Athletes lose medals; Armstrong decision pending

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — Eight years after winning Olympic medals in Athens, four track and field athletes from eastern Europe were ordered to hand them back Wednesday because of positive doping tests, while Lance Armstrong can hold onto his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Games a little while longer.

The International Olympic Committee executive board disqualified four athletes whose 2004 Athens doping samples were retested this year and came back positive for steroids, including shot put gold medalist Yuriy Bilonog of Ukraine.

Also stripped of medals were hammer throw silver medalist Ivan Tskikhan of Belarus and two bronze medalists — women's shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova of Russia and discus thrower Irina Yatchenko of Belarus.

The IOC held off stripping Armstrong of the bronze he won 12 years ago in the cycling road time trial in Sydney, citing procedural reasons for the delay.

IOC leaders want Armstrong's medal back after the damning U.S. Anti-Doping Agency report that painted Armstrong as a systematic drug cheat. The International Cycling Union recently stripped Armstrong of his seven Tour de France titles from 1999-2005.

But the IOC said it must wait for UCI, the cycling's governing body, to formally notify Armstrong of the loss of all his results since August 1998. The IOC wants to avoid any legal problems in connection with the eight-year statute of limitations in the Olympic rules.

"The IOC today will not move," IOC President Jacques Rogge said at a news conference following a two-day board meeting in Lausanne. "We need to have the situation whereby the UCI notifies officially Mr. Armstrong of the fact that he will be disqualified, declared ineligible and that he should hand over his medal.

"This is a legal obligation not for the IOC but for the International Cycling Union. When he will be notified, Mr. Armstrong will have 21 days to launch an appeal if he wishes. It is only after this period of 21 days that the IOC can legally take action."

The case of a fifth bronze medalist, weightlifter Oleg Perepechenov of Russia, is pending.

The IOC said it will ask the International Association of Athletics Federations to get the four medals back and readjust the results and rankings from the Athens Games.

Until then, no decision will be taken on reallocating the medals. Adam Nelson of the United States finished second in the shot put in Athens behind Bilonog and would stand to move up to gold.

The intention of the IOC to wipe Armstrong from the Olympic record books remains clear.

"Absolutely," IOC vice president Craig Reedie of Britain told The Associated Press. "If the UCI have the ability to remove all these titles, we should have the ability to remove a bronze medal. Once they go through their procedures, then we'll go through ours."

Armstrong finished behind winner and U.S. Postal Service teammate Vyacheslav Ekimov of Russia and Jan Ullrich of Germany in Sydney. The IOC has no plans to reallocate Armstrong's bronze medal, just as the UCI decided not to declare any winners for the Tour titles once held by the American.

In August, the IOC stripped Tyler Hamilton, a former Armstrong teammate, of his time-trial gold medal from the 2004 Athens Olympics after he admitted to doping.

The Athens Games were already considered the dirtiest on record, producing 26 doping cases and catching six medalists — including two gold winners — at the time. The retroactive tests bring the number of Athens cases to 31, including 11 medal winners and three gold medalists.

Since Athens, the IOC has been storing doping samples from each Olympics for eight years to allow for retesting when new detection methods become available. Last year, under prodding from the World Anti-Doping Agency, the IOC reanalyzed about 100 samples from Athens.

The IOC said Bilonog and Krivelyova tested positive for oxandrolone, while the samples from Tsikhan and Yatchenko were positive for methandienone.

Bilonog's disqualification means that both shot put winners in Athens have been disqualified for doping: Women's champion Irina Korzhanenko of Russia was stripped of gold at the games after testing positive for stanozolol.

The IAAF held the 2004 shot put competition in Ancient Olympia, in what had been intended as a symbolic and uplifting return to the birthplace of the Olympics.

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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths

Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.

The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer than five years didn't help and might even be harmful.

In the new study, researchers found that women who took tamoxifen for 10 years lowered their risk of a recurrence by 25 percent and of dying of breast cancer by 29 percent compared to those who took the pills for just five years.

In absolute terms, continuing on tamoxifen kept three additional women out of every 100 from dying of breast cancer within five to 14 years from when their disease was diagnosed. When added to the benefit from the first five years of use, a decade of tamoxifen can cut breast cancer mortality in half during the second decade after diagnosis, researchers estimate.

