Family, community bonding can build good emotional health: Gan Kim Yong






SINGAPORE: Health Minister Gan Kim Yong said that pursuing a healthy lifestyle is not just about having good physical health, but it also includes good emotional and mental health as well.

Mr Gan was speaking to reporters at Sunday's Our Singapore Conversation, which centred on the theme of healthy living in Singapore.

He said emotional health can be achieved through family bonding which can promote a happy and fulfilling lifestyle.

"It's an important message that while we want to encourage residents to stay healthy, it's not just physical health - physical health is important, if you eat moderately, sensibly, exercise regularly.

"At the same time, it is also important to make sure that emotionally, they are also healthy. And this can be done by strengthening family bonding and at the same time, community bonding as well.

"So the community can organise a lot more activities to bring these residents together, let them have friendship, build up a social network so that emotionally, mentally, they can also stay healthy and active."

The dialogue, held at Nee Soon East Community Club, follows another health-related national conversation the ministry held for healthcare professionals on Friday.

Residents had various suggestions on how to promote healthy living in Singapore such as extending the opening hours of sports facilities in schools and installing more exercise stations in the estate.

MP for Nee Soon GRC, Patrick Tay, said these suggestions will be taken into consideration for the ward's neighbourhood renewal programmes.

"I'm glad to hear one or two residents giving me ideas on some of these particular kind of exercise stations which they think there's a need.

"So I think with that, coupled with some of the suggestions we have done on the ground - because in every neighbourhood renewal programme, we do gather feedback from the ground through surveys - so this will augment the survey that we have done, so that we can tailor and customise fitness stations not just for the not-so-young, but for the various life stages, from the young as well as those preparing for National Service, all the way to the not-so-young."

- CNA/ck



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International community must support non-violent methods: Lobsang Sangay

NEW DELHI: Tibetan Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) in exile Lobsang Sangay on Saturday called for a stronger endorsement of non-violent methods by the international community. Sangay said that the projection of the recent armed uprisings in west Asia may send out the wrong idea to other similarly marginalised groups fighting against oppression.

"If non-violence is the right thing to do, we ought to be supported by the international community. Paradoxically, what you read about in the newspapers or watch on television in recent times, for example, in Syria, is the 'freedom fighters' of Syrian democracy. The media projects them as freedom fighters and heroes and they get all the support.Tibetans have been democratic and non-violent for the last so many decades, how come we don't receive similar support and attention? This is a test for the international community. Whether we get support or not is secondary because we are committed to democracy and non-violence. But if we send a message to other marginalised groups and other refugee communities around the world," said Sangay. The Tibetan PM in exile was speaking at the first annual lecture of the Indian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents. This was post the conclusion of the recent four-day long Tibetan "campaign for solidarity" in the capital.

Sangay was elected the Tibetan Kalon Tripa in April 2011. It was the very same year that the Dalai Lama renounced his formal, political role in the Tibetan struggle, and chose instead to remain only the spiritual leader.

Speaking about the " future of Tibet" Sangay said it would be a secular state, with the Indian model of secularism. "The Tibetan community has Muslims and Christians. The government already represents all religions and even non-religions," said Sangay who was born and brought up in Darjeeling.

Crediting the model of the Indian democracy and the constitution which was used as a model for the Tibetan government in exile, Sangay also went on to offer a few recommendations as a good "chela" to the "guru", since the general elections in India are around the corner. He recalled the time right before the 2011 elections, describing how he and his opponent shared a cab together from Dharamshala to Delhi, shared a hotel room together in the capital, participated in political debates, and then went back to having meals together, even exchanging campaign tips. "We are still friends and exchange emails. As a good chela of the Indian democracy, I would like to make a few recommendations to our guru. Whoever wins the elections, we wish they remain friends," said Sangay.

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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg below the knee. With the help of a prosthetic leg, Exantus is able to dance again. (Read about his comeback.)

