Mangoes Would Be A Delicious Summertime Take Care Of

African Mango has become among the many latest "superfoods", and is remaining promoted everywhere, but what do you find it, and can it really make it easier to lose weight? Its wise to have a look at what is there and in actual fact have some evidence which it really works. It also has to be remembered that this African mango extract should be a diet health supplement and so must not be expected to replace from either of the diet that anyone normally take. It lowers cholesterol level in the body, controls sugar plus blood pressure and helps in your regulation of hormone certainly leptin. The pill will help obese and overweight individuals around the world. Most of the natural options are not who effective for what there're taken to. Even if eaten all the African mangoes on the planet, you're not travelling to get thin in case you sit on your couch all day every day, munching on french fries and pizza and helping you to ultimately a pint associated with ice cream.

You usually takes in dried Mangoes or maybe fresh Mangoes to further improve your fruit use. Leptin is a good fat hormone that will sends signals with the brain informing it which we have had enough to nibble on, even though you will have not eaten nearly anything. At the same time it will help in clearing released waste resins that are stopping the circulation of liquid fats in the childs body and thus causing you to look shaggy. It also contains antioxidant and antimicrobial residences, making it by far the most sought after food supplements already in the market. The exact number of the extracts incorporated into each pill is good clinical research plus studies. The particular official websites for a lot of goods also present http://www.phen375reviewszone.com a fat loss fitness program. Another benefit from while using the mango diet pill is it helps improves a person's cholesterol level.

African mango has become the most effective slimming tablets in the market which would help its end users in completing together with achieving their intent. Leptin is the hormone given the task of sending signals towards brain that there's enough fat within the body. They are scrumptious when chopped and also mixed into earth-friendly salads and fresh fruit salads. It may could be seen as the name of your fruit shake, drink or maybe obviously any good dessert, but, it is one thing entirely different. You can avail them through the nearest retail retailer or place the order online. (In a 10-week trial, the group lost typically 28 pounds not to mention 6 inches!) In inclusion, the group at the same time significantly decreased their degrees of LDL cholesterol plus triglycerides, while increasing your HDL (fine) cholesterol.

The purpose of this is the fact that root cause might be never addressed on these medications though only the indications, which is excess fat gain, is treated and many people why other diet supplements will never be known to need full success in assisting people to greatly reduce their weight. African mango generally is appropriate in two procedures: one. It popularity adjusted up ever as long as it featured at ABC and was documented to enjoy weight loss plus points. You probably previously made a decide to eat healthier and also exercise regularly (what amount of times have an individual done that ahead of?) This time period, why not present yourself that extra added good thing about a clinically examined, all-natural, non-stimulant supplement. The wait for a weight reduction plan pill is above; The product works out and complements the weight reducing system to provide the most results.

The nutritional supplement pills promote the secretion belonging to the hormone called Leptin that is a powerful appetite inhibitor. This is some bulk-forming fiber that the supplement function akin to some healthy laxative. Ultimately, using a fine African Mango Diet plan weight-loss capsule can be among the best weight-loss resources you've. Seeds of African mango referred to as Dikka Nuts have ultimate capacity to fast the metabolic activities by the body processes and helps to burn fats. Such people really need to get slim to get rid of many problems and live a happy everyday life.

Homa Sabet Tavangar: You Don't Have to Be Chinese to Celebrate the Year of the Dragon Lunar New Year

The Year of the Dragon celebrations offer a great opportunity to grow our understanding of the world -- while having fun with our kids. Before you good-intentionally blurt out "Happy Chinese New Year," to colleagues and neighbors -- stop! "Chinese New Year" represents a subset of the cultures that celebrate. It's also a festivity in Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Mongolia, Brunei, Indonesia, and more, with some of the biggest festivals taking place in Canada and Australia. So say "Happy Lunar New Year!" And some call it Spring Festival, even though to many of us in colder locales that feels like a stretch.

You also don't have to be East Asian to celebrate. My family is Iranian-American and some of our favorite memories are of making fresh dumplings with neighbors in the deep winter for the New Year, attending Philadelphia's Chinatown parade followed by a dim sum feast with transplants from four continents, and for our girls, wearing the traditional Chinese silk brocade dress, that comes in every color and size.