Some women balk at taking a preventive drug for so long, but for those at high risk of a recurrence, "this will be a convincer that they should continue," said Dr. Peter Ravdin, director of the breast cancer program at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio.

He reviewed results of the study, which was being presented Wednesday at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio and published by the British medical journal Lancet.

"The result of this trial will have a major, immediate impact on premenopausal women," Ravdin said.

About 50,000 of the roughly 230,000 new cases of breast cancer in the United States each year occur in women before menopause. Most breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, and hormone blockers are known to cut the risk of recurrence in such cases.

Tamoxifen long was the top choice, but newer drugs called aromatase inhibitors — sold as Arimidex, Femara, Aromasin and in generic form — do the job with less risk of causing uterine cancer and other problems.

But the newer drugs don't work well before menopause. Even some women past menopause choose tamoxifen over the newer drugs, which cost more and have different side effects such as joint pain, bone loss and sexual problems.

The new study aimed to see whether over a very long time, longer treatment with tamoxifen could help.

Dr. Christina Davies of the University of Oxford in England and other researchers assigned 6,846 women who already had taken tamoxifen for five years to either stay on it or take dummy pills for another five years.

Researchers saw little difference in the groups five to nine years after diagnosis. But beyond that time, 15 percent of women who had stopped taking tamoxifen after five years had died of breast cancer versus 12 percent of those who took it for 10 years. Cancer had returned in 25 percent of women on the shorter treatment versus 21 percent of those treated longer.

Tamoxifen had some troubling side effects: Longer use nearly doubled the risk of endometrial cancer. But it rarely proved fatal, and there was no increased risk among premenopausal women in the study — the very group tamoxifen helps most.

"Overall the benefits of extended tamoxifen seemed to outweigh the risks substantially," Dr. Trevor Powles of the Cancer Centre London wrote in an editorial published with the study.

The study was sponsored by cancer research organizations in Britain and Europe, the United States Army, and AstraZeneca PLC, which makes Nolvadex, a brand of tamoxifen, which also is sold as a generic for 10 to 50 cents a day. Brand-name versions of the newer hormone blockers, aromatase inhibitors, are $300 or more per month, but generics are available for much less.

The results pose a quandary for breast cancer patients past menopause and those who become menopausal because of their treatment — the vast majority of cases. Previous studies found that starting on one of the newer hormone blockers led to fewer relapses than initial treatment with tamoxifen did.

Another study found that switching to one of the new drugs after five years of tamoxifen cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence nearly in half — more than what was seen in the new study of 10 years of tamoxifen.

"For postmenopausal women, the data still remain much stronger at this point for a switch to an aromatase inhibitor," said that study's leader, Dr. Paul Goss of Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been a paid speaker for a company that makes one of those drugs.

Women in his study have not been followed long enough to see whether switching cuts deaths from breast cancer, as 10 years of tamoxifen did. Results are expected in about a year.

The cancer conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, Baylor College of Medicine and the UT Health Science Center.

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

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Possible Wintour appointment gets London talking

LONDON (AP) — Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, John Quincy Adams ... and now Anna Wintour?

A report suggesting that the influential editor-in-chief of Vogue is one of the candidates being considered for the top U.S. diplomatic post in France or Britain has sparked spirited debate about her qualifications, exciting Britain's glamour-hungry tabloids but raising hackles at the conservative Daily Telegraph.

"Anna Wintour may be an enticing pick for a celebrity-fixated White House," wrote Nile Gardner in the Telegraph. "But she is eminently unsuitable for America's most prestigious diplomatic posting."

The possibility that the British-born Wintour would move into London's grand ambassadorial residence was raised several years ago by The Guardian newspaper — where her brother Patrick is a prominent journalist — and again this week by Bloomberg News, which based its report on "two people familiar with the matter."

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in London said they would not speculate on President Obama's eventual choice for a successor to Ambassador Louis Susman, who has announced plans to step down. White House officials have also refused to comment.

Officials caution that a decision is months away and would only follow the appointment of a new secretary of state to replace outgoing Hillary Clinton and would also include a thorough vetting process.

