Button and His Brawn Team Secure Formula One Titles

SAO PAULO: Jenson Button clinched his first Formula One title with a fifth-place finish Sunday at the Brazilian Grand Prix in São Paulo, and his Brawn team made history by winning the constructors’ crown in its debut season.

Button’s victory gives Britain back-to-back Formula One titles for the first time since 1969, when Jackie Stewart won the year after Graham Hill did. Lewis Hamilton of McLaren won last year.

“I am the world champion; I’m going to keep saying it all night,” Button, 29, said. “I’m going to enjoy this moment like you wouldn’t believe.”

Mark Webber of Red Bull won the race, ahead of Robert Kubica of BMW Sauber and Hamilton.

The hometown favorite, Rubens Barrichello — Button’s Brawn GP teammate and his closest challenger for the title at the start of the race — started from the pole but finished eighth after a puncture. Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel was fourth.

Fifth was good enough to give Button an insurmountable 15-point lead over Vettel in the drivers’ standings. The final race of the season is Nov. 1 in the United Arab Emirates.

Button, in his 10th year in Formula One, won six of the first seven races, then was consistent enough to arrive in Brazil with a comfortable lead.

The Brawn team, which entered needing only a half-point to clinch the title, was created only a weeks before the start of the season, after the Honda team decided to withdraw because of the global recession.

JOHNSON IN COMMAND Jimmie Johnson is practically on cruise control to a Nascar-record fourth consecutive championship with his commanding lead in the race for the Sprint Cup title after winning Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

Johnson won for the third time in five Chase for the championship races this season. He has a 90-point lead over Mark Martin, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate, at the halfway point of the 10-race playoff.

“I think it’s a nice points lead, but there’s no need for anybody to get too excited yet,” Johnson said, adding, “There’s a lot of races left.”

Johnson collected his sixth career victory at Lowe’s on a night when 8 of the 12 Chase drivers finished outside the top 10. The win, Johnson’s 46th over all, moved him into a tie with Buck Baker for 13th on the career list.

The competition now heads to Martinsville, Va., where Johnson has won five of the last six races.

Saudi woman files for divorce for "Gitmo" name

Wife furious after husband stores her as Guantanamo

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DUBAI : Forget infidelity or abuse for one Saudi woman being stored on her husband's mobile phone as "Guantanamo," after the notorious American prison, is enough of a reason to end a 17-year marriage.

The unnamed woman, 30, reportedly called her husband on his mobile phone, which he had forgotten at home, and saw the word "Guantanamo" appear on the screen, Saudi's al-Watan newspaper reported.

The furious wife, who lives in Jeddah, immediately filed for divorce and argued that the nickname shows her husband is a tyrannical person that she could no longer live with despite 17 years of marriage.

The husband, however, defended himself by claiming that the nickname was not about how he sees her, but rather to maintain his own privacy.

“I don’t want people sitting around me to know that this is my wife calling,” he told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat.

The controversial Guantanamo Bay detention center, managed by the U.S. military in Cuba, became the symbol of torture and oppression in George W. Bush's "war on terrorism" launched after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Wife calling

For other Saudi husbands it is common practice to create alias' for their wives on their phones in a bid to secure their privacy.

Saudi-resident Khaled al-Maliki chose the nickname “criminal” for his wife because he says she stresses him out and calls him all the time to ask where he is.

Maliki also cites privacy as the reason for giving his wife the nickname.

“Sometimes my friends use my mobile phone or might be next to me when she calls,” he told Asharq al-Awsat. “I don’t want anyone to know my wife’s phone number.”

Khaled Omar said he stored his wife “salary” because "she has no mercy when it comes to spending.”

Abu Sultan decided to store his wife under a common Arabic man's name “Saeed al-Hindi” so that people will not know his wife is calling.

But for Dr. Mohamed al-Motawaa, professor of psychology at the al-Imam Mohamed bin Saud Islamic University, these names are provocative and insulting.

