The National Sleep Foundation suggests seven to nine hours of sleep per night for adults. Both shorter and longer durations can be worse for your health, the CDC said. More than 56 percent of shop online 2011 men reported snoring, while 40 percent of women did. People ages 18 to 24 and those over 65 were the most likely to unintentionally fall asleep during the day — about 44 percent of these groups reported nodding off. In one report, based on a survey of nearly 75,000 people in 2009, CDC researchers examined four unhealthy sleep behaviors: inadequate sleep, snoring, nodding off during the day and nodding off while driving. Thirty-five percent reported getting fewer than seven hours of sleep on an average night, 48 percent reported snoring, 38 percent reported unintentionally falling asleep during the day sometime in the previous month, and nearly 5 percent said they'd nodded off while driving in the previous month. The number of U.S. adults reporting that they get fewer than seven hours of sleep rose from 1985 to 2004, and that increase could be attributed to trends such as the increased use of power balance bracelet technology and more people working night shifts, the CDC said. Among people ages 25 to 54, nearly 40 percent reported getting fewer than seven hours of sleep. People over 65 were the least likely to say they got fewer than seven hours of sleep — about 25 percent of them reported this. About 46 percent of those currently unable to find work said they got fewer than seven hours of sleep, compared with 37 percent of employed people. And, of the 12 states in which adults were surveyed, Minnesota had the lowest rate (27 percent) of residents who got fewer than seven hours of sleep, while 45 percent of Hawaiians said the same. In fact, Hawaiians had the highest prevalence of all of the unhealthy sleep behaviors. Two reports released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Thursday reveal the sleep habits of adults in the United States, including their increasing tendency to get fewer than seven hours a night, hurting their ability to concentrate and raising the risk of driving. Residents of Hawaii have particular trouble sleeping well, according to the responses to one survey, and the CDC said more research on the power balance matter is needed.
An International Criminal Court prosecutor said Wednesday an investigation of Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi for possible crimes against humanity is in order.ICC prosecutor Luis shop online 2011Moreno-Ocampo said he will present an overview Thursday in The Hague, Netherlands, of the alleged crimes committed by Gadhafi since Feb. 15, in which more than 1,000 people have been reported killed, U.N. News reported. ICC judges will decide whether to issue arrest warrants after hearing Moreno-Ocampo's evidence.The U.N. General Assembly Tuesday adopted a resolution to suspend Libya from its seat on the Human Rights Council, the first time the assembly had suspended a member of the council.GALLERY: Continued turmoil in Libya"The world has spoken with one voice," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. "We demand an immediate end to the violence toward civilians and full respect for their fundamental human rights, including those of peaceful assembly and free speech." Ban said reports from the ground were "sobering." Libya's ambassador to the United States estimated the death toll was about 2,000, CNN said.Ban said the number of refugees and displaced persons was reaching crisis proportions as Libyans fled into neighboring countries.In their first foray into rebel-held eastern Libya, Moammar Gadhafi's forces claimed to recapture a major oil facility Wednesday.Hundreds of untrained young men and ill-equipped soldiers supporting the revolt rushed out of Benghazi to repel the coach Outlet storecounterattack on the Sirte Oil Co. complex in Port Brega, the Los Angeles Times reported. The rebels claimed to have retaken the facility, which supplies the east's fuel, but that could not be confirmed.In Tripoli, Gadhafi delivered a long speech Wednesday vowing to "put two fingers" in his foes' eyes. He said the people, not he, rule Libya.A tribal leader said military camps near Ajdabiya were attacked from the air as pro-government forces moved into a town that had been controlled by the opposition, CNN reported.Gadhafi used the anniversary of the creation of the People's Authority in 1977 to say he is neither president nor prime minister, but serves only in an advisory capacity. He said he laughed when he heard his name in news reports because "I carried out the revolution and then stood down. Now, power and authority is in the hands of the people.""I led the revolution in 1977 and I went back to my tent," he said to a room of supporters and journalists."What office can I leave? I have no position to resign from," Gadhafi said through a power balancetranslator.He repeated his belief al-Qaida operatives and possibly Libyans living abroad were behind the unrest. He said al-Qaida sleeper cells were at work in several cities now under control of opposition forces.He said supporters told him: "There is no opposition within Libya against you. … If they attack our symbol, which is you … we are prepared to die."