Guardian fashion writer Jess Cartner-Morley said the editor — the model for the imperious character played by Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada" movie — would be well-suited for an ambassadorial position.

"Wintour is generally acknowledged as whipsmart and extremely hard-working," she wrote. "She is enormously charismatic, a born networker and a formidable fundraiser."

Cartner-Morley also challenged the dismissive view that Wintour's many years in the fashion industry are not enough, citing recent ambassadorial choices of a retired investment banker and a retired car dealership owner.

"Is a career as one of the biggest global players in an industry estimated to be worth $900 billion to the world economy really so inferior and shallow by comparison?" the writer asked.

Vogue spokeswoman Megan Salt in New York said Wednesday said that Wintour is very happy with her present job.

Wintour raised $40 million for Obama's re-election through a number of campaigns and star-studded dinners she co-hosted with some of the most powerful people in the entertainment and fashion worlds. In August, she teamed up with movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for a fundraising dinner, after a successful party at Sarah Jessica Parker's Manhattan home in July.

The ambassadorial posts in France and Britain — formally known as the Court of St. James's — are among the most coveted in the diplomatic ranks. They also typically go to wealthy individuals willing to use personal funds to buttress the government-provided entertainment budget.

Wintour, 63, is best-known for her trademark glossy bob hairstyle, oversized sunglasses and haughty demeanor. Born in London, she started in fashion journalism at Harper's Bazaar and New York magazine, and after working at the helm of other glossies became editor-in-chief at U.S. Vogue in 1988.

Carne Ross, a former British diplomat who now runs a New York-based diplomatic advisory group, said Wintour's skills — "honed in the vicious world of the fashion industry" — would qualify her for a diplomatic posting.

Ross said a large part of an ambassador's job involves taking part in social gatherings, something Wintour would be comfortable with. Often most of the real political work is done by direct communications between the White House and the prime minister's office at Downing Street, he said.

"That diminishes the political significance of the ambassador's role," he said.

Mary Jo Jacobi, a presidential adviser during two Republican administrations, said Wintour would be an unusual choice but possibly an effective one.

"Vogue is a very successful, very large publication, and she has experience with big budgets and with challenging, difficult people," Jacobi said. "She knows how to marshal resources. And her job has involved a great deal of diplomacy."

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ICC lets ComEd delay smart meters until 2015

The Illinois Commerce Commission on Wednesday approved ComEd's request to delay the installation of smart meters until 2015 but said it will revisit the issue in April when the utility is scheduled to file a progress report on the program.

Under massive grid modernization legislation, ComEd was supposed to begin installing smart meters this year, but the ICC cut the funds ComEd was expecting to receive under the program and the utility said it could no longer afford to install the meters that quickly. The two sides are battling in court in a process that could take years.

An administrative law judge, as well as several consumer advocacy groups, had recommended the commission not accept the delay.

Jim Chilsen, spokesman for Citizens Utility Board, said a delay is not in the best interest of consumers. According to a ComEd commissioned analysis, the delay means consumers will miss out on approximately $187 million in savings that could come from the program over 20 years and will pay $5 million more for the smart meters. Chilsen said that CUB, which had urged the commission not to delay the program, will review the order once it becomes available and that it could seek to appeal the decision before the Illinois Appeals Court.

Other aspects of smart grid installation are under way, including "smart switches" used to automatically isolate outages and reroute power to customers. However, smart meters are the most consumer facing aspect smart grid and let the utility track on a computer what customers lack power and those who have had power restored.

Without the smart meters, customers must alert ComEd to an outage. Other parts of smart grid allow ComEd to see where the power is out in general.

The smart meters were a major component in ComEd's pitch to the state legislature for massive regulatory overhaul legislation that streamlines the rate-making processto give ComEd faster and more frequent rate hikes as it undertakes the multibillion-dollar grid modernization.

jwernau@tribune.com | Twitter @littlewern

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Hamstring strain could sideline Urlacher for season

Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher is expected to miss the next three games and possibly the rest of the regular season with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, according to two sources familiar with his injury status.

Urlacher hopes to be fully recovered for the playoffs, provided the Bears remain in good postseason standing. A return for the Dec. 30 regular-season finale against the Detroit Lions is a possibility.