Why We Love It

"This is an intimate photo, taken in the subject's most personal space as he lies asleep and vulnerable, perhaps unaware of the photographer. The dancer's prosthetic leg lies in the foreground as an unavoidable reminder of the hardships he faced in the 2010 earthquake. This image makes me want to hear more of Georges' story."—Ben Fitch, associate photo editor

"This image uses aesthetics and the beauty of suggestion to tell a story. We are not given all the details in the image, but it is enough to make us question and wonder."—Janna Dotschkal, associate photo editor

Published February 1, 2013

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Gun Violence 'Depletes Precious Natural Resource'












It took the mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, to prompt lawmakers to call for stricter gun legislation. But the reality is that in a city like Chicago, where 515 murders took place last year and more than 100 shooting incidents have occurred since January 1, gun violence is an ongoing issue and it has been for years. Only, these shootings have become so common that they don't make national headlines.


"We lost a classroom full of children in Connecticut which sparked national outrage that needs to be translated into action, but in Chicago, we sometimes lose a dozen or more young people every weekend," Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Illinois), who serves the Chicago area, said in a statement. "Too many bullets and too many guns are killing the next generation and we have got to make it stop."


Gutierrez, like many others, believe that any debate about gun violence shouldn't just take into account mass shootings that make headline news. It should also consider the chronic gun violence that takes place on a daily basis across the U.S.


In Chicago's case, many of the victims are young minorities growing up in poor, gang-ridden neighborhoods on the south and west side of the city.


Just earlier this week a 15-year-old girl who performed at President Barack Obama's recent inauguration was gunned down, The Washington Post reported.


The teen, Hadiya Pendleton, was hanging out in a park with about a dozen other young people when she was shot. Two other victims were reportedly wounded. By all accounts she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Reports indicate that the gunman was not even aiming at her.


And Pendleton is just the latest example. Chicago police officer Ron Holt lost his son, Blair, to gun violence in the spring of 2007. The 16-year-old was shot and killed while riding a bus after school.


Holt now works with young people in the community, particularly minorities at an increased risk of engaging in dangerous behavior, to encourage them to focus on their education instead of turning to violence.


"I explain to them that if they continue to ascribe to this diabolical idea of resolving conflict with firearms they're depleting the most precious natural resource in the community, and that is them," Holt said.


What's clear is that the root of the gun problem is not just the guns. There are several factors that play a role, many of which are rarely discussed. For example, for minority youth living in urban communities characterized by poverty, violence, particularly gun violence, tends to be chronic. And the groups largely impacted tend to be African American and Hispanic.


A lot of that has to do with acculturation, according to Rahsmia Zatar, executive director of Strong Youth, a gang prevention and intervention organization. There is a sense that it's difficult to move beyond one's cultural sphere.


As a result, minorities often tend to gravitate toward other young minorities in similar situations, and turn to violence to gain a sense of control, however false it really is.






Charles Rex Arbogast/AP Photo







"It's easy to fall victim to feeling a sense of empowerment through violence," Zatar said. "They feel they have limited opportunities and they don't have a sense of 'I can achieve,' [or] that there is something here for me that's better."


According to the 2011 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 30 percent of Chicago's African-American population and nearly 27 percent of Hispanics live below the poverty line. Perhaps more importantly, blacks and whites remain largely segregated, with African-Americans making up the vast majority of neighborhoods in the south, and whites comprising most of the north. Latinos are somewhat more mixed, often living in "buffer" communities between blacks and whites, which could exacerbate the pressure to conform to two cultures, neither of which is entirely comfortable.


These various enclaves also suffer from a distinct gang problem. Chicago Police Commissioner Garry McCarthy told Reuters the city is plagued by the breakup of larger more established gangs into new factions that are fighting over everything from turf to money.


Then there's the city's illicit gun issue, which is bigger than New York's or Los Angeles' despite strict laws to limit weapons. Gun shops are actually outlawed in Chicago, as are assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Handguns were even banned until 2010.


Still, in a place like Chicago it's handguns doing the most damage. According to statistics from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, most of the guns they recovered in Illinois were pistols, followed by revolvers and rifles. Machine guns come in a distant sixth.


Why so many guns? Gun laws in neighboring communities are not as strict, and firearms make their way into the city. According to a recent article by The New York Times, officials "seized 7,400 guns [in Chicago] in crimes or unpermitted uses last year (compared with 3,285 in New York City), and have confiscated 574 guns just since Jan. 1 — 124 of them last week alone."


And while Chicago residents are required to report the loss or theft of a handgun, that same law does not apply to all of Illinois, so a stolen firearm could easily make its way into Chicago without the owner ever reporting it missing.


