Study: Looking old may be a sign of heart risks

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Want a clue to your risk of heart disease? Look in the mirror. People who look old — with receding hairlines, bald heads, creases near their ear lobes or bumpy deposits on their eyelids — have a greater chance of developing of heart disease than younger-looking people the same age do, new research suggests.

Doctors say the study highlights the difference between biological and chronological age.

“Looking old for your age marks poor cardiovascular health,” said Dr. Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.

She led the study and gave results Tuesday at an American Heart Association conference in Los Angeles.

A small consolation: Wrinkles elsewhere on the face and gray hair seemed just ordinary consequences of aging and did not correlate with heart risks.

The research involved 11,000 Danish people and began in 1976. At the start, the participants were 40 and older. Researchers documented their appearance, tallying crow’s feet, wrinkles and other signs of age.

In the next 35 years, 3,400 participants developed heart disease (clogged arteries) and 1,700 suffered a heart attack.

The risk of these problems increased with each additional sign of aging present at the start of the study. This was true at all ages and among men and women, even after taking into account other factors such as family history of heart disease.

Those with three to four of these aging signs — receding hairline at the temples, baldness at the crown of the head, earlobe creases or yellowish fatty deposits around the eyelids — had a 57 percent greater risk for heart attack and a 39 percent greater risk for heart disease compared to people with none of these signs.

Having yellowish eyelid bumps, which could be signs of cholesterol buildup, conferred the most risk, researchers found. Baldness in men has been tied to heart risk before, possibly related to testosterone levels. They could only guess why earlobe creases might raise risk.

Dr. Kathy Magliato, a heart surgeon at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., said doctors need to pay more attention to signs literally staring them in the face.

“We’re so rushed to put on a blood pressure cuff or put a stethoscope on the chest” that obvious, visible signs of risk are missed, she said.

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Online:

Heart Association: http://www.heart.org

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

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Obama wins second term, Romney concedes defeat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama won a second term in the White House on Tuesday, overcoming deep doubts among voters about his handling of the U.S. economy to score a clear victory over Republican challenger Mitt Romney.

Americans chose to stick with a divided government in Washington, by keeping the Democratic incumbent in the White House and leaving the U.S. Congress as it is, with Democrats controlling the Senate and Republicans keeping the House of Representatives.

Obama told thousands of supporters in Chicago who cheered his every word that “we have picked ourselves up, we have fought our way back” and that for America, the best is yet to come.

He vowed to listen to both sides of the political divide in the weeks ahead and said he would return to the White House more determined than ever to confront America’s challenges.

“Whether I earned your vote or not, I have listened to you, I have learned from you. And you have made me a better president,” Obama said.

The nationwide popular vote remained extremely close with Obama taking about 50 percent to 49 percent for Romney after a campaign in which the candidates and their party allies spent a combined $ 2 billion.

Romney, the multimillionaire former private equity executive, came back from a series of campaign stumbles to make it close after besting the president in the first of three presidential debates.

The 65-year-old former Massachusetts governor conceded in a gracious speech delivered to disappointed supporters at the Boston convention center. He had called Obama to concede defeat after a brief controversy over whether the president had really won Ohio.

“This is a time of great challenge for our nation,” Romney told the crowd. “I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation.”

He warned against partisan bickering and urged politicians on both sides to “put the people before the politics.”

Obama told his crowd that he hoped to sit down with Romney in the weeks ahead and examine ways to meet the challenges ahead.

The president Obama scored impressive victories in the crucial state of Ohio and heavily contested swing states of Virginia, Nevada, Iowa and Colorado. They carried the Democrat past the 270 electoral votes needed for victory in America’s state-by-state system of choosing a president, and left Romney’s senior advisers shell-shocked at the loss.

Obama, America’s first black president, won by convincing voters to stick with him as he tries to reignite strong economic growth and recover from the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. An uneven recovery has been showing some signs of strength but the country’s 7.9 percent jobless rate remains stubbornly high.

Obama’s victory in the hotly contested swing state of Ohio – as projected by TV networks – was a major step in the fight for the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the White House and ended Romney’s hopes of pulling off a string of swing-state upsets.

Obama scored narrow wins in Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire – all states that Romney had contested – while the only swing state captured by Romney was North Carolina, according to television network projections.

Romney initially delayed his concession as some Republicans questioned whether Obama had in fact won Ohio despite the decisions by election experts at all the major TV networks to declare it for the president.