I was struck by President Obama's 40-second Lunar New Year greeting (click here to watch), which he put in the context of his own fond memories: "Growing up in Hawaii I remember all the excitement surrounding the Lunar New Year, from the parades and the fireworks to the smaller gatherings with family and friends. It's always been a time for celebration and for hope. " He also uses this as an occasion to remind Americans that we gain strength from our diversity -- a message that can resonate whatever your political leanings (unless, of course, you think that Mitt Romney's French language abilities are a liability).

Did the president celebrate with his Kansan grandparents, who were vital to his upbringing and support system, or with his mother after her return from Indonesia, or more likely, with all of them, since Lunar New Year has been integrated into Hawaiian life, too? These celebrations may have been formative to the American president who has been criticized for stating he is "an American citizen and a citizen of the world." Having a personal experience of something as joyous and free from an agenda as celebrating a new holiday with friends can widen the vision of the possibilities for our own lives, especially at a formative age: what second language we might learn, where we might study or do business, who our friends and loved ones can be, art that resonates, food and music we enjoy, and more. It also helps us become more compassionate to the lives of others -- near or far.

This year is particularly portentous as the Year of the Dragon, a symbol of power and excellence, courage, heroism and perseverance, nobility and divinity. With all the power a dragon has, he uses it benevolently. This wisdom and restraint is a source of wealth and respect.

So, make dumplings; finally learn how to eat gracefully with chopsticks; learn a phrase in Mandarin or Vietnamese; reach out to a new immigrant family in your community; or get to know the couple that runs the ethnic shop nearby. And imagine: how will you be a wise and kind dragon, radiant on the inside, spreading beauty and promise on the outside?

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Follow Homa Sabet Tavangar on Twitter: www.twitter.com/growingupglobal

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/homa-sabet-tavangar/you-dont-have-to-be-chine_b_1218896.html

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Health benefits of exercise may depend on cellular degradation, UT Southwestern researchers report

[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 20-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Deborah Wormser
deborah.wormser@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404
UT Southwestern Medical Center

DALLAS Jan. 20, 2012 The health benefits of exercise on blood sugar metabolism may come from the body's ability to devour itself, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in the journal Nature.

Autophagy is a process by which a cell responds to starvation and other stresses by degrading damaged or unneeded parts of itself to produce energy. It is sometimes called the cell's housekeeping pathway.

"Exercise is known to have many health benefits but the mechanisms have been unclear. Autophagy is also known to have several health benefits, and these benefits correspond closely to the effects of exercise. We hypothesized that some of the health benefits of exercise might be explained through autophagy," said senior author Dr. Beth Levine, professor of internal medicine and microbiology who leads the Center for Autophagy Research at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Levine, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator at the medical center, decided to focus on one specific health effect of exercise the ability of exercise to prevent blood sugar abnormalities in the face of a high-fat diet. Her mouse study provides the first evidence that exercise stimulates autophagy.

The researchers found that mice genetically unable to increase autophagy in response to short-term exercise have decreased endurance and fail to experience the normal benefits of exercise on blood sugar metabolism.

This discovery led the team to investigate whether autophagy is important in the protective effects of chronic exercise on diabetes. A high-fat diet induced diabetes-like changes in blood sugar metabolism in both control mice and in test mice that were genetically unable to increase autophagy above baseline levels, said Dr. Congcong He, lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Levine's lab. However, the researchers found that exercise reversed these blood sugar abnormalities in control mice but not in the autophagy-deficient mice.

"Our finding that exercise fails to improve glucose metabolism in autophagy-deficient mice strongly suggests that autophagy is an important mechanism by which exercise protects against diabetes," said Dr. Levine. "It also raises the possibility that activation of autophagy may contribute to other health benefits of exercise, including protection against cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and aging.

Dr. Levine has made fundamental discoveries previously that are in large part credited for expanding the field of autophagy research. In 1999, she identified the first mammalian autophagy gene, beclin 1, and its link to the suppression of breast cancer, which marked the first discovery of an association between defects in an autophagy gene and a human disease.