“These names indicate the type of relationship between husband and wife,” he told Asharq al-Awsat.

“These names are like a bullet aiming at the woman’s heart, especially if the kids hear them,” he said. “This is has a negative impact not only on the wife, but also on the kids when they grow up.”

Iran's supreme leader rumored to be dead

Closure of Khamenei's official website fuels rumors

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DUBAI : The closure of the official website of Iran's supreme leader fueled rumors that have been circulating for the past few days that Ali Khamenei has died after he collapsed last week.

Further fueling the rumors were the closure of the official websites of Iran’s radio and television all of which were not said to have been closed due to technical problems, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported Saturday.

The 70-year-old supreme leader reportedly collapsed last Monday and drifted into a coma but the Iranian media has stayed mum on the issue, which analysts say is because officials are waiting to resolve internal matters and chose a successor.

Several Iranian websites, mostly affiliated to Khamenei’s close aides, said the rumor was believed by a large portion of Iranians because the supreme leader re-published his will a few days ago, years after he originally wrote it in Iranian papers.

According to Asharq al-Awsat, the will is not a personal document but is a political one that includes recommendations for protecting the Islamic Republic from its internal and external enemies and a reminder of the principles of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, laid by the Ayatollah Khomeini.

The will made no mention of a potential successor in the case of Khamenei’s death.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is reported to have met with Mojtaba Khamenei, a hard-line cleric and son of Khamenei, to discuss potential successors and speculate on who the Assembly of Experts, the body in charge of electing the Supreme Leader, would choose.

(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid)

Paracetamol affects childhood jabs

Giving paracetamol to babies following a vaccine jab may lower the effectiveness of the immunisation, according to research reported on by BBC news.

The study behind this news coverage is an important and well-conducted trial in which 459 babies receiving their routine immunisations were either routinely given paracetamol in the 24 hours following their injection or were given none. Although the drug was clearly successful in reducing the risk of a fever developing, it was shown to reduce the immune response to the vaccine, suggesting that it would be less effective. Although the preventative use of paracetamol had an effect on immune response, using the drug to lower existing fever did not.

Parents should not be concerned about giving paracetamol to their child to treat a raised temperature or associated symptoms of pain and irritability. However, it may be wise to only give a baby which has just been given an immunisation paracetamol if they feel unwell, rather than giving it to prevent symptoms.

Where did the story come from?

This research was conducted by Roman Prymula and colleagues from the University of Defence in the Czech Republic and other European institutions. The study was funded by the vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet.

What kind of scientific study was this?

This was a Phase III randomised, controlled trial conducted to look at the effect of giving paracetamol to babies during and immediately following vaccination. Paracetamol is sometimes given to an infant to decrease their risk of developing a fever or having a fit caused by a fever (a febrile convulsion).

The main outcome of interest was any reduction of fevers above 38°C in the group that received paracetamol compared to the group that did not. The secondary outcome studied was the immune response following the vaccine. The study looked at a number of vaccines used in routine immunisations, including those against:

haemophilus influenza,

diphtheria,

tetanus and pertussis,

polio, and

hepatitis B.

The researchers enrolled 459 infants aged between nine and 16 weeks from medical centres in the Czech Republic between September 2006 and April 2007. The trial was conducted in two parts. The first focussed on the primary vaccination schedule when the infant was three to five months old, while the second looked at booster vaccinations when the baby was 12 to 15 months old.

The babies were randomly chosen to receive either paracetamol administered every six to eight hours during the 24 hours following the vaccination, or to receive no paracetamol treatment. This meant the trial was “unblinded”, in that the parents knew whether their baby was receiving paracetamol or not. Babies were kept in the same treatment group for the booster vaccinations, so if they received paracetamol for their primary vaccinations they received it again for their booster.