The later addition of Colorado and Virginia to Obama’s tally – according to network projections – meant that even if the final result from Ohio were to be reversed, Romney still could not reach the needed number of electoral votes.

While Obama supporters in Chicago were ecstatic, Romney’s Boston event was grim as the news was announced on television screens there. A steady stream of people left the ballroom at the Boston convention center.

THE SAME PROBLEMS

At least 120 million American voters had been expected to cast votes in the race between the Democratic incumbent and Romney after a campaign that was focused on how to repair the ailing U.S. economy.

The same problems that dogged Obama in his first term are still there to confront him again.

He faces a difficult task of tackling $ 1 trillion annual deficits, reducing a $ 16 trillion national debt, overhauling expensive social programs and dealing with a gridlocked U.S. Congress that kept the same partisan makeup.

Obama’s Democrats held their Senate majority – taking hotly contested Republican-held seats in Massachusetts and Indiana – while the Republicans kept House control.

Democrat Claire McCaskill retained her U.S. Senate seat from Missouri, beating Republican congressman Todd Akin, who stirred controversy with his comment in August that women’s bodies could ward off pregnancy in cases of “legitimate rape.

Democrats gained a Senate seat in Indiana that had been in Republican hands for decades after Republican candidate Richard Mourdock called pregnancy from rape something that God intended. Democratic congressman Joe Donnelly won the race.

In another high-profile Senate race, Democrat Elizabeth Warren, a law professor who headed the watchdog panel that oversaw the government’s financial sector bailout, defeated incumbent Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown.

Former Maine Governor Angus King won a three-way contest for the Senate seat of retiring Republican Olympia Snowe. King ran as an independent, but he is expected to caucus with Democrats in what would amount to a Democratic pick-up.

Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson easily beat back a challenge from Republican congressman Connie Mack to win a third term, while Democratic congressman Chris Murphy beat Republican Linda McMahon, a businesswoman who had served as chief executive of a professional wrestling company.

Democrats were also cheered by several state referendums. Maryland voters approved same-sex marriage, the governor said, and a similar measure in Maine appeared on track to pass as well – marking the first time marriage rights have been extended to same-sex couples by popular vote.

In addition, Wisconsin Democratic congresswoman Tammy Baldwin became the first openly gay U.S. Senator, defeating Republican former governor Tommy Thompson.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason in Chicago, Patricia Zengerle in Boston, Edith Honan in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Dave Warner in Philadelphia, Philip Barbara in New Jersey, Matt Spetalnick, Lisa Lambert, Susan Heavey, Thomas Ferraro, Susan Cornwell, Anna Yukhananov and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Steve Holland and John Whitesides; Editing by Claudia Parsons and Will Dunham)

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Methane warnings ignored before NZ mine disaster

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A New Zealand coal mining company ignored 21 warnings that methane gas had accumulated to explosive levels before an underground explosion killed 29 workers two years ago, an investigation concluded.

The official report released Monday after 11 weeks of hearings on the disaster found broad safety problems in New Zealand workplaces and said the Pike River Coal company was exposing miners to unacceptable risks as it strove to meet financial targets.

“The company completely and utterly failed to protect its workers,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said Monday.

The country’s labor minister, Kate Wilkinson, resigned from her labor portfolio after the report’s release, saying she felt it was the honorable thing to do after the tragedy occurred on her watch. She plans to retain her remaining government responsibilities.

The Royal Commission report said New Zealand has a poor workplace safety record and its regulators failed to provide adequate oversight before the explosion.

At the time of the disaster, New Zealand had just two mine inspectors who were unable to keep up with their workload, the report said. Pike River was able to obtain a permit with no scrutiny of its initial health and safety plans and little ongoing scrutiny.

Key said he agrees with the report’s conclusion that there needs to be a philosophical shift in New Zealand from believing that companies are acting in the best interests of workers to a more proscriptive set of regulations that forces companies to do the right thing.

The commission’s report recommended a new agency be formed to focus solely on workplace health and safety problems. It also recommended a raft of measures to strengthen mine oversight.

Key said his government would consider the recommendations and hoped to implement most of them. He would not commit on forming a new agency. Workplace safety issues are currently one of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

In the seven weeks before the explosion, the Pike River company received 21 warnings from mine workers that methane gas had built up to explosive levels below ground and another 27 warnings of dangerous levels, the report said. The warnings continued right up until the morning of the deadly explosion.

