The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Heart risks lower in men who get enough vitamin D-study
- Bombs kill 25 at Nigerian drinking spot - sources
- Sixty pct of Japan voters want PM out by Aug - survey
| Heart risks lower in men who get enough vitamin D-study Posted: 26 Jun 2011 08:43 PM PDT NEW YORK, June 27 - (Reuters Life!) - Men who consume the recommended amount of vitamin D are somewhat less likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke than those with low vitamin D, according to a U.S. study. The study, which followed nearly 119,000 adults for two decades and was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that men who got at least 600 IU of vitamin D per day, the current recommended amount, were 16 percent less likely to develop heart problems or stroke than men who got less than 100 IUD per day.
But there was no such pattern among women, wrote lead research Qi Sun at the Harvard School of Public Health. "These observations suggest that a higher intake of vitamin D is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in men but not in women," Sun wrote. But Sun and the other authors said the findings don't yet prove that vitamin D, which is found in fish, eggs, fortified milk and cod liver oil, deserves the credit for the lower risk found in men. "The evidence is not strong enough yet to make solid recommendations," Sun added. The current study was observational, based on data from two long-term projects that have followed two large groups of U.S. health professionals since the 1980s: the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. Out of 45,000 men, there were about 5,000 new cases of cardiovascular disease over the study period, marked by a heart attack, stroke or cardiovascular death. It's not clear why the finding in men wasn't matched by a similar pattern in women, but Sun said one possibility is that women may have less active vitamin D circulating in the blood. Vitamin D is also stored in fat, and women typically have a higher percentage of body fat than men do. But more research is needed, Sun said, adding that more answers are expected from an ongoing randomized trial evaluating whether a high dose of vitamin D (2,000 IU per day) can cut the risk of heart disease, stroke and other chronic diseases. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/irO9Xe (Reporting by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Bombs kill 25 at Nigerian drinking spot - sources Posted: 26 Jun 2011 08:12 PM PDT MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected members of a radical Islamist sect threw bombs at a drinking spot in Nigeria's northeastern town of Maiduguri on Sunday, killing around 25 people, witnesses and military sources said. The attackers -- who the military said were suspected members of the Boko Haram sect -- threw three sets of explosives from the back of motorbikes at around 5 p.m. (1600 GMT) and appeared to be targeting police officers, witnesses said. "Around 25 people have been killed in a multiple bomb blast in the Dala ward of Maiduguri," a military official said, asking not to be named. The National Emergency Management Agency said it was working with other rescue teams to evacuate the injured but gave no further details. Insecurity in parts of northern Nigeria has rapidly replaced militant attacks on oil infrastructure hundreds of kilometres away in the southern Niger Delta as the main security threat in Africa's most populous nation in recent months. Boko Haram, which says it wants a wider application of strict sharia Islamic law in Nigeria, claimed responsibility for a bomb blast 10 days ago outside the national police headquarters in the capital Abuja. The sect has been responsible for almost daily killings and attacks on police and government buildings in and around Maiduguri, which lies near Nigeria's remote northeastern borders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger. Boko Haram's former leader, self-proclaimed Islamic scholar Mohammed Yusuf, was shot dead in police custody during a 2009 uprising in which hundreds were killed. His mosque was destroyed with tanks and the security forces claimed a decisive victory. But low-level guerrilla attacks on police stations and assassinations, including of traditional leaders and moderate Islamic clerics, intensified in the second half of last year. President Goodluck Jonathan, who was sworn in for his first full term in office a month ago, has voiced support for dialogue with Boko Haram. But the group has an ill-defined command structure, a variety of people claiming to speak on its behalf, and an unknown number of followers. Some security analysts say its supporters number in the thousands. West African Islam is overwhelmingly moderate and the sect's ideology is not widely supported by Nigeria's Muslim population, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa, but poverty and unemployment have helped it build a cult-like following. (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/ ) (Writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Andrew Roche) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. | ||
| Sixty pct of Japan voters want PM out by Aug - survey Posted: 26 Jun 2011 08:12 PM PDT TOKYO (Reuters) - Sixty percent of Japanese voters want Prime Minister Naoto Kan to resign by the end of August, a survey showed on Monday, the latest sign of mounting pressure on the unpopular leader to keep a pledge to quit as Japan struggles with a nuclear crisis. A political stalemate over Kan's departure risks slowing efforts to recover from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that triggered the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima plant, and could delay steps to tackle structural problems including massive public debt.
Kan, under fire for his response to the quake, pledged this month to step down to quell a rebellion in his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and survive a no-confidence vote, but the premier -- Japan's fifth in five years -- has declined to say when he will go. The survey by the Nikkei business daily showed 42 percent want Kan to resign as soon as possible -- twice the figure in a May poll. Another 18 percent think he should quit by the end of August, when the current session of parliament concludes. Kan has said he wants to stay on at least long enough to enact a bill enabling the government to issue bonds to fund about 40 percent of a $1 trillion budget for the year from April 1, a small extra budget to help with recovery from the tsunami, and measures to promote renewable energy sources. Opposition parties, which control parliament's upper house and can block bills other than treaties and budgets, look set to help pass the small extra budget. But they want changes to the ruling DPJ's spending plans in return for backing the bond issuance bill and are cautious about the renewable energy bill, which businesses fear will raise electricity costs. Kan's critics in the Democrats, including some former backers, are also growing increasingly restive. Six party executives including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano and DPJ Secretary-General Katsuya Okada agreed in a meeting on Sunday that Kan should resign during the current parliament session, the Yomiuri newspaper reported. But it was not clear how they intended to force Kan to do this if he wants to stay on. (Reporting by Linda Sieg; Editing by Joseph Radford) Copyright © 2011 Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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