She similarly is credited with demonstrating that autophagy functions in innate immunity protecting against lethal viral encephalitis as well as initially reporting that autophagy plays a role in lifespan extension, shown in a study of C. elegans worms.

###

Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the Nature study include Dr. Kai Sun, assistant instructor of internal medicine; Dr. Yongjie Wei, assistant professor of internal medicine; research specialist Zhongju Zou; graduate student Zhenyi An; computational biologist Dr. Qihua Sun; Dr. Milton Packer, chairman of clinical sciences and professor of internal medicine; research scientist Herman May; Dr. Joseph Hill, Dr. Joseph Hill, director of the Harry S. Moss Heart Center, chief of cardiology, and professor of internal medicine and molecular biology; Dr. Christopher Gilpin, assistant professor of cell biology; Dr. Guanghua Xiao, assistant professor of clinical sciences; Dr. Rhonda Bassel-Duby, professor of molecular biology; Dr. Philipp Scherer, professor of internal medicine and cell biology and director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research; and former postdoctoral researcher Dr. Viviana Moresi of molecular biology.

Researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Washington University and the University of California at San Francisco also contributed.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the HHMI.

This news release is available on our World Wide Web home page at www.utsouthwestern.edu/home/news/index.html

To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via email, subscribe at www.utsouthwestern.edu/receivenews


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 20-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Deborah Wormser
deborah.wormser@utsouthwestern.edu
214-648-3404
UT Southwestern Medical Center

DALLAS Jan. 20, 2012 The health benefits of exercise on blood sugar metabolism may come from the body's ability to devour itself, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in the journal Nature.

Autophagy is a process by which a cell responds to starvation and other stresses by degrading damaged or unneeded parts of itself to produce energy. It is sometimes called the cell's housekeeping pathway.

"Exercise is known to have many health benefits but the mechanisms have been unclear. Autophagy is also known to have several health benefits, and these benefits correspond closely to the effects of exercise. We hypothesized that some of the health benefits of exercise might be explained through autophagy," said senior author Dr. Beth Levine, professor of internal medicine and microbiology who leads the Center for Autophagy Research at UT Southwestern.

Dr. Levine, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator at the medical center, decided to focus on one specific health effect of exercise the ability of exercise to prevent blood sugar abnormalities in the face of a high-fat diet. Her mouse study provides the first evidence that exercise stimulates autophagy.

The researchers found that mice genetically unable to increase autophagy in response to short-term exercise have decreased endurance and fail to experience the normal benefits of exercise on blood sugar metabolism.

This discovery led the team to investigate whether autophagy is important in the protective effects of chronic exercise on diabetes. A high-fat diet induced diabetes-like changes in blood sugar metabolism in both control mice and in test mice that were genetically unable to increase autophagy above baseline levels, said Dr. Congcong He, lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in Dr. Levine's lab. However, the researchers found that exercise reversed these blood sugar abnormalities in control mice but not in the autophagy-deficient mice.

"Our finding that exercise fails to improve glucose metabolism in autophagy-deficient mice strongly suggests that autophagy is an important mechanism by which exercise protects against diabetes," said Dr. Levine. "It also raises the possibility that activation of autophagy may contribute to other health benefits of exercise, including protection against cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and aging.

Dr. Levine has made fundamental discoveries previously that are in large part credited for expanding the field of autophagy research. In 1999, she identified the first mammalian autophagy gene, beclin 1, and its link to the suppression of breast cancer, which marked the first discovery of an association between defects in an autophagy gene and a human disease.

She similarly is credited with demonstrating that autophagy functions in innate immunity protecting against lethal viral encephalitis as well as initially reporting that autophagy plays a role in lifespan extension, shown in a study of C. elegans worms.

