The heart disease trifecta
Nearly half of all adult Americans have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes, all of which boost the risk of cardiovascular disease, the CDC says. One in eight has two or more.
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times
April 26, 2010 | 3:51 p.m.
Nearly half of all adult Americans have high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes, all conditions that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, researchers from the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday.One in eight Americans has at least two of the conditions and one in 33 has all three, sharply increasing their risk. Of those with at least one condition, 15% have not been diagnosed, according to the report released online.
Stephen Hawking aliens alert: a premature or primative fear?
The Stephen Hawking aliens alert strikes one European scientist as premature. But speculation about extraterrestrial life is not new. It goes back to Greek philosopher Epicurus.
By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent / April 26, 2010
When Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s leading astrophysicists, worries that alien “nomads” could potentially arrive at Earth “looking to conquer and colonize,” should humanity worry?
Is Mr. Hawking wrong to speculate about whether extraterrestrial life might pose a threat?Well, at this point, says Fabio Favata of the European Space Agency, such musings are probably premature. There’s no data either way.
“Many, many scientists are of the opinion that life is very likely to be common, but, quite frankly, until you discover it, it’s as much a philosophical statement as anything else.
USA
Goldman Faces New Mortgage Allegations
By LOUISE STORY
Published: April 26, 2010
WASHINGTON – The legal storm buffeting Goldman Sachs intensified on Monday as Senate investigators claimed the Wall Street giant had devised not one but a series of complex deals to profit from the collapse of the home mortgage market.
The claims suggested for the first time that the inquiries into Goldman were stretching beyond the sole mortgage deal singled out by the Securities and Exchange Commission.S.E.C. accusations that Goldman defrauded investors in that single transaction, Abacus 2007-AC1, have thrust the bank into a legal whirlwind.
Both sides in immigration debate blame congressional inaction for Arizona law
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
PHOENIX — On the grounds of the Capitol, in a state that only days earlier had adopted the nation’s strictest anti-immigration law, the two sides of an angry debate are united on one thing: They blame Washington.Years of congressional inaction and paralysis on immigration created a vacuum that either forced the Arizona legislature to step in or allowed overzealous lawmakers to trump federal authority, depending on whom you ask.
The law is injecting new life into the election-year debate over an issue felt strongly in the states, particularly along the Mexican border, even as Congress appears to be at an impasse over whether to consider a complex immigration bill before facing voters this fall.
Europe
Jaroslaw Kaczynski to follow in late brother’s presidential footsteps
From The Times
April 27, 2010
Roger Boyes
The twin brother of the late President Kaczynski has decided to follow in his footsteps and try to become Poland’s head of state.Jaroslaw Kaczynski – 45 seconds older than his brother, who died in an air crash just over a fortnight ago – announced the move yesterday and is clearly calculating that a sympathy vote could carry him into the presidential palace.
The election is due to be held on June 20 and, until his death, it had seemed certain that Lech Kaczynski would lose to his moderate conservative rival, Bronislaw Komorowski.
NATO chief calls for better coordination between member states
The European Union and NATO have announced plans to improve cooperation to meet modern challenges. And EU defense minister agreed to meet regularly to discuss how to react more swiftly to conflicts or catastrophes.
NATO | 27.04.2010
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Monday urged members countries to pool their resources if the alliance was to successfully deal with threats of the 21st century.The key to tackling the challenges of modern warfare was working together to build weapons and systems that are compatible and therefore cheaper in the long run, the NATO chief told the Belgian High Institute for Defense in Brussels.
“We should work harder to find solutions to fundamental problems between the EU and NATO,” he said.
In the past, EU defense ministers met on average just once every six months on the sidelines of EU foreign minister meetings. Spainish defense minister Carme Chacon, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said that there was general agreement on meeting more frequently, as stipulated in the Lisbon treaty.
Middle East
When will time run out for a two-state solution?