The eight-time Pro Bowler strained his right hamstring on the second-to-last play of Sunday’s 23-17 overtime loss to the Seahawks.  Urlacher heard a "pop" as he chased Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson near the sideline. It was a non-contact injury.

Urlacher declined to discuss the injury or his playing status when reached by the Tribune. He underwent an MRI on Tuesday, which confirmed the Grade 2 strain.

Urlacher has started in all 16 games in nine of the past 12 seasons.

After Sunday’s loss, a team source indicated the Bears needed to prepare to play without Urlacher "for a while." Nick Roach took over at middle linebacker for the final play of overtime as Geno Hayes slid over to Roach’s spot at strong-side linebacker.

This week’s game against the Vikings would be Roach’s fourth career start at middle linebacker. The Bears also had linebacker Dom DeCicco at Halas Hall on Tuesday and re-signed him for depth at the position.

If the playoffs started today, the 8-4 Bears would be the fifth seed against the fourth-seeded and NFC East-leading Giants (7-5) on wild-card weekend Jan. 5-6. Such a scenario would give Urlacher a month to fully recover.

The 34-year-old Urlacher’s contract expires at the end of the season, and he still has a desire to play at least two more seasons depending on his health. He entered the 2012 campaign recovering from a severe left knee injury sustained during last year’s season finale at Minnesota. Urlacher sprained his medial collateral ligament and partially sprained posterior cruciate ligament. He underwent multiples procedures to repair the damage.

General manager Phil Emery wouldn't commit to re-signing the future Hall of Famer and said any contract offers would be based on performance. Urlacher not only leads the team in tackles with 88, but he also has an interception return for a touchdown, three forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries.

vxmcclure@tribune.com

Twitter@vxmcclure23

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U.S. fails to win early limit on Net controls at global gathering

DUBAI/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. and Canadian proposal to protect the Internet from new international regulation has failed to win prompt backing from other countries, setting up potentially tough negotiations to rewrite a telecom treaty.

The idea, also supported by Europe, would limit the International Telecommunication Union's rules to only telecom operators and not Internet-based companies such as Google Inc and Facebook Inc.

That could reduce the prospective impact of efforts by other countries including Russia and some in the Middle East and Africa to obtain more powers to govern the Internet through the ITU, an arm of the United Nations. Those efforts, slated for discussion next week, could make Net anonymity - or the ability to remain anonymous online - more difficult to maintain and could bolster censorship, critics say.

"We want to make sure (the rewritten ITU treaty) stays focused squarely on the telecom sector," said U.S. Ambassador Terry Kramer. "We thought we should deal with that up-front."

Kramer had been hoping that a committee comprising representatives from six regional bodies would give quick approval to the American request on Tuesday. But that failed to happen.

An ITU spokesman said late on Tuesday that the talks were continuing and that the issue would only return to the main policy-making body on Friday.

About 150 nations are gathered in Dubai to renegotiate the ITU rules, which were last updated in 1988, before the Internet and mobile phones transformed communications.

The 12-day ITU conference, which began on Monday, largely pits revenue-seeking developing countries and authoritarian regimes that want more control over Internet content against U.S. policymakers and private Net companies that prefer the status quo.

The Internet has no central regulatory body, but various groups provide some oversight, such as ICANN, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that coordinates domain names and numeric Internet protocol addresses.

U.S. companies have led innovation on the Internet, and this stateside dominance is a worry for countries unaligned with the world's most powerful country.

The United States has also led in the development and use of destructive software in military operations that take advantage of anonymous Internet routing and security flaws.

Some of the proposals now being contested by the American and Canadian delegations are aimed at increasing security and reducing the effectiveness of such attacks, though the West and several rights groups argue that is a pretext for greater repression.

ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun Touré told Reuters last week that any major changes to the 1988 treaty would be adopted only with "consensus" approaching unanimity, but leaked documents show that managers at the 147-year-old body view a bad split as a strong possibility.

If that happens, debates over ratification could erupt in the United States, Europe and elsewhere.

(Reporting by Matt Smith in Dubai and Joseph Menn in San Francisco; editing by Matthew Lewis)

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Chiefs' LB mentioned other 'girlfriend' to police

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Police say Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher spent some of his final hours sleeping in his car outside the home of another woman whom he described as his "girlfriend."