The dynamics created in poor minority communities like those in Chicago combined with the sheer number of guns that make their way into such a city bear out in the overall statistics.


According to the Bureau of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey, African Americans were disproportionately represented among homicide victims and offenders between 1980 and 2008. They were six times more likely than whites to be homicide victims and seven times more likely than whites to commit homicides.


Latinos don't fare much better. According to the National Council of La Raza, the nation's largest Hispanic advocacy organization, "Today in America, every three hours a young person is killed by firearm violence. Every 14 hours, that teen or child is Latino."


Young Latinos are especially likely to be impacted by gang violence in places like Chicago. Nationally, Hispanics are also more likely than non-Hispanics to be victims of violent crimes committed by gang members.


The impact of guns on the Latino community may explain why they're inclined to favor increased gun control. According to the Pew Research Center, while 57 percent of whites think it's more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns than to protect gun ownership, only 29 percent of Latinos feel the same way.


Holt would certainly like to see something change. Several days after his son was killed, he received a voicemail. It was then-Senator Barack Obama. The young lawmaker had called Holt to express his condolences and to promise that if there was anything he could do in the future to help curb gun violence, he was prepared to do it. The two never spoke on the phone, but Holt remembers the message.




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VA study finds more veterans committing suicide



The VA study indicates that more than two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are 50 or older, suggesting that the increase in veterans’ suicides is not primarily driven by those returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


“There is a perception that we have a veterans’ suicide epidemic on our hands. I don’t think that is true,” said Robert Bossarte, an epidemiologist with the VA who did the study. “The rate is going up in the country, and veterans are a part of it.” The number of suicides overall in the United States increased by nearly 11 percent between 2007 and 2010, the study says.

As a result, the percentage of veterans who die by suicide has decreased slightly since 1999, even though the total number of veterans who kill themselves has gone up, the study says.

VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said his agency would continue to strengthen suicide prevention efforts. “The mental health and well-being of our courageous men and women who have served the nation is the highest priority for VA, and even one suicide is one too many,” he said in a statement.

The study follows long-standing criticism that the agency has moved far too slowly even to figure out how many veterans kill themselves. “If the VA wants to get its arms around this problem, why does it have such a small number of people working on it?” asked retired Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a former Army psychiatrist. “This is a start, but it is a faint start. It is not enough.”

Bossarte said much work remains to be done to understand the data, especially concerning the suicide risk among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. They constitute a minority of an overall veteran population that skews older, but recent studies have suggested that those who served in recent conflicts are 30 percent to 200 percent more likely to commit suicide than their ­non-veteran peers.

An earlier VA estimate of 18 veterans’ suicides a day, which was disclosed during a 2008 lawsuit, has long been cited by lawmakers and the department’s critics as evidence of the agency’s failings. A federal appeals court pointed to it as evidence of the VA’s “unchecked incompetence.” The VA countered that the number, based on old and incomplete data, was not reliable.

To calculate the veterans’ suicide rate, Bossarte and his sole assistant spent more than two years, starting in October 2010, cajoling state governments to turn over death certificates for the more than 400,000 Americans who have killed themselves since 1999. Forty-two states have provided data or agreed to do so; the study is based on information from 21 that has been assembled into a database.

Bossarte said that men in their 50s — a group that includes a large percentage of the veteran population— have been especially hard-hit by the national increase in suicide. The veterans’ suicide rate is about three times the overall national rate, but about the same percentage of male veterans in their 50s kill themselves as do non-veteran men of that age, according to the VA data.

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Singapore Conversation turns to animal welfare






SINGAPORE: A more inclusive society for animals or tougher rules for buying a pet were some suggestions animal lovers brought up at a dialogue on Saturday.

It was also the first time the Singapore Conversation - an initiative to get Singaporeans to come to a consensus on the kind of future they want - focused on animal welfare.

Saturday's event was jointly organised by the Agency for Animal Welfare, the Our SG Conversation Committee and the Singapore Kindness Movement.

Two working dogs - Esme and Joel - were present at the dialogue.

They were there to receive an inaugural Great Pet award given out by the Agency for Animal Welfare to pets which have served their owners in extraordinary ways.

Esme works as a guide dog for her visually impaired master, while Joel is a health service dog who can alert family members during a medical emergency at home.

