Pakistani given 30 years in New York Al-Qaeda case

NEW YORK, July 21: Pakistani convicted of supporting an al Qaeda plot to blow up US gas stations was sentenced to 30 years in prison in a case Washington has called a victory in its war on terror.

Uzair Paracha, 26, has said he falsely