Police spokesman Darin Snapp said Tuesday that the woman's apartment complex was about 10 miles from the home where Belcher shot and killed the mother of his 3-month-old daughter, 22-year-old Kasandra Perkins. Belcher then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and killed himself in front of team officials.

Snapp says the officers who found Belcher sleeping in his car around 2:50 a.m. Saturday determined that he didn't have any outstanding warrants. He says Belcher made a phone call and that a woman let him into the building a few minutes later.

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CDC says US flu season starts early, could be bad

NEW YORK (AP) — Flu season in the U.S. is off to its earliest start in nearly a decade — and it could be a bad one.

Health officials on Monday said suspected flu cases have jumped in five Southern states, and the primary strain circulating tends to make people sicker than other types. It is particularly hard on the elderly.

"It looks like it's shaping up to be a bad flu season, but only time will tell," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The good news is that the nation seems fairly well prepared, Frieden said. More than a third of Americans have been vaccinated, and the vaccine formulated for this year is well-matched to the strains of the virus seen so far, CDC officials said.

Higher-than-normal reports of flu have come in from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. An uptick like this usually doesn't happen until after Christmas. Flu-related hospitalizations are also rising earlier than usual, and there have already been two deaths in children.

Hospitals and urgent care centers in northern Alabama have been bustling. "Fortunately, the cases have been relatively mild," said Dr. Henry Wang, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Parts of Georgia have seen a boom in traffic, too. It's not clear why the flu is showing up so early, or how long it will stay.

"My advice is: Get the vaccine now," said Dr. James Steinberg, an Emory University infectious diseases specialist in Atlanta.

The last time a conventional flu season started this early was the winter of 2003-04, which proved to be one of the most lethal seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths. The dominant type of flu back then was the same one seen this year.

One key difference between then and now: In 2003-04, the vaccine was poorly matched to the predominant flu strain. Also, there's more vaccine now, and vaccination rates have risen for the general public and for key groups such as pregnant women and health care workers.

An estimated 112 million Americans have been vaccinated so far, the CDC said. Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older.

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

Flu usually peaks in midwinter. Symptoms can include fever, cough, runny nose, head and body aches and fatigue. Some people also suffer vomiting and diarrhea, and some develop pneumonia or other severe complications.

A strain of swine flu that hit in 2009 caused a wave of cases in the spring and then again in the early fall. But that was considered a unique type of flu, distinct from the conventional strains that circulate every year.

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Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly

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Michael Richards signed to TV Land sitcom pilot

NEW YORK (AP) — TV Land says it has cast "Seinfeld" star Michael Richards in a pilot for a prospective new sitcom.

The series, "Giant Baby," also would feature fellow "Cheers" alums Kirstie Alley and Rhea Perlman.

TV Land said Tuesday the pilot will be taped next week.

"Giant Baby" focuses on Broadway star Maddie Banks, played by Alley. Richards plays her limo driver while Perlman plays her assistant.

This would be Richards' first regular series role since his short-lived NBC sitcom aired in 2000. Before that, he played Jerry Seinfeld's kookie neighbor Cosmo Kramer on the wildly popular "Seinfeld" series.

In the meantime, Richards performed as a standup comedian. He lost his temper while being heckled at a club in 2006 and was caught on tape shouting the N-word. He later apologized.

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United Dreamliner makes emergency landing in New Orleans

A brand-new United Airlines "Dreamliner" bound for Newark, N.J., was diverted Tuesday morning, making an emergency landing in New Orleans because of a mechanical problem.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner recently entered service in North America in a debut last month with United Airlines. United and Boeing are both based in Chicago.

United flight 1146 from Houston to Newark was diverted to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and landed safely, the airline said. The flight carried 174 customers and 10 crew members.

"We are re-accommodating the customers on a different aircraft to Newark," United said in a statement. "United will work with Boeing to review the diversion and determine the cause."

The Dreamliner, which features greater passenger comforts and fuel efficiency compared with similar planes, is a big deal for United and Boeing and has been highly touted by both.

gkarp@tribune.com

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