Awareness of working dogs in Singapore remains low.

Hence animal lovers at the dialogue urged more shops and restaurants to welcome these dogs and their owners.

Their vision is an inclusive Singapore, for animals, too.

But pet owners need to do their part.

A keyword heard throughout the dialogue was "responsibility" - the responsibility of pet owners.

Abandonment cases in Singapore are unfortunately common. Hence some said the process of buying and owning a pet should be made tougher.

One of them is business owner Jill Hum, who said: "It's just far too easy for someone to buy a pet. It's not just buying candy or a teddy bear from the toy store. It's a live animal, you need to know how to take care of the pet. You need to know it's a lifelong commitment."

Others like Melanie Lee want an outright ban on live animals in pet stores.

"If pet shops can be legislated such that they can't have any live pets for sale, that would really help, because we have so many dogs out there - strays dogs, dogs up for adoption that do not have a home right now."

MP for Nee Soon GRC Associate Professor Faishal Ibrahim said the issue will require consultation with relevant stakeholders.

But the dialogue must go on.

"What we need to do is continue to develop and deepen this journey, so that ten years down the road, we will have a more gracious society," said the MP.

One way that can happen, participants said, is to inject the importance of animal welfare into the education system.

- CNA/ir



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Rahul, Modi may visit Mahakumbh, seek blessing of Hindu seers for 2014 elections

LUCKNOW: Top Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi are expected to visit the ongoing Mahakumbh mela next week to take dip in holy Sangam and seek blessing of Hindu seers for elections.

Newly-elected BJP national president Rajnath Singh and BJP, UP, president Laxmikant Bajpei will visit Mahakumbh in Allahabad on February 6. The visit assumes importance as Rajnath will seeks blessings of heads of various Hindu Akhadas for winning 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Gujrat chief minister Narendra Modi may also visit the mela to get stamp of approval from Hindu seers for strengthening his candidature for BJP's prime ministerial candidate in 2014 elections. Some Akhadas have already demanded the BJP to make project Modi for the post of prime minister.

When contacted, Laxmikant Bajpei confirmed that he is visiting Maha Kumbh along with Rajnath Singh on February 6. However, he added, he has not received any information about Modi's visit so far. He said that they are visiting mela on a lean day so that they get ample time to interact with the Hindu seers and seek their blessings.

BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who was in Allahabad on Saturday, when asked about Modi's prospects, said that the party has many leaders who qualify for the post of prime ministership. "However, at the end of the day, the BJP will go by the public mandate. People will decide who will be next prime minister," he said.

Significantly, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and newly appointed party vice president Rahul Gandhi may also visit Maha Kumbh in Allahabad and take a dip in the Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati between February 5 and 11.They are also expected to take the blessings of Shankaracharya of Jyotirmath Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati in his ashram in the mela area.However, Congress has not officially confirmed the proposed visit so far.

The next big day in Mahakumbh will on February 10 when lakhs will come for a dip in holy sangam on the occasion of Mauni Amawasya.

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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg below the knee. With the help of a prosthetic leg, Exantus is able to dance again. (Read about his comeback.)

Why We Love It

"This is an intimate photo, taken in the subject's most personal space as he lies asleep and vulnerable, perhaps unaware of the photographer. The dancer's prosthetic leg lies in the foreground as an unavoidable reminder of the hardships he faced in the 2010 earthquake. This image makes me want to hear more of Georges' story."—Ben Fitch, associate photo editor

"This image uses aesthetics and the beauty of suggestion to tell a story. We are not given all the details in the image, but it is enough to make us question and wonder."—Janna Dotschkal, associate photo editor

Published February 1, 2013

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Gov's Handling of Sandusky Case Under Investigation













The newly-elected attorney general of Pennsylvania is going after the state's governor, Tom Corbett, who was attorney general when child sex allegations against Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky were first brought forward.


Kathleen Kane, a Democrat who was sworn in as attorney general on Jan. 15, said that she will name a special prosecutor in the coming days to investigate Corbett's handling of the Sandusky case. Corbett is a Republican.


The investigation will look specifically at why it took the attorney general's office three years to bring criminal charges against Sandusky while he continued to have access to children.


"Attorney General Kane will appoint a special prosecutor to lead the office's internal investigation into how the Sandusky child abuse investigation was handled by the Office of the Attorney General," Kane's office said in a statement released today.