###

Other UT Southwestern researchers involved in the Nature study include Dr. Kai Sun, assistant instructor of internal medicine; Dr. Yongjie Wei, assistant professor of internal medicine; research specialist Zhongju Zou; graduate student Zhenyi An; computational biologist Dr. Qihua Sun; Dr. Milton Packer, chairman of clinical sciences and professor of internal medicine; research scientist Herman May; Dr. Joseph Hill, Dr. Joseph Hill, director of the Harry S. Moss Heart Center, chief of cardiology, and professor of internal medicine and molecular biology; Dr. Christopher Gilpin, assistant professor of cell biology; Dr. Guanghua Xiao, assistant professor of clinical sciences; Dr. Rhonda Bassel-Duby, professor of molecular biology; Dr. Philipp Scherer, professor of internal medicine and cell biology and director of the Touchstone Center for Diabetes Research; and former postdoctoral researcher Dr. Viviana Moresi of molecular biology.

Researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Washington University and the University of California at San Francisco also contributed.

The study was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health and the HHMI.

This news release is available on our World Wide Web home page at www.utsouthwestern.edu/home/news/index.html

To automatically receive news releases from UT Southwestern via email, subscribe at www.utsouthwestern.edu/receivenews


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/usmc-hbo012012.php

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Romney and Paul get jump on Fla. absentee voters (AP)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. ? The Florida presidential primary is on.

Voting is already well under way even though Florida doesn't hold its GOP nominating contest until Jan. 31. And both Mitt Romney, coming off of back-to-back victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, and Ron Paul are aggressively reaching out to voters who have requested ballots.

None of their competitors has been nearly as active even though the victor in Florida would get a huge boost of momentum and all of the state's 50 delegates to the national nominating convention.

As of Tuesday, 424,000 Republican absentee ballots had been mailed ? to military personnel, overseas residents and other Floridians ? and about 84,000 had been returned in a state that has 4 million registered Republican voters. Early voting in Hillsborough, Hardy, Hendry, Monroe and Collier counties begins Monday and runs through Jan. 29. Florida's other 62 counties will hold early voting Jan. 21-28.

Republican insiders expect as many as a third of the GOP ballots to be cast early in the effort to choose a nominee to oppose President Barack Obama.

"It's pointing towards record turnout," said state GOP spokesman Brian Hughes, adding that the number of Republican absentee ballots requested is more than 200,000 ahead of the 2008 pace at the same point before the election. "We're seeing an enthusiasm not only around being involved in picking our nominee, but beyond that, making sure we beat Obama."

Of all the candidates, Romney had the biggest jump on early voters, who started receiving ballots before he notched his first win at the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.

The former Massachusetts governor's campaign is better organized in Florida than any other. And it immediately sent out literature to court voters as soon as ballots were sent in December. That meant some people opened their mailboxes to find both a ballot and an appeal from Romney.

At the same time, an outside group supportive of Romney ? the Restore Our Future super PAC ? went on the air with TV ads backing him in mid-December, the ads timed to coincide with the delivery of ballots. It has spent more than $750,000 on TV ads.

Romney himself went on the air just after the first of the year. He's spent roughly $800,000 on TV ads so far. No other campaign or candidate-aligned super PAC is on the air.

"Even as Iowa was beginning to heat up, we were already messaging absentee voters in Florida," said Brett Doster, a Tallahassee-based Romney aide. "There were already votes being cast and I can assure you that they got Romney messaging and it looks like they weren't getting any messaging from anyone else."

That was true until Texas Rep. Ron Paul's campaign recently got in the game and sent out its own literature. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's campaign planned to start doing the same this week, adding to efforts by its volunteers ? and automated calls ? to encourage early voting.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry's campaign also has asked volunteers to make calls and has paid for automated calls. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and former Pennsylvania Sen. Santorum have done little to woo early voters.

Elizabeth Pike, a 71-year-old retiree from Pompano Beach, is among those who already have voted. She cast her absentee ballot for Gingrich ? but not because she was courted by the campaign.

"He was speaker of the House. When he wanted to get something through, he was very successful," said Pike. "He can speak well and he could represent us well."

In 2008, about 554,000 absentee ballots were cast overall among nearly 1.2 million early votes cast, but the number of Democratic ballots requested this year is far lower, since Obama doesn't have a primary challenger.

This year, the ballots aren't being returned nearly as quickly as they're going out.

Orange County elections supervisor Bill Cowles said he thinks many voters have been waiting to see what happens in other early states before making up their minds.

