from the award.

In 2010 and 2011 it was awarded, respectively, to a Taiwanese politician, Lien Chan, and to the Russian leader Vladimir V. Putin. Neither showed up for the ceremony.

Instead, wrote Xue Lei, a research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies in the Global Times, “the award was given to a terrified small child” who was supposed to represent Mr. Lien, and to “two Russian hotties, supposed to represent Russian President Vladimir Putin,” all of which “just added to the entertainment value.”

Now, it appears to be slipping below the radar altogether.

Only a determined search of the Chinese internet showed up a report, dated Dec. 28, that suggested that last year a prize committee of 39 “experts and scholars” had in fact picked two winners for the 2012 award: Yuan Longping, known as “the father of hybrid rice,” a well-known scientist who for decades has worked to increase rice yields; and Kofi Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations.

But as the report on clubkdnet, an online chat forum, said, “there are no photographs on the internet of them receiving their prizes.”

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Soldier talks about his new arms after transplant

BALTIMORE (AP) — A soldier who lost all four limbs in an Iraq roadside bombing has two new arms following a double transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Twenty-six-year-old Brendan Marrocco along with the surgeons who treated him will be at the Baltimore hospital on Tuesday to discuss the new limbs.

The transplants are only the seventh double-hand or double-arm transplant ever conducted in the United States.

The infantryman was injured by a roadside bomb in 2009. The New York City man also received bone marrow from the same dead donor. The approach is aimed at helping his body accept the new arms with minimal medication to prevent rejection.

The military is sponsoring operations like these to help wounded troops. About 300 have lost arms or hands in the wars.

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Stock futures lower; Ford volatile in premarket

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures edged lower on Tuesday as investors took profits following an extended rally and waited for earnings and data on consumer confidence and housing.

Equities have been on a tear lately, with the S&P 500 ending an eight-day streak of gains in Monday's session. The index remained above 1,500, suggesting there was still support for a market that has been hovering around five-year highs.

"We need to slow down and digest the huge move we've had, so it makes sense futures are weak this morning, though it is also encouraging that we're still strong enough to stay above 1,500," said Christian Wagner, chief executive officer at Longview Capital Management in Wilmington, Delaware.

The gains have largely come on a strong start to earnings season and that trend continued on Tuesday, with positive results from both Ford Motor Co and Pfizer Inc .

Pfizer, a Dow component, posted fourth-quarter earnings that topped expectations, sending shares up 0.6 percent to $26.95. Eli Lilly and Co , a peer pharmaceutical company, rose 1.6 percent to $53.50 after it also reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations.

Ford also posted earnings that topped consensus views, but the stock was volatile in premarket trading fluctuating from rise to loss. The second-largest car company forecast a wider loss in its European segment because of weakness in that region. After climbing more than 4 percent before the bell, it turned lower to fall 2 percent to $13.50.

"We've had some cross-currents on earnings, with both strength and weakness, and that's another reason we need some affirmation the upside will continue from here," said Wagner.

Yahoo Inc rose 1.9 percent to $20.70 in premarket trading a day after reporting adjusted earnings that beat expectations and forecasting a rise in annual revenue.

Thomson Reuters data showed that of the 150 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 67.3 percent have beaten analysts' expectations, which is a higher proportion than over the past four quarters and above the average since 1994.

S&P 500 futures fell 5.2 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 30 points and Nasdaq 100 futures slid 9.5 points.

The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee begins two days of meetings on interest rates. Traders speculated more solid U.S. growth indicators might see the Fed pull back on its aggressive easing stimulus, which has played a key role in fuelling an equity market rally since the second half of last year.

In a sign of the improved view towards equities, investors poured $55 billion in new cash into stock mutual funds and exchange-traded funds in January, the biggest monthly inflow on record, research provider TrimTabs Investment Research said.

Still, market participants will look to the latest economic data for evidence the recent rally was justified.

January consumer confidence, due at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT) is seen dipping to 64 from 65.1 in the previous month. The S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index for November is seen showing an increase of 0.6 percent in home prices. Case/Shiller is due at 9 a.m.

While the housing market has recently shown signs of improvement, data released on Monday showed pending home sales unexpectedly slumped in December.

U.S. stocks edged modestly lower on Monday. However, Caterpillar Inc rallied after results, limiting losses in the Dow, while a rebound in shares of Apple Inc kept the Nasdaq in positive territory.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)

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IHT Rendezvous: IHT Quick Read: Jan. 28

NEWS A fire ignited by a flare from a band’s pyrotechnics spectacle swept through a nightclub filled with hundreds of university students early on Sunday morning in Santa Maria, a city in southern Brazil, killing at least 233 people, officials said. Simon Romero reports from Rio de Janeiro.

President Mohamed Morsi declared a state of emergency and a curfew in three major cities on Sunday, as escalating violence in the streets threatened his government and Egypt’s democracy. David Kirkpatrick reports from Port Said, Egypt.

Milos Zeman, a former leftist prime minister and economist known for his outspoken populism, became the first popularly elected president of the Czech Republic. Dan Bilefsky reports from Prague.

Despite the government’s best efforts, tax evasion remains something of a pastime in Italy. So this month the National Revenue Agency decided to try a new tack. Rather than attempting to ferret out how much suspected tax cheats earn, the agency began trying to infer it from how much they spend. Elisabetta Povoledo reports from Rome.

President Barack Obama is committed to reaching an agreement to smooth trade with the European Union, the United States’ top negotiator has said, but only if it is constructed in a way that would overcome objections from farm groups and that could win congressional approval. Jack Ewing reports from Davos, Switzerland.

Unlike many publishers that have tried to build digital units on the back of existing brands, the German company Hubert Burda has looked to new businesses, some started from scratch. Eric Pfanner reports from Munich.

EDUCATION In Indonesia, a movement is under way to teach students about AIDS and contraception. Sara Schonhardt reports from Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

ARTS Steps to strengthen protections for art buyers at auctions and galleries are slow to advance, and some question whether they are even necessary. Robin Pogrebin and Kevin Flynn report.

A new book, “Signs for Peace: An Impossible Visual Encyclopedia,” compiled by the Swiss-born graphic designer Ruedi Baur and his wife, the sociologist Vera Baur Kockot, presents hundreds of images of peace motifs through the ages. Alice Rawsthorn reviews from London.

SPORTS Novak Djokovic won a grueling final 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2 match over Andy Murray to win his third consecutive Australian Open title. Christopher Clarey reports from Melbourne, Australia.

The Southeast Asian Games, which will be held in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyidaw, and other sites throughout the country, is causing acrimony long before a single athlete has competed. Thomas Fuller reports from Bangkok.

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