HOUSTON, December 27 /PRNewswire/ --

Endeavour International Corporation (Amex: END) (LSE: ENDV) today announced that Aker Exploration AS will acquire an interest in production license PL 304, located in block 25/10 on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS) in the North Sea. Aker Exploration will supply the Aker Barents semi-submersible rig to drill the Aegis prospect in PL 304.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, close to one-third of the population in the United States is obese and another third is overweight.

Excessive weight gain is elicited by alterations in energy balance, the finely modulated equilibrium between caloric intake and expenditure. But what are the factors that determine how much food is consumed?

Part of the mystery is unfolding in the laboratory of Maribel Rios, PhD, at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. Through their work, Rios and colleagues have demonstrated for the first time that a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is critical in mediating satiety in adult mice.

GIBRALTAR, December 27 /PRNewswire/ -- PartyBets.com is pleased to release odds for the PartyPoker.com Irish Poker Championship, Europe's first major tournament of 2008. The tournament will be held at the fabulous Radisson Hotel & Spa, Galway, Ireland, from Jan 4 to Jan 6, 2008. The PokerEvents.ie organized event is the first major sponsorship in Ireland by PartyPoker.com.

A spokesman for PartyBets.com said: "Early money has come for Joe Beevers and Julian Gardner but that's no surprise considering both made the final of Poker Million and are seen to be in form. Others seen as frontrunners by the bookmakers include Bruno Fitoussi, Roy Brindley and Marcel Luske."

LONDON, December 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- Slim Aid Lends a Hand to Dieters This New Year

Feeling fat and sluggish? About to embark on a January detox? Are you really prepared for what lies ahead? With so many dieters giving up within days Femmeherb's Slim Aid offers a solution to stop you falling at the first hurdle.

Slim Aid is a medically-licensed herbal remedy used as an aid to slimming, created by women for women. The herbs used in Slim Aid are carefully selected and widely recognised for their effectiveness designed to help dieters keep dropping the pounds along the way.

HATBORO, Pennsylvania, December 27 /PRNewswire/ --

It was announced today that the International Gaming Conference & Expo (IGCE) has decided to extend a Christmas present to attendees that register for their IGCE '08 conference slated for Lisbon, Portugal April 22-24. IGCE is the conference division of The Sports Network, the premiere real-time sports wire service in the United States.

CHICAGO, December 27 /PRNewswire/ --

- New Web site helps businesses make good choices for the environment

InterCall, a global leader in conferencing and collaboration services, has announced the launch of GreenConferencing.com. This Web site gives employees the knowledge and resources they need to help their business reduce their carbon footprint, whether through conferencing or other strategies.

The Web site's features include access to tools like a green calculator to calculate a business trip's carbon dioxide emissions and a how-to guide to reduce business travel. Also, the latest articles and information on going, and staying green are available through the site.

University of California, San Diego researchers have proven in animal studies that fibrosis in the liver can be not only stopped, but reversed. Their discovery, published in PLoS Online, opens the door to treating and curing conditions that lead to excessive tissue scarring such as viral hepatitis, fatty liver disease, cirrhosis, pulmonary fibrosis, scleroderma and burns.

Six years ago, the UC San Diego School of Medicine research team discovered the cause of the excess fibrous tissue growth that leads to liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, and developed a way to block excess scar tissue in mice.

People with high triglycerides and another type of cholesterol tested but not usually evaluated as part of a person’s risk assessment have an increased risk of a certain type of stroke, according to research published in the December 26 issue of Neurology®.

“LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol has been the primary target for reducing the risk of stroke, but these results show that other types of cholesterol may be more strongly linked with stroke risk,” said study author Bruce Ovbiagele, MD, of UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, and member of the American Academy of Neurology.

President Bush has signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764), which includes a provision directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide the public with open online access to findings from its funded research. This is the first time the U.S. government has mandated public access to research funded by a major agency.

The provision directs the NIH to change its existing Public Access Policy, implemented as a voluntary measure in 2005, so that participation is required for agency-funded investigators.

HOUSTON, December 26 /PRNewswire/ --

Endeavour International Corporation ("Endeavour") (Amex: END) (LSE: ENDV) today announced that it has signed an agreement with the Smedvig Family Office of Norway for a current investment of $40 million (USD) and with the intent to increase that investment to a total of $100 million (USD) in the future to support the strategic activities of Endeavour. This investment will take the form of a convertible note and is expected to close in mid-January upon completion of required consents and approvals.