Part of that may be to make sure their preferred candidate doesn't drop out before Florida votes.

Seminole County elections supervisor Michael Ertel said he remembers receiving a lot of calls when Republican Fred Thompson dropped out of the 2008 race a week before Florida voted. They wanted to know if they could have their ballot back and vote again. They were out of luck.

"Once you've cast your absentee ballot," Ertel said, "you've cast your ballot."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120112/ap_on_el_pr/us_florida_voting_already

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Mandatory abortion coverage in maternity insurance? | Strange ...

A new bill in the Washington Legislature, the only legislation of its kind in America, would require that any insurance policy sold in Washington state that provides for maternity care also cover abortion.

The legislation is keyed to when the federal Affordable Care Act kicks in two years from now, requiring that all Americans purchase health insurance.

?The federal bill required that no federal money go towards abortion in the exchange:? We?re making sure there will be parity between all choices for reproductive rights,? said State Rep. Eileen Cody, chair of the House Health Care and Wellness Committee.

?There will be one plan that will not offer abortions and that will be the federal plan:? All plans offered through the state of Washington will offer abortion.?

Washington voted to legalize abortion in 1970, three years before the U.S. Supreme Court?s landmark Roe v. Wade Decision.? Two decades later, with a challenge to Roe before the U.S. Supreme Court, the state passed a more sweeping abortion rights measure.

Inslee

U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., the Democrats? candidate for governor this year, immediately endorsed the proposed legislation.

?The Reproductive Parity Act will provide a legal guarantee that all women have access to a full range of reproductive health services as the health care exchanges are established,? Inslee said in a statement.

?This is a matter of reaffirming our commitment to preserving choice for Washington women and ensuring women are ensured full control of their family planning and health care.?

If the legislation passes, Washington will be taking the opposite direction of many other states.

Thirteen states have passed laws banning insurance companies from covering abortions, The Stranger reported Monday.

Abortion rights supporters including NARAL Pro-Choice Washington and Planned Parenthood Votes promised to lobby for the law.? Dana Laurent of Planned Parenthood Votes argued, in an e-mail to supporters, that ?this legislation will preserve and strengthen Washington?s values.?

Seattlepi.com has asked for comment from Republican gubernatorial candidate, Attorney General Rob McKenna.

Source: http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2012/01/09/mandatory-abortion-coverage-in-maternity-insurance/

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Texas suit against J&J over drug to go to trial (AP)

AUSTIN, Texas ? Texas is seeking more than $1 billion in damages in a lawsuit that accuses Johnson & Johnson of overstating the safety of an anti-psychotic drug and influencing its use in the state's Medicaid program.

Jury selection is under way Monday in an Austin courtroom. A whistle-blower filed the lawsuit then Texas joined it.

The lawsuit is one of dozens of pending state and federal cases alleging illegal marketing practices and kickbacks in an effort to boost Risperdal over competing drugs. Risperdal is a pill for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Johnson & Johnson says it will vigorously defend itself against the lawsuit's claims.

The trial is expected to last at least two weeks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/meds/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120109/ap_on_he_me/us_drug_lawsuit_texas

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SolarKindle covers keep your e-reader alive longer

By Rosa Golijan

David Friedman/msnbc.com

Worried that your Kindle e-reader will run out of juice before you manage to finish reading the latest bestseller? You could certainly reach for a power cord and charge the gadget's battery the old-fashioned way?? that'd solve your problem. Or you could try an eco-friendly solution?? a solar-powered cover.

The SolarKindle?has a solar panel which will siphon the power of the sun to keep the cover's built-in reserve battery charged up. And that reserve battery will in turn keep your Kindle alive longer.

According to SolarFocus, the maker of the SolarKindle covers, a fully charged reserve battery could provide "up to 80 percent of backup power to the Kindle." The company explains that given that the battery takes eight hours of direct sunlight to charge, this means that each hour of charging gives you almost three days of Kindle use. (Of course you'll get less reading time if you use the SolarKindle's built-in pop-up reading light.)

The SolarKindle will set you back $80 and can be ordered now.

