Obese people at 29% higher risk of premature death

NEW DELHI: People who are obese have a 29% increased risk of premature death.

This could come as a wake-up call for 8 million women and 4.4 million men in India who are obese (body mass index of 30 kg/m2).

One of the largest analyses done - 100 studies that included 3 million adults - has found that obesity was associated with a significantly higher all-cause risk of death.

In this meta-analysis that looked at 2.7 lakh deaths that occurred in the US, Europe, Mexico, India, Israel, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, China and Australia, researchers found a 18% higher risk of death for obesity - BMI equal or higher than 30 and a 29% increased risk of death among those whose BMI was higher than 35.

The study says that the presence of a wasting disease, heart disease, diabetes, renal dialysis or older age are all associated with an inverse relationship between BMI and mortality rate, an observation termed the obesity paradox.

Over one in 10 adults, who 20 years and above, are obese globally.

That's over half a billion people (205 million men and 297 million women were obese in 2008).

Researchers say excess bodyweight is an important risk factor for mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and musculoskeletal disorders, causing nearly three million deaths every year worldwide.

While the number of obese men in India increased from 2.3 million to 4.4 million between 1980 and 2008, the number increased from 2.1 million to 8 million among women during the same period

According to the study that was published on the January 2nd issue of the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA), "Estimates of the relative mortality risks associated with normal weight, overweight and obesity may help to inform decision making in the clinical setting."

Katherine Flegal, of the National Center for Health Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, conducted the study to compile and summarize published analyses of body mass index (BMI) and all-cause mortality that provide hazard ratios (HRs) for standard BMI categories.

All-cause mortality HRs for overweight (BMI of 25 and 30), obesity (BMI of 30), grade 1 obesity (BMI of 30-35), and grades 2 and 3 obesity (BMI of 35) were calculated relative to normal weight (BMI of 18.5-25).

The researchers found that the summary HRs indicated a 6% lower risk of death for overweight; a 18% higher risk of death for obesity (all grades), a 5% lower risk of death for grade 1 obesity and a 29% increased risk of death for grades 2 and 3 obesity.

Professor Majid Ezzati from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London had said, "Excess bodyweight is a major public health concern."

Now, India is in the grip of an obesity epidemic. Experts say the trend needs to be immediately arrested by taxing junk food, restricting food ads and making food labelling clearer.

A study that looked at the burden of overweight citizens in six countries - Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and South Africa - has found that between 1998 and 2005, India's overweight rates increased by 20%. Currently, almost one in five men and over one in six women are overweight. In some urban areas, the rates are as high as 40%.

Published in the Lancet by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD), the annual cost of broad-based prevention strategies tackling obesity and other health threats, such as alcohol consumption, smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol, would be less than $2 per person per year in India.

Obesity is the root for several non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Another study in the Lancet predicted that by 2030, nearly 70% of all global deaths will be from non-communicable diseases like cancer, diabetes, and respiratory and heart disease. Of these 70% of fatalities, 80% will be in less wealthy nations like India.

According to WHO, NCDs - principally cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers and chronic respiratory diseases - caused an estimated 35 million deaths in 2005. This figure represents 60% of all deaths globally, with 80% of deaths due to noncommunicable diseases occurring in low- and middle-income countries, and approximately 16 million deaths involving people below 70 years.

The total deaths from NCDs are projected to increase by a further 17% over the next 10 years.

Up to 80% of heart disease, stroke and type-2 diabetes and over a third of cancers can be prevented by eliminating shared risk factors, mainly tobacco use, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol.

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Pictures: Errant Shell Oil Rig Runs Aground Off Alaska, Prompts Massive Response

Photograph courtesy Jonathan Klingenberg, U.S. Coast Guard

Waves lash at the sides of the Shell* drilling rig Kulluk, which ran aground off the rocky southern coast of Alaska on New Year's Eve in a violent storm.

The rig, seen above Tuesday afternoon, was "stable," with no signs of spilled oil products, authorities said. But continued high winds and savage seas hampered efforts to secure the vessel and the 150,000 gallons (568,000 liters) of diesel fuel and lubricants on board. The Kulluk came to rest just east of Sitkalidak Island (map), an uninhabited but ecologically and culturally rich site north of Ocean Bay, after a four-day odyssey, during which it broke free of its tow ships and its 18-member crew had to be rescued by helicopter.