Corbett's attorney general's office was first notified of the allegations against Sandusky in 2008 when a high school student told his mother and school that Sandusky had molested him. The local district attorney passed the allegation on to the attorney general, then Corbett. Corbett convened a grand jury.






Mario Tama; Patrick Smith/Getty Images











Jerry Sandusky Insists Innocence Before Sentencing Watch Video









Jerry Sandusky Sentencing: Why Did He Release Statement? Watch Video









Jerry Sandusky Claims Innocence in Audio Statement Watch Video





It wasn't until 2011 that sex abuse charges were filed against Sandusky while Corbett had since become governor. Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of sex abuse in June 2012.


The charges sent shockwaves throughout Pennsylvania, as Penn State's president, two top officials, and legendary coach Joe Paterno all lost their jobs over the scandal.


"Why did it take 33 months to get Sandusky off the streets? Was the use of a grand jury the right decision? Why were there so few resources dedicated to the investigation? Were the best practices implemented?" the statement from Kane's office read.


"At the end of this investigation, we will know the answers to these questions and be able to tell the people of Pennsylvania the facts and give them answers that they deserve," the statement said.


Describing an interview Kane gave the New York Times, the Times said Kane suggested that Corbett did not want to upset voters or donors in the Penn State community before his gubernatorial run in 2009.


Corbett has denied those suggestions. His office did not immediately return calls for comment.


Kane's office preemptively fought back against the idea that the investigation is politically motivated. Kane, a Democrat, defeated the incumbent attorney general, Linda Kelly, a Republican in November 2011. Corbett is a Republican.


"The speculation that this is about politics is insane," a staff member in Kane's office told ABC News today. "You go anywhere in Pennsylvania and anywhere across the country and you'll find individuals asking, 'why did it take three years? Why was there a grand jury? Why make these kids talk to 30 different people about what happened?"



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VA study finds more veterans committing suicide



The VA study indicates that more than two-thirds of the veterans who commit suicide are 50 or older, suggesting that the increase in veterans’ suicides is not primarily driven by those returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


“There is a perception that we have a veterans’ suicide epidemic on our hands. I don’t think that is true,” said Robert Bossarte, an epidemiologist with the VA who did the study. “The rate is going up in the country, and veterans are a part of it.” The number of suicides overall in the United States increased by nearly 11 percent between 2007 and 2010, the study says.

As a result, the percentage of veterans who die by suicide has decreased slightly since 1999, even though the total number of veterans who kill themselves has gone up, the study says.

VA Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said his agency would continue to strengthen suicide prevention efforts. “The mental health and well-being of our courageous men and women who have served the nation is the highest priority for VA, and even one suicide is one too many,” he said in a statement.

The study follows long-standing criticism that the agency has moved far too slowly even to figure out how many veterans kill themselves. “If the VA wants to get its arms around this problem, why does it have such a small number of people working on it?” asked retired Col. Elspeth Cameron Ritchie, a former Army psychiatrist. “This is a start, but it is a faint start. It is not enough.”

Bossarte said much work remains to be done to understand the data, especially concerning the suicide risk among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. They constitute a minority of an overall veteran population that skews older, but recent studies have suggested that those who served in recent conflicts are 30 percent to 200 percent more likely to commit suicide than their ­non-veteran peers.

An earlier VA estimate of 18 veterans’ suicides a day, which was disclosed during a 2008 lawsuit, has long been cited by lawmakers and the department’s critics as evidence of the agency’s failings. A federal appeals court pointed to it as evidence of the VA’s “unchecked incompetence.” The VA countered that the number, based on old and incomplete data, was not reliable.

To calculate the veterans’ suicide rate, Bossarte and his sole assistant spent more than two years, starting in October 2010, cajoling state governments to turn over death certificates for the more than 400,000 Americans who have killed themselves since 1999. Forty-two states have provided data or agreed to do so; the study is based on information from 21 that has been assembled into a database.

Bossarte said that men in their 50s — a group that includes a large percentage of the veteran population— have been especially hard-hit by the national increase in suicide. The veterans’ suicide rate is about three times the overall national rate, but about the same percentage of male veterans in their 50s kill themselves as do non-veteran men of that age, according to the VA data.

Read More..