Related stories:

Want more tech news, silly puns or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on?Twitter, subscribing to her?Facebook?posts, or circling her?on?Google+.

Source: http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/08/10059337-solarkindle-covers-keep-your-e-reader-alive-longer

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Houston Students Trapped at School by Flooding (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | Houston, Texas is suffering severe storms and flooding. The National Weather Service report from 3 p.m. today lists severe flood and flash-flood warnings. Tornadoes have touched down and destroyed property according to the Houston Chronicle. CNN reports thousands are without power. I contacted a friend in Houston to get a view from the affected area.

"The rain started last night," says Lori Carr, a teacher from Houston, Texas. "It came on like a switch. It seemed to abate for a while then started up again. I got to school without any trouble this morning. Around 8:30 the skies darkened and it became almost pitch black. We have these temporary buildings on campus and we started getting messages that we'd have to evacuate them. The rain was coming down in buckets and we had to move all those kids into the main school gym. It was raining tons and was very dark."

"After my second class a colleague who shares my office and lives within about a quarter mile of the school tried to go home," she continued, describing the flooding. "He came back 15 minutes later looking like he'd been thrown in a swimming pool. Our parking lot, the streets surrounding the school and all of the feeder streets are flooded. He took me to some good vantage points and we took pictures [which she gave the author including publishing rights.]

"He walked home, wading through water over his knees. Kids are begging their parents to come get them but nobody can reach their kids here. It's terrible."

I asked about prospects for rescue.

"We haven't lost power," Lori said. "We're just stuck here and the city as at a standstill. Houston is such a commuter city and we don't have great public transportation. Houston is so spread out and the rain basically cut the legs out from under the city."

The urban sprawl and lack of modern transit appears to leave the city in jeopardy from extreme weather. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the region needs much better disaster recovery plans. Kids are trapped and the city is unprepared to reach them. Houston needs better contingency plans in place for the future.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120109/us_ac/10813105_houston_students_trapped_at_school_by_flooding

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Swiss central bank chief quits over wife's currency deal (Reuters)

BERNE (Reuters) ? Swiss National Bank Chairman Philipp Hildebrand resigned with immediate effect on Monday, saying he could not prove he had been unaware of a currency trade made by his wife and wanted to protect the integrity of the central bank.

Hildebrand's decision to relinquish one of the world's top central banking jobs after just two years came as Swiss parliamentarians met to discuss the scandal, which erupted last week after Sarasin bank sacked an employee who leaked details of the trade to a political opponent of the central banker.

Hildebrand's wife Kashya, a former hedge fund trader who now runs a Zurich art gallery, bought 400,000 Swiss francs ($418,000) worth of dollars on August 15, three weeks before her husband oversaw steps to cap the rise of the safe-haven franc. She later sold the dollars at a higher rate.

At a news conference four days ago, Hildebrand had resisted calls to step down, saying he only learned of his wife's trade the day after she made it and rejecting claims that he had personally authorized the currency deal.

But he told reporters on Monday he could not provide final evidence that he had been unaware of the trade and had decided to step down as he realized the intense public scrutiny over the affair was compromising his credibility.

"I have come to the conclusion that it is not possible to provide conclusive and final evidence that my wife did indeed initiate the foreign exchange transaction on the 15th August without my knowledge," he said.

"The fact is: my word is my bond. I had no knowledge of my wife's transaction on that day," he said.

Christoph Blocher, a leading figure in the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) who had long called for Hildebrand's head and who handed over documents on the currency trades to the government, welcomed his resignation.

"There is no central bank in Europe where the board president can do something like that," he told a news conference. "In the whole of Europe a central bank with a president like Hildebrand would have been written off."

It has been a roller coaster career for the 48-year-old who joined the SNB in 2003 after working for U.S. hedge fund Moore Capital, winning praise for helping rescue big Swiss bank UBS in 2008 but then criticism when the central bank ran up a record loss as it tried to weaken the safe-haven franc in 2010.

Until the trading scandal erupted, Hildebrand's star had been in the ascendant again after the SNB managed to cap the soaring franc without big new interventions and as parliament approved tough new bank capital rules he had championed.