The Palestinians must draw the line on settlements, or the facade of a two-state discussion will continue ad infinitum
Yousef Munayyer
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 27 April 2010 08.00 BST
Among those involved in the Middle East peace process industry there is much talk about “time running out” for a two-state solution.Recently, the same sentiments were echoed by the US state department, reflecting a shift in the way the Obama administration is publicly talking about the conflict.
On more than one occasion, the state department and other Obama administration figures have said that “the status quo is unsustainable”. Notice again the element of time.
Disqualification of Iraqi MPs jeopardises political stability
Tuesday, 27 April 2010
By Patrick Cockburn in Arbil
An Iraqi court has disqualified two members of the country’s newly elected parliament in a move which puts in doubt the outcome of last month’s election and is likely to increase political instability in the country.The winning candidates who have been barred are among 52 candidates disqualified for past association with Saddam Hussein’s Baath party.The ban on them appears to be part of a campaign by the government of Nouri al-Maliki, the prime minister, to change in his favour the unexpected results of the election, which saw his State of Law bloc narrowly beaten by Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya coalition.
Yesterday, Mr Allawi said that his party had instructed lawyers to appeal the decision, saying: “We are very concerned about certain groups controlling the political process in Iraq.”
Mr Maliki has successfully demanded a recount of votes in Baghdad which his supporters hope might yield him an extra four seats.
Asia
IPL ringmaster suspended as scandal fallout sparks Parliament protest
From The Times
April 27, 2010
Jeremy Page and Rhys Blakely
The Indian Premier League (IPL) seemed to embody all that was good about “new India”, with its telegenic cocktail of Bollywood glitz, big business and high-octane cricket.By yesterday, however, it had come to epitomise the worst of “old India” as Lalit Modi, the IPL’s ringmaster, was suspended and Parliament adjourned in uproar over a corruption scandal that has engulfed politicians, business leaders and the country’s biggest sport.
In a day of extraordinary melodrama, even by Indian standards, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that it had given Mr Modi 15 days to respond to a number of corruption allegations.
Thailand: Red Shirts disrupt Bangkok’s elevated train service
Army troops locked down elevated train stations in the Thai capital and authorities suspended service for four hours after anti-government protesters broke into a station and threw tires on the platform in their campaign to force immediate elections.
Published: 7:00AM BST 27 Apr 2010
The closure coincided with morning rush hour, causing commuter chaos and concern in the tense capital at the sight of hundreds of soldiers armed with automatic weapons guarding stations and scattered along major Bangkok boulevards.
Panitan Wattanayagorn, a government spokesman, said security forces were sent to negotiate with protesters to remove the tires and it was not immediately clear when service would resume.
Africa
Visible from space, deadly on Earth: the gas flares of Nigeria
Shell’s activities in the West African country are under scrutiny
By Daniel Howden in Yenagoa Tuesday, 27 April 2010
There is an ominous new arrival in the tropical forest outside Yenagoa in the southern Nigerian state of Bayelsa. It travels on black metal stilts above the green canopy before sinking into a concrete bunker where, when the bulldozers and cranes have finished work, millions of cubic feet of natural gas will be pumped before going up in smoke.Shell’s Opolo-Epie facility is the newest gas flare in the Niger Delta. And it gives the lie to claims from oil multinationals and the Nigerian government that they are close to bringing an end to the destructive and wasteful practice of gas flaring.
Is this the Happy Valley murderer?
Seventy years after the Earl of Erroll was shot dead, author Paul Spicer claims to have unmasked the true culprit
Elizabeth Grice
Published: 7:00AM BST 27 Apr 2010
There is nothing like the cocktail of money, aristocracy, sexual intrigue and unsolved murder to keep a story fizzing in the public imagination long after it should have expired from lack of oxygen. How else to account for the pull of Kenya’s Happy Valley set, the vividly decadent colonials whose amorality was almost a condition of residence?
Even so, it is bizarre that nearly 70 years after Josslyn Hay, Earl of Erroll, was shot dead at the wheel of his Buick at a crossroads in the middle of the night, we’re still interested in who killed him. Film-makers, biographers, amateur sleuths, they just can’t leave it alone.