The company used unconventional methods to get rid of methane, the report said. Some workers even rigged their machines to bypass the methane sensors after the machines kept automatically shutting down — something they were designed to do when methane levels got too high.

The company made a “major error” by placing a ventilation fan underground instead of on the surface, the report found. The fan failed after the first of several explosions, effectively shutting down the entire ventilation system. The company was also using water jets to cut the coal face, a highly specialized technique than can release large amounts of methane.

The report did not definitively conclude what sparked the explosion itself, although it noted that a pump was switched on immediately before the explosion, raising the possibility it was triggered by an electrical arc.

The now-bankrupt Pike River Coal company is not defending itself against charges it committed nine labor violations related to the disaster. Former chief executive Peter Whittall has pleaded not guilty to 12 violations and his lawyers say he is being scapegoated.

An Australian contractor was fined last month for three safety violations after its methane detector was found to be faulty at the time of the explosion.

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Family defends Malaysian held over Facebook insult

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The family of a Malaysian man detained for allegedly insulting a state sultan on Facebook called for his release Monday, saying the government is violating his free-speech rights.

Police arrested 27-year-old Ahmad Abdul Jalil in Kuala Lumpur and took him to southern Johor state late Friday. He was freed briefly Monday after a magistrate court in Johor refused to extend his remand order but police immediately arrested him again, said his sister Anisa Abdul Jalil.

Anisa said the family was told he was being investigated for seditious remarks against the Johor sultan.

She said the family did not know what the offensive postings were. Local media have reported that the Facebook postings at issue question Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar‘s abilities as leader of a special forces group.

Anisa said police told family lawyers they are pursuing the case under the Communications and Multimedia Act for improper use of the Internet.

“This is too much. He has a right to free speech and he should be freed immediately. There should be no charges against him,” Anisa told The Associated Press.

Fadiah Nadwa Fitri, a lawyer for the family, said the court has ruled that Ahmad’s detention was unjustifiable and that his rearrest was a “blatant abuse of power” by police in defiance of the court order.

District police chief Ruslan Hassan said the case is “highly sensitive” and should be referred to the state police headquarters. The state police chief didn’t answer his phone.

Nine Malaysian states have sultans and other royal figures. Though their roles are largely ceremonial, they command wide respect after centuries of hereditary rule.

Under Malaysian law, acts that provoke hatred against royal rulers are considered seditious. Only a few people have been charged with the crime in recent years.

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Brad Pitt turns designer for high-end furniture collection

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Brad Pitt has turned his talents to creating furniture for a luxury design house with a high-end collection inspired by both Art Nouveau and Art Deco, according to Architectural Digest.

Pitt, who collaborated on the collection with U.S. furniture designer Frank Pollaro, discussed his inspirations for the capsule collection in the December issue of the magazine.

“I’m drawn to furniture design as complete architecture on a minor scale,” Pitt said. “I am obsessively bent on quality, to an unhealthy degree.”

Pitt said it was his obsession that introduced him to Pollaro, whom he said embodies the “same mad spirit of the craftsmen of yore, with their obsessive attention to detail.”

The dozen-piece collection, which will be unveiled by the Pollaro furniture house in New York between November 13 and 15, will include tables, chairs, an elaborate bed and a bathtub made of marble.

The 48-year-old “Fight Club” actor said he was influenced by Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow Rose, drawn with a continuous line. He designed his collection with the fluidity of a single line, be it geometric or circular.

“There is something more grand at play, as if you could tell the story of one’s life with a single line — from birth to death, with all the bloody triumphs and perceived humiliating losses, even boredoms, along the way,” the actor said.

Pitt has previously worked with well-known architects for his Make It Right foundation to create affordable quality housing for the victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He also designed a diamond ring for his partner, Angelina Jolie, when the couple got engaged earlier this year.

The actor also became the latest and first male face of Chanel’s iconic women’s fragrance Chanel No.5 last month, mystifying critics and fashionistas with an enigmatic video commercial.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; editing by Patricia Reaney, Bernard Orr)

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Factbox: Mitt Romney, Republican U.S. presidential candidate

(Reuters) – U.S. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and private equity executive, is pursuing the White House for the second time in Tuesday’s election.

Here are key facts about him.

* Romney, 65, espouses traditional Republican positions to cut taxes, reduce federal regulations, shrink government spending and bolster the U.S. military. He vows to create 12 million new jobs in his first term with a plan focused on domestic energy development, expanded free trade, improving education, reducing the deficit and championing small business.