He was also appointed vice chairman of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a global regulator, in November, a position he similarly relinquished on Monday.

FSB chairman and Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, who studied with Hildebrand in Oxford, said his departure was a loss.

"Philipp has been instrumental in helping to manage the response to the global financial crisis and in developing major reforms to strengthen the resiliency and stability of the international financial system," Carney said.

FOUGHT LIKE A LION

Hildebrand said he had decided the mounting pressure might hurt his ability to take tough decisions to address what he called "probably the most threatening economic and financial situation since the Second World War."

"I am sad to take this step, I loved this job, I fought like a lion for it," he said, adding that he had realized that it was probably time to go after Swiss media examined his every move, including where he ate and what his wife was wearing.

In a statement, his wife Kashya apologized to the Swiss people and to her husband for costing him his job.

"I failed my husband by not considering the perception of a 'conflict of interest' created by my purchase of dollars," she said. "My husband is a man of the utmost integrity, and I deeply regret that my actions might have led anyone to question this."

Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, who chairs a regular global meeting of central bankers, said he and his colleagues were saddened by the Hildebrand's resignation.

"We all know that he is a man of total integrity, extraordinary ability and, most important of all, courage. Such people are rare. His country will miss him," King said.

The SNB's supervisory council said Vice Chairman Thomas Jordan, who joined the SNB in 1997, would take over as chairman for the time being and it would discuss on Tuesday how to proceed on filling the free position on the three-member governing board.

Jordan stressed his determination to enforce the cap on the franc at 1.20 per euro the SNB imposed on September 6.

The Swiss franc, which Hildebrand has fought to stop soaring on safe-haven buying driven by the euro zone debt crisis, rose slightly on the announcement, trading up 0.2 percent at 1.2132 per euro and 0.5 percent higher against the dollar.

"The market can distinguish between the Hildebrand case and the monetary policy case. I don't see any big implications for Swiss monetary policy, and I think they'll be able to defend the cap," said ZKB economist David Marmet.

The Swiss government said it hoped the SNB would be able to turn its full attention back to monetary policy. "The stability and credibility of the SNB are essential for the economy and for the good of the country," it said in a statement.

After his announcement, Hildebrand appeared before the parliamentary economics committee alongside the head of the SNB's supervisory council, Hansueli Raggenbass, who said it would be good to have a personnel reshuffle in the council.

The SVP's Blocher said Raggenbass would also have to go.

SNB RULES SCRUTINISED

The SNB council said on Saturday it would overhaul its internal rules concerning own trading by board members and examine all transactions they made over the past three years.

Hildebrand admitted the scandal had revealed shortcomings in the SNB's internal regulations and code of conduct.

"The focus now should be on resolutely eliminating these weaknesses. This will allow the SNB to retain its credibility, which is its greatest asset," he said.

Christoph Darbellay, the Christian Democrat chairman of parliament's economic committee that Hildebrand addressed, said it would push the SNB to tighten its rules.

"People who can have an influence on the currency should keep their hands off," he said.

Darbellay said the committee would also look into the breach by the whistleblower and the SVP of Switzerland's cherished banking secrecy, already under global fire in recent years for helping wealthy foreigners hide their assets from the taxman.

"The breach of bank secrecy and using it for political goals, that was grave," he said.

The former Bank Sarasin employee accused of leaking the data is called Reto Tarnutzer, Reuters has learned.

Tarnutzer, who leaked details of the trade to Blocher's lawyer, was quoted on Monday before Hildebrand's announcement saying he had never wanted the private bank details made public.

"I wanted to achieve clarification and not an issuing of data," he wrote in a letter sent to several Swiss dailies.

He described the SVP's decision to hand over the information to the media as "ruthless," saying that the breach of bank secrecy endangered his future: "Here a potentially only small crime was fought with a bigger crime."

The psychiatric clinic where Tarnutzer was reportedly admitted after an apparent suicide attempt declined to comment.

($1 = 0.9564 Swiss francs)

(Writing by Emma Thomasson; Editing by Mike Peacock)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120109/bs_nm/us_switzerland_hildebrand

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