While the study was still underway, early results indicated that paracetamol had an effect on the immune response, and so any paracetamol treatment was withdrawn. By the time this became apparent, some of the babies randomised to receive paracetamol had already received a booster vaccine dose combined with paracetamol, but following these results no further babies received paracetamol a second time.

What were the results of the study?

In both groups, a fever of 39.5°C or greater was rare following vaccination:

<1% in the paracetamol-treated group at primary immunisation,

1 % in the untreated group at primary immunisation,

2% the paracetamol-treated group after the booster, and

1% the paracetamol-treated group after the booster.

However, there was a lower proportion of babies with temperatures of 38°C or greater among the paracetamol-treated group:

42% (94/226 babies) in the paracetamol-treated group at primary immunisation,

66% (154/233 babies) in the untreated group at primary immunisation,

36% (64/178 babies) of the paracetamol-treated group after the booster, and

58% (100/172 babies) the paracetamol-treated group after the booster.

After the primary vaccine doses, 64 doses of paracetamol also had to be given in the group who were not randomised to receive paracetamol. Paracetamol-treated infants also had less parental-reported symptoms such as pain and irritability.

For most of the bacterial and viral vaccine components the antibody concentrations achieved following the primary immunisations were significantly lower in the paracetamol-treated group than in the group who did not receive paracetamol. The response varied depending on the vaccination type given, as not all vaccine responses were equally affected by prophylactic paracetamol.

What interpretations did the researchers draw from these results?

The researchers concluded that although feverish reactions were significantly decreased by the use of paracetamol, prophylactic (preventative) administration of antipyretic drugs (to prevent fever) at the time of vaccination should not be routinely recommended due to the reduced antibody response to the vaccine.

What does the NHS Knowledge Service make of this study?

This is an important and well-conducted trial. It has found that routinely giving a baby paracetamol in the 24 hours following their childhood immunisations, although clearly successful in reducing the risk of fever developing, reduces the immune response to the vaccine. This suggests that the vaccination will be less effective.

Other key points to note:

There was no reduction in immunity following just a single dose of paracetamol or the use of paracetamol to actually treat a developed fever. It was only the regular use of preventative paracetamol use that was associated with decreased immune response. On this basis, parents should not be concerned about giving paracetamol to their baby/child to treat a raised temperature or associated symptoms of pain and irritability.

In both treatment groups, high temperatures of above 39.5°C and the need to seek medical attention for an immunisation reaction were both uncommon. As the researchers say, there have been very few published studies on the effect of antipyretic (anti-fever) medications on child immunisation responses. The reason for the observed immune response following paracetamol is unclear. Whether this may be due to paracetamol preventing the inflammatory reactions that lead to the development of antibodies is one theory.

It is unclear why all vaccine responses were not equally affected. This uncertainty has implications for the upcoming swine-flu vaccination programme, as this study was unable to demonstrate whether the immunity offered by influenza vaccination might be reduced by paracetamol. Much further research is needed to answer this question.

However, it may be wise at the current time to only give your baby paracetamol following immunisation if they develop a temperature or feel unwell, and not to give it routinely when they seem to be well.

Saudi to permit private gun shops

Move aimed at reigning in illegal handguns

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RIYADH : Saudis will be able to buy handguns and other personal firearms openly for the first time after the interior ministry said on Saturday it will license privately owned gun shops.

Anyone over 25 with no criminal record could apply to open a gun store, the ministry said, according to the official SPA news agency.

An official said the move is aimed in part at reining in the widespread illegal ownership of handguns and assault weapons.

Hunting and sport shooting weapons are currently sold in specialty stores, and all weapons are supposed to be licensed.

But a large number of personal guns, including assault rifles, are owned and traded without permits, according to a person familiar with the business.

There are no statistics on how many guns exist in private hands in the kingdom.

But in July, Riyadh police said they had seized 1,091 weapons and more than 13,200 pieces of ammunition in the capital area in the preceding six months, a Saudi Gazette report said.