* He lost the 2008 Republican presidential nomination to Senator John McCain but entered this year’s race with a large campaign war chest and the blessing of many in the party establishment. Conservative unease over his reputation as a moderate led to a stiff challenge in the Republican primaries.

* His net worth has been estimated at between $ 190 million and $ 250 million, making him one of the wealthiest people to ever run for the presidency. Romney has been criticized for holding money overseas and for not disclosing as many tax releases as his opponents have demanded.

* Romney proposes to lower individual income taxes across the board to 20 percent while closing some loopholes, which he says would stimulate economic growth without widening the federal deficit. He supports restructuring the Social Security retirement program and the Medicare government health insurance program for the elderly and disabled.

* He is a fifth-generation member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormon church. He was a Mormon missionary in France for more than two years after leaving high school and later became bishop and stake president in Boston, roles akin to being a lay pastor. His faith, however, is viewed with suspicion by some conservative evangelical Christians.

* Born into a well-off family and raised near Detroit, Romney was exposed to politics early. His father, George, was chairman of American Motors Corporation and governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969. George Romney lost a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and served in President Richard Nixon’s Cabinet.

* In 1994, the younger Romney ran for a U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts as a moderate Republican, but was handily defeated by incumbent Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. Eight years later, Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts, where he instituted a statewide healthcare reform that became a model for Obama’s 2010 national healthcare overhaul.

* In 1999, Romney took over as head of the committee organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, which had been plagued by cost overruns and scandal, and produced a successful event that helped establish his national reputation as a premier problem-solver.

* As his party moved to the right, Romney changed his positions on sensitive social issues, including abortion and gay rights. That fueled criticism that he lacked core beliefs and was motivated only by ambition. Romney referred to himself as “severely conservative” during the 2012 Republican primaries but has projected a more moderate image during the general election campaign.

* Romney met his wife, Ann, at a high school dance and they married in 1969, while they were still in college. They have five sons and 18 grandchildren. Romney has an English degree from Utah’s Brigham Young University, which is owned and run by the Mormon church, and a joint law degree and MBA from Harvard University. He speaks French.

* Romney joined the management consultancy Bain & Company in 1977 and climbed the ranks. In 1984, he co-founded the highly profitable private equity arm Bain Capital, which invested in start-ups and fledgling companies including Staples, Sports Authority and Domino’s Pizza. Critics have highlighted the number of jobs Bain cut while Romney was at its helm.

* Romney has battled a reputation for being uncomfortable and stiff when campaigning and somewhat aloof when relating to ordinary Americans. The New York Times once described his campaign persona as “All-Business Man, the world’s most boring superhero.”

* He has little foreign policy experience. He stumbled in August during a gaffe-filled trip to Britain, Israel and Poland that was meant to burnish his credentials on the world stage. He has labeled Russia as America’s “number one geopolitical foe” and said that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear capability should be Washington’s highest national security priority.

(Compiled by Americas Desk; Editing by Will Dunham)

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The Greeks Are on the Brink Once More

Not too long ago, the only people who would watch votes in the Greek Parliament were those paid to do so as part of their jobs. Over the last couple of years, though, ballots in the historic and often raucous Parliament House have become required viewing for audiences around the world. It seems that every few months Greece’s future hangs on the voting intentions of a handful of deputies that hardly anyone outside their constituencies knows. This week, the world is in for another tension-filled episode of this particular Greek drama.

Greece’s 300 MPs are being called upon to approve the structural reforms and fresh spending cuts demanded by the country’s lenders. If the bills pass, the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund will allow the disbursement of Greece’s next bailout installment of 31.5 billion euros ($ 40 billion). However, some coalition MPs have already said they will not approve the measures. If the three-party government fails to get the majority it needs, it will likely collapse and Greece’s relationship with the euro will enter a new realm of uncertainty.

In two divisive elections this summer, Greece’s traditionally dominant political forces, center-right New Democracy and center-left Pasok, just about fended off the rising anti-austerity leftist party Syriza and clung to power. They had to call on the support of the pro-European Democratic Left, though. This means the stakes are higher for the upcoming parliamentary votes than they have ever been before.