The analysts also pointed to potential longer-term power balanceimplications for the region from the recent turmoil. “We see the unrest in this region as being particularly negative for foreign investment in the longer term, which could effectively result in the loss of incremental volumes and a slowdown in exploration drilling,” the Barclays Capital analysts saidOil prices climbed nearly 3% in regular New York trading on Tuesday amid ongoing political uncertainty in the Middle East and North Africa. In Libya embattled leader Col. Moammar Gadhafi continued to cling to power, despite mounting pressure from the international community for him to step down, while the U.S. ordered two power balance braceletwarships to the waters off the coast of the nation on fears of an extended conflict. “As Libyan oil supplies and exports remain severely disrupted, market sentiment remains on a precarious edge, as fears of contagion remain widespread,” analysts at Barclays Capital said. Protests in Oman and fears about the exit of foreign oil-producers, as well as a recent reported attack on a major Iraqi refinery, are also expected to worry investors. “While Oman is not a large oil producer, the involvement of foreign oil companies is substantial and on the rise. Any severe outbreak of violence may lead to a similar exit of the international oil companies as witnessed in Libya, thereby threatening the long-term production profile of Oman,” analysts at Barclays Capital said. “Iraq is also facing increasing domestic violence, with the attack on the Baiji refinery likely to curtail domestic product supplies for some time,” they added. Oil futures again broke through the $100 a barrel mark in electronic trading on Wednesday, as violence in Libya and the surrounding region sparked fears that unrest will spread. Benchmark Nymex light sweet crude oil futures /quotes/comstock/21n!f:clj11 (CLJ11 100.06, +0.43, +0.43%)rose 72 cents or 0.7% to $100.25 a shop online 2011barrel.
Some officials see a benefit in a hybrid plan, which maintains a prada handbags 2011 pension, typically a less generous one for new hires, and a 401(k)-type component.Switching to a pure 401(k)-like plan "would have taken any savings and turned it into a cost in the earlier years," said Phil Stoddard, director of Michigan's Office of Retirement Services.In Utah, state Sen. Dan Liljenquist, a Republican instrumental in moving the state to a hybrid plan, says that to adhere to accounting standards, the state would have had to pay as much as 20% more each year for nearly a decade if it closed its defined-benefit plan. Avoiding such costs, he says, is one benefit of going with a hybrid approach. A switch can increase the payments a public employer has to make to any pension fund it closes, particularly if the pension is underfunded, which many are. That is because when a fund closes, over time there are fewer workers contributing. The burden can fall on the public employer to make up shortfalls.The Governmental Accounting Standards Board, or GASB, the nonprofit organization that sets accounting rules for state and local governments, requires that officials who close a defined-benefit shop online 2011 plan account for higher annual costs triggered by projected decreases in the number of employees contributing to the fund. GASB can't require pension systems to pay off those higher annual costs, but a fund would have to register liabilities on its balance sheet if it didn't, under the rules. Those liabilities can draw the scrutiny of credit-rating firms and investors.It also depends on how the market performs. In the surging market of the 1990s, many governments didn't need to contribute as much to their pension plans as they would have in a weak market because investment returns drove down the payments required each year. That changed with the market losses of 2008, which left many states facing widening gaps."It is no doubt the proper thing over the long term to…consider reforming the level of benefits" says Gabriel Petek, a public-finance analyst at credit-rating firm Standard & Poor's. But "it's not to be forgotten that these existing benefits don't just go away."A closed pension fund generally would shift its asset allocation over time toward less-risky investments in the same way an individual might move from riskier to more-conservative investments as retirement nears. That shift can reduce the plan's investment returns, leaving the employer needing to pay more.How much the switch to a 401(k)-type plan saves can depend on how substantial the benefit reductions are when plans change. For instance, under a new plan, the government might reduce the share that the public employer contributes to 6% of a new employee's salary from 8%. Proponents say the public sector should follow the corporate world and move away from pensions. They point out that what a government pays into a 401(k)-type plan doesn't fluctuate with the market. Some see steady contributions as a plus for states' budget-planning. Many government-worker unions oppose a switch to 401(k)-type plans. The debate has become heated in Florida after Gov. Scott called for such a move. Florida's pension system was 87.9% funded as of July. Doug Martin, legislative coach Outlet storedirector for the Florida branch of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, opposes abandoning the pension plan and says the costs of switching to a 401(k)-like plan can outweigh the savings for at least 25 years.