The U.S. Coast Guard, state, local, and industry officials have joined in an effort involving nearly 600 people to gain control of the rig, one of two that Shell used for its landmark Arctic oil-drilling effort last summer. "This must be considered once of the largest marine-response efforts conducted in Alaska in many years," said Steve Russell, of Alaska's Department of Environmental Conservation.

The 266-foot (81-meter) rig now is beached off one of the larger islands in the Kodiak archipelago, a land of forest, glaciers, and streams about 300 miles (482 kilometers) south of Anchorage. The American Land Conservancy says that Sitkalidak Island's highly irregular coastline traps abundant food sources upwelling from the central Gulf of Alaska, attracting large numbers of seabirds and marine mammals. The largest flock of common murres ever recorded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was in Sitkalidak Strait, which separates the island from Kodiak. Sitkalidak also has 16 wild salmon rivers and archaeological sites tied to the Alutiiq native peoples dating back more than 7,000 years.

Shell incident commander Susan Childs said Monday night that the company's wildlife management team had started to assess the potential impact of a spill, and would be dispatched to the site when the weather permitted. She said the Kulluk's fuel tanks were in the center of the vessel, encased in heavy steel. "The Kulluk is a pretty sturdy vessel," she said. " It just remains to be seen how long it's on the shoreline and how long the weather is severe."

—Marianne Lavelle

*Shell is sponsor of National Geographic's Great Energy Challenge initiative. National Geographic maintains editorial autonomy.

Published January 2, 2013

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Obama Signs 'Fiscal Cliff' Bill With Autopen

Jan 3, 2013 12:53am

Charles Dharapak/AP Photo

HONOLULU, Hawaii — President Obama has signed the “fiscal cliff” legislation into law via autopen from Hawaii, where he is vacationing with his family.

The bill to avert the “fiscal cliff” arrived at the White House late this afternoon and it was immediately processed, according to a senior White House official. A copy was delivered to the president in Hawaii for review. He then directed the bill to be signed by autopen back in Washington, D.C.

The Bush administration deemed in 2005 that the use of the autopen is constitutional, although President George W. Bush never used the mechanical device to replicate his signature on a bill.

The office of legal counsel found at the time that Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution allows the president to use the autopen to sign legislation, stating “the President need not personally perform the physical act of affixing his signature to a bill to sign it.”

Obama has used the autopen twice in the past to sign legislation, both times while he was overseas.

Use of the autopen has been controversial.  Conservative groups alleged last summer that Obama used an autopen to sign condolence letters to the families of Navy SEALs killed in a Chinook crash in Afghanistan — a charge the White House disputed flatly as false.

In 2004, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was criticized for using an autopen to sign condolence letters to the families of fallen troops.

And in 1992 then-Vice President Dan Quayle even got into some hot water over his use of the autopen on official correspondence during an appearance on “This Week with David Brinkley.”

Obama, who arrived back in Hawaii early Wednesday morning to continue his family vacation, spent the afternoon golfing with friends at the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay.

Obama is slated to remain in Hawaii through Saturday.

ABC News’ Jonathan Karl contributed to this report

SHOWS: Good Morning America This Week World News

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Eurozone manufacturing shrinks in December

BRUSSELS: Eurozone manufacturing activity contracted for a 17th month running in December, a key survey of business managers showed on Wednesday.

The Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for the manufacturing sector, a leading indicator compiled by the Markit research firm, came in at 46.1 points in November, down from an earlier estimate of 46.3 points and down from November's 46.2 points.

Any score below 50 points indicates contraction, not growth.

Ireland, as has frequently been the case in recent months, posted a score of 51.4 points, indicating growth.

But Germany (46.0 points), France (44.6) and Italy (46.7) were all signalling contraction.

While manufacturing activity "may have suffered its worst contraction around October," said London-based IHS Global Insight analyst, "the December purchasing managers' surveys indicate that the sector is still stranded well into recessionary territory."

- AFP/de

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Rape accused should not be fielded in elections: Mayawati

LUCKNOW: BSP supremo Mayawati today said that her party agrees with the view that those accused of rape should not be fielded by political parties in elections.

"BSP agrees with the view 101% that rape accused should not be fielded as candidates in the elections and not be given importance," Mayawati told newpersons.

The former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh also approved of Union minister Shashi Tharoor's suggestion that the revised anti-rape law be named after Delhi gang rape victim.

"If the family of the victim has given its approval to the name being made public and law being named after the rape victim I have no objections to it... the Central government should convene an all-party meeting and take a decision in consensus with everyone," she said in response to a question.

She termed as unfortunate that Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has remained silent over different rape incidents in the state while extending help to victims of cases of rape in other states.

BSP president said that though Delhi gang rape incident has created awareness, there has not been much change in the attitude of governments.

"The Delhi case has awakened the people of the country, but the attitude of Central and the state governments has still not changed," she said, adding that if change had taken place then there would not have been other rape cases after the gang-rape of the 23-year-old paramedical student.

The central government should take an initiative and make arrangements for immediate hearing in rape cases, she said.

Mayawati said that it was unfortunate that those sitting on top positions were merely criticizing and expressing sorrow over such incidents and "not taking any concrete step in this direction would also be a crime".

She suggested that family and society should initiate ways and means to impart good values besides advertisement and film industry should also be responsible regarding their content as an effort to check occurrence over such incidents.

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Space Pictures This Week: Ice “Broccoli,” Solar Storm

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  Happy Trails

  Photograph by Alex Cherney, TWAN

  Amateur astronomer Alex Cherney captured these star trails as they blazed above Lake Tyrrell, a salt lake in Victoria, Australia in October 2011 and posted to The World At Night website December 25, 2012.

  (See pictures of another Australian salt lake, Lake Eyre.)

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Tokyo From Space

  
  Image courtesy DLR

  The sprawling Japanese capital Tokyo looks like a funky computer chip in this image taken by Germany's Earth-observing satellite TerraSAR-X and released December 20.

  Launched in 2007, the satellite's radar sensors map Earth from 319 miles (514 kilometers) up in a near-polar orbit.

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Extreme View

  
  Image courtesy SDO/NASA

  NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory snapped this extreme ultraviolet view of an active region on the sun as it rotated into view from December 16 to December 18. Ultraviolet light makes it easier to trace the whorls and loops created by superheated gas, or plasma, and the sun's magnetic field lines.

  Active solar regions such as this create space weather that, when aimed at Earth, can disrupt satellite communications and electronics. (See more pictures of solar activity and space weather.)

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Saturn’s Dark Side

  
  Image courtesy SSI/Caltech/NASA

  This image of the unlit side of Saturn's S rings, released December 24, was taken with visible light by NASA's Cassini spacecraft.

  The shadow of Saturn's innermost major moon, Mimas, is visible as a black oval south of the rings' shadow. For those with completely dust-free computer monitors, Janus, another Saturnian moon, is visible as a tiny white speck above the planet's north pole. (Learn about Saturn's major moons.)

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  A River Runs Through It

  
  Image courtesy ESA/JAXA

  The European Space Agency released this picture—taken by Japan's satellite ALOS—of Italy's longest river on December 14.

  The Po river and its surrounding fields divide Italy into its northern and southern regions. The Japanese used ALOS, which they lost contact with in late April 2011, to generate precise land maps, monitor disasters, and conduct resource surveys. (Read an excerpt from National Geographic magazine about the Po river.)

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Glacial "Broccoli"

  
  Image from DigitalGlobe/Getty Images

  The Moshniy glacier, located on the Russian archipelago Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean, calves chunks of ice and debris into a pattern reminiscent of broccoli in an image released December 20.

  Novaya Zemlya was a sensitive military area during the Cold War, and was also the site of the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated. The energy released by the 50-megaton "Tsar" bomb was ten times that of all the explosions set off during World War II.

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  











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  Image courtesy Caltech/SSI/NASA

  Published December 31, 2012

  
  

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Obama Hails 'Cliff' Deal, Warns of Next Fiscal Fight

Minutes after the House of Representatives approved a bipartisan Senate deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" and preserve Bush-era tax cuts for all Americans making less than $400,000 per year, President Obama praised party leaders and wasted little time turning to the next fiscal fight.

"This is one step in the broader effort to strengthen our economy for everybody," Obama said.

Obama lamented that earlier attempts at a much larger fiscal deal that would have cut spending and dealt with entitlement reforms failed. He said he hoped future debates would be done with "a little less drama, a little less brinksmanship, and not scare folks quite as much."

But Obama drew a line in the sand on the debt ceiling, which is set to be reached by March.

"While I will negotiate over many things, I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether they should pay the bills for what they've racked up," Obama said. "We can't not pay bills that we've already incurred."

An hour after his remarks, Obama boarded Air Force One to rejoin his family in Hawaii, where they have been since before Christmas.

AP Photo/Charles Dharapak

'Fiscal Cliff' Negotiations: Congress Reaches Agreement Watch Video

House Republicans agreed to the up-or-down vote Tuesday evening, despite earlier talk of trying to amend the Senate bill with more spending cuts before taking a vote. The bill delays for two months tough decisions about automatic spending cuts that were set to kick in Wednesday.

A majority of the Republicans in the GOP-majority House voted against the fiscal cliff deal. About twice as many Democrats voted in favor of the deal compared to Republicans. One hundred fifty-one Republicans joined 16 Democrats to vote against the deal, while 172 Democrats carried the vote along with 85 Republicans.

The Senate passed the same bill by an 89-8 vote in the wee hours of New Year's Day. If House Republicans had tweaked the legislation, there would have been no clear path for its return to the Senate before a new Congress is sworn in Thursday.

The vote split Republican leaders in the House. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, voted yes, and so did the GOP's 2012 vice presidential candidate, Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

But House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., the No. 2 Republican in the House, voted no. It was his opposition that had made passage of the bill seem unlikely earlier in the day.

The deal does little to address the nation's long-term debt woes and does not entirely solve the problem of the "fiscal cliff."

Indeed, the last-minute compromise -- far short from a so-called grand bargain on deficit reduction -- sets up a new showdown on the same spending cuts in two months amplified by a brewing fight on how to raise the debt ceiling beyond $16.4 trillion. That new fiscal battle has the potential to eclipse the "fiscal cliff" in short order.

"Now the focus turns to spending," said Boehner in a statement after the vote. "The American people re-elected a Republican majority in the House, and we will use it in 2013 to hold the president accountable for the 'balanced' approach he promised, meaning significant spending cuts and reforms to the entitlement programs that are driving our country deeper and deeper into debt."

Republicans hope that allowing the fiscal cliff compromise, which raised taxes without an equal amount of spending cuts, will settle the issue of tax rates for the coming debates on spending.

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Helping VA rehabilitate those with multiple wounds of war

Micaela Cornis-Pop oversees more than 110 rehabilitation facilities around the country, helping the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) stay at the forefront of developments in treating traumatic brain injury and other medical injuries and issues facing injured veterans and military service members.

With the increase in battlefield survival rates of military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, service members live with more complex casualties, which led the VA to coin the word “polytrauma” to describe multiple injuries to one person, the most prevalent of which is traumatic brain injury, but also can include post-traumatic stress disorder, multiple amputations, burns, auditory and visual impairments and mental health issues.

In 2005, Cornis-Pop helped conceive, develop and implement the VA’s Polytrauma System of Care, an integrated network of facilities that provide specialized programs to help wounded men and women recover, and move from acute care to outpatient rehabilitation and reintegration into the community. She now leads and manages the system, developing policies and procedures and monitoring their implementation.

“We have a direct impact on how health care is delivered and is impacting veterans and service members, and that is tremendously gratifying,” said Cornis-Pop, national program manager of the Polytrauma System of Care at the Veterans Health Administration, Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Services, at the VA.

She also is responsible for providing education opportunities for VA health care providers who treat traumatic brain injuries. And the system works with another 39 VA locations that provide some, but not all elements of comprehensive polytrauma rehabilitation care, to define the care those facilities can provide and help make the decision when to refer patients to another level of care.

In addition, Cornis-Pop was the lead author and editor of a “massive project” to publish a 166-page book that came out in April 2010, which serves as an accredited independent study course on traumatic brain injury for members of VA health care teams around the country, said Joel Scholten, director of Special Projects at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Program Office (PM&R), which manages the Polytrauma System of Care. Nearly 12,000 clinicians have completed the course between April 2010 and July 2012, using either the book or a Web version of it.

Cornis-Pop “has the innate ability to pull people together and get focused on a task and think creatively, and, most amazingly, develop an end product that is useful and veteran-centric,” Scholten said. “She develops programs and projects that have been sustained because they are clinically relevant. It’s not just policy that is developed and sits there.”

Dr. David Cifu, national director of the PM&R office, not only relies on Cornis-Pop to coordinate the care programs around the country but also to respond to outside requests for information, including from Congress. “She’s the person who makes it all happen,” he said. “She doesn’t care about getting credit. She just gets things done. That’s gold.”

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BCA to source for workers from Sri Lanka, Philippines

SINGAPORE: Sri Lanka and the Philippines have been identified as new source countries for construction workers.

The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) told MediaCorp that two test centres will be set up in Sri Lanka.

Approval is also being sought from the Philippine authorities to establish test centres there.

The BCA hopes to bring in skilled construction workers from Sri Lanka and Philippines to boost supply and diversify the source for foreign labour.

Demand for foreign construction workers is expected to remain strong in the years ahead.

The government is ramping up infrastructure development such as expanding the rail network and building more flats and health-care facilities.

In a recent report, the National Population and Talent Division expects the demand for foreign construction workers on low-skilled work permit holders to increase from some 250,000 in 2011 to about 280,000 in the next two to three years.

The main sources of foreign construction workers in Singapore are from China, India and Bangladesh.

The authorities want to be less reliant on these countries and have identified Sri Lanka and the Philippines as viable options.

Mr Neo Choon Keong, who is the Group Director of Manpower and Strategies Policy at the Building and Construction Authority, said: "What we are seeing now is that the major sources like China, India, because of the fast development the number of workers is actually coming down over time, because there are plenty of jobs there.

"So for resilience perspective, we are working with the industry to open up new sources to locate skilled workers. Notwithstanding our efforts to reduce the numbers of foreign workers overall through the adoption of technology as well as better building designs."

The BCA said most workers in Sri Lanka and Philippines speak English and this will help improve communication on the construction site.

Construction workers who want to work in Singapore have to go through a rigorous training regime in their country.

They have to stay in the training centre and undergo a full-time programme lasting between three and six months.

Only seven out of 10 of these workers would eventually pass the test.

After the training, potential workers have to go through a five hour practical test on essential craft skills as well as a one hour theory test on trade knowledge.

Currently, there are 26 overseas testing centres in China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Myanmar.

Potential workers can choose to be tested in 29 construction skills.

Construction company Progressive Builders will be operating one of the two new test centres in Sri Lanka.

Its managing director Ng Yek Meng said for a start, workers will be tested in 12 construction skills such as steel reinforcement work, tiling and plastering.

He said these tests are to ensure workers coming to Singapore are of a certain standard and quality, and could in turn help raise productivity.

Mr Ng said: "Some of the workers, especially if they come from agriculture, don't even know how to operate certain equipment. The test is quite stringent not only in Sri Lanka but for all source countries. Whoever can pass the test, I think they are of a certain quality. So this is how we can sieve the good ones and the bad ones."

The test centres in Sri Lanka are expected to be operational in six months' time.

Besides bringing in better quality construction foreign workers, the BCA also has a comprehensive training framework to continuously upgrade them.

Some 12,000 foreign construction foreign workers have upgraded their skills through these various programmes.

- CNA/fa

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Sushilkumar Shinde asks parties to give views on reviewing rape laws

NEW DELHI: The government has asked political parties to give their views on reviewing rape laws to Justice J S Verma Committee, set up to suggest amendments in the statute to provide speedier justice and enhanced punishment in cases of aggravated sexual assault against women.

In letters to leaders of all national and state political parties, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said in the light of gang rape of a 23-year-old girl in Delhi, the government has given its anxious consideration to the need for reviewing the present laws relating to sexual assault of extreme nature against women.

The government had on December 23 constituted the Committee under the chairmanship of Justice (retd) Verma, former Chief Justice of India, to look into the possible amendments of the criminal law so as to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishment to criminals in such cases.

"I shall be grateful if you could forward your views on the issue to the committee so that the committee can consider them while making their recommendations. I would urge you to communicate your views as early as possible as the committee has been asked to finalize its recommendations early," he said in the letter, a copy of which was made available today.

The three-member committee has been asked to submit its report to the government in 30 days. The other members of the committee are Justice (retd) Leila Seth, former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh high court, and former solicitor general Gopal Subramaniam.

Justice Verma committee has become fully operational and in located in Vigyan Bhavan Annexe in New Delhi and can be contacted at telephone no.- 011-23022031 and through email :- justice.verma@nic.in with suggestions and views.

Under the existing law, the maximum punishment for rape is life term but the nationwide outrage over the December 16 gang rape of the physiotherapy student in a moving bus here has sparked a demand for death penalty to rapists. The girl breathed her last on Saturday in a Singapore hospital.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has stepped in to make some key suggestions to the government for stricter laws on sex crimes against women and enhanced punishment to the perpetrators.

BJP has favoured death for perpetrators of such heinous crimes and demanded a special session of Parliament for amending the laws.

The government has, however, brushed aside the opposition demand for an immediate special session, saying a decision on the issue could be taken only after the Justice Verma committee gives its report.

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