“The outcome of national elections led to a fragile coalition government, which for the first time in recent history had a main mandate to keep Greece in the euro zone, an issue that was never in question in the past,” says Manos Giakoumis, research director at Euroxx Securities, a financial-services firm in Athens. “International lenders as well as the leaders of New Democracy and Pasok view the upcoming votes in Parliament as an answer to this indirect question of whether Greece should remain part of the euro zone or not, something like a referendum.”

The government has heightened the intensity of these votes by piling all the structural reforms and austerity measures—worth 13.5 billion euros, or 4.5 percent of GDP—into one draft law. The legislation, which runs to more than 500 pages, was submitted to Parliament on Monday evening, giving MPs about 48 hours to read it before the ballot on Wednesday night. This vote will be followed by one on the 2013 budget at midnight on Sunday.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the leader of New Democracy, is looking for a positive outcome in time for a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday, Nov. 12, when the release of the Greek bailout should be rubber-stamped. But unrest within the coalition could scupper the premier’s plans.

Some deputies are unhappy about certain reforms demanded by the so-called troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank, and IMF, while others are loath to approve a new round of austerity knowing that it will guarantee a deepening of Greece’s five-year recession. The budget foresees a contraction of 4.5 percent of GDP next year and unemployment leveling out at almost 23 percent. Some analysts regard these predictions as optimistic and forecast the recession to be far deeper and the jobless rate, already at 25 percent, to rise further.

Democratic Left leader Fotis Kouvelis has indicated his party will not back the structural reforms because he opposes further changes to labor legislation, which has already been deregulated substantially over the past two years. One of the party’s 17 lawmakers has already quit and there are several others who have suggested they might leave if Kouvelis gives in to pressure to change his stance. On Monday, a potential compromise emerged by which Democratic Left MPs would vote “present” on Wednesday but in favor of the budget on Sunday. This would prevent Kouvelis and his deputies having to leave the coalition and thereby weakening its legitimacy.

Pasok, which had 33 seats in Parliament, also lost an MP last week after the departing deputy told party chief Evangelos Venizelos that he would vote against the bill. Since then, two more of the party’s lawmakers have said they will not support the measures. Ex-minister Andreas Loverdos said he feels he is being blackmailed into supporting the package.

Samaras met with his 127 MPs on Sunday and urged them to back the measures, arguing that this would secure Greece’s place in the euro zone. As of Monday night, the maximum votes the coalition could secure were 173 out of 300. A decision by the Democratic Left not to back the reforms would leave the government with 157 votes, still a majority but one slim enough to be threatened by desertions from Pasok or New Democracy.

To add to the tension, Alexis Tsipras, the leader of leftist Syriza, which has placed first in all of the opinion polls carried out since last month, issued on Sunday a call for new elections and more popular resistance to the government’s plans. Labor unions begin a 48-hour strike on Tuesday.

However, Giakoumis, the financial analyst, argues that receiving the next loan tranche, of which 23 billion euros will go directly toward recapitalizing Greek banks, is “probably the last chance for a rebound of the Greek economy.”

“Although recapitalization will not lead to a direct liquidity boost in the economy, it will help restore some of the lost confidence in the markets,” he says. “But potentially the clearest message would be to eliminate Greek euro exit scenarios. The approval of the disbursement should be the first step of a wider process, which would involve clear commitment by international lenders and restoring growth and confidence domestically.”

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U.S. Coast Guard suspends search for captain of replica HMS Bounty

Charleston, South Carolina (Reuters) – The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday suspended a four-day, round-the-clock search for Robin Walbridge, 63, the missing captain of the replica tall ship HMS Bounty, which sank in heavy seas stirred up by Hurricane Sandy.

Fourteen crew members were rescued from life rafts by Coast Guard helicopters on Monday, but Walbridge and another crew member, Claudene Christian, were washed overboard before they could make it to the rafts.

Christian, 42, was pulled from the sea later and flown to hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the Walbridge and Christian families,” Captain Doug Cameron, chief of incident response for the Coast Guard 5th District, said in a statement. “Suspending a search and rescue case is one of the hardest decisions we have to make.”

Crews searched more than 90 hours and covered some 12,000 square nautical miles in the Atlantic Ocean, the Coast Guard said.

The Coast Guard said earlier this week that all members of the crew wore survival suits, which had flotation capability, and that water temperatures were about 77 degrees F (25 C), raising hopes Walbridge might be found.

The three-masted, 180-foot (55-metre) ship, built for the 1962 movie, “Mutiny on the Bounty,” was on its way from New London, Connecticut, to its winter berth in St. Petersburg, Florida, and was about 160 miles from the eye of the hurricane when it foundered.

The original Bounty, a British transport ‘square rigger,’ is famed for a mutiny in 1789. Marlon Brando starred as lead mutineer Fletcher Christian in the movie for which the ship was built.

In a short video of Walbridge posted on the Bounty’s Facebook page this week, he described being captain of the Bounty as “probably one of the greatest jobs in the world.”

Walbridge worked on the Bounty for 17 years, said his wife, Claudia McCann, who spoke with Reuters by telephone earlier this week.

“That was his passion,” McCann said.

Growing up in Vermont, his mother “encouraged us to smell the sea air” on trips to visit relatives in Boston, recalled his sister, Lucille Jansen, 67.

“He always looked after his crew first,” she added. “That’s the last memory we’ll have of him because he did exactly what a captain should do. He made sure the crew was safe.”

(Editing by David Adams and Peter Cooney)

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Doctors debate value of ‘fringe’ heart treatment

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A heart disease treatment that many doctors consider fringe medicine unexpectedly showed promise in a federal study marred by controversy, causing debate about the results.

The study tested chelation (“kee-LAY’shun”), periodic intravenous infusions said to remove calcium from hardened arteries. Chelation is used to treat lead poisoning but its safety and value for heart disease are unproven.

In a study of 1,700 heart attack survivors, fewer of those getting chelation suffered heart problems in later years than others given dummy infusions. But so many quit the study that the results are unclear. Doctors say chelation cannot be recommended yet.

Results were discussed Sunday at a heart conference in California.

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HSBC profits to gain from cuts to bad debts, costs

LONDON (Reuters) – HSBC Holdings is expected to report a jump in quarterly profits on Monday as lower losses from bad debts and a cost-cutting plan outweigh mis-selling charges and the impact of tough economic conditions across the world.

Europe’s biggest bank will be the last of Britain’s major lenders to report and all are facing intense scrutiny on how far they are streamlining operations, the impact of tougher regulations, and their standards as they get hit with fines and compensation charges for past misconduct.

HSBC <0005.HK> Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver kicked off the bank’s restructuring in early 2011, before most rivals, and the benefit is starting to feed through to the bottom line.

The bank should report an underlying profit – after stripping out the impact of disposals and changes in the value of its own debt – in the July-September quarter of between $ 4.9 billion and $ 6.6 billion, according to a range of analysts’ forecasts, up from $ 3 billion a year earlier.

Profits will come in at $ 5.4 billion, according to Credit Suisse analysts.

HSBC, whose origins date back to 1865 as a financier of trade between Europe and Asia, operates in 84 countries and Gulliver is well into his plan for $ 3.5 billion in cuts, axe unprofitable areas and direct investment to Asia.

He has cut 27,000 jobs and sold or closed 26 businesses, including selling its U.S. credit card arm and half of its U.S. branches.

HSBC’s bad debts in the third quarter are predicted to drop to $ 2.2-2.5 billion from $ 3.9 billion a year ago. Operating costs should also drop by more than $ 1 billion.

But Gulliver faces scrutiny on whether he can get costs to below 52 percent of revenue from around 57.5 percent in the last year.

He also aims to lift return on equity, a key measure of profitability, to 12-15 percent in 2013. In H1 2012, it was 10.5 percent.

Other problems also continue to cast a shadow, including the size of a fine it faces for lax anti-money laundering controls in the United States.

On Sunday, Sky News reported that HSBC was about to raise its provision for fines from U.S. authorities by $ 800 million to $ 1.5 billion. HSBC declined to comment.

Analysts have said the bank may also have to set aside about 150 million pounds more to cover mis-selling of UK payment protection insurance.

HSBC is also one of more than a dozen banks under scrutiny in the Libor global interest rate-rigging scandal that has put the industry’s culture and standards under fire.

Chairman Douglas Flint on Monday will appear before UK lawmakers investigating standards. He will appear alongside new Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins and Santander UK boss Ana Botin at 1600 GMT.

HSBC benefits from its strong position in faster growing Asian markets, and analysts estimate its investment bank should deliver profits of more than $ 2 billion as revenues rise to $ 4.4-4.7 billion, mirroring the strong fixed income performance shown by rivals.

(Reporting by Steve Slater, additional reporting by Natalie Huet; editing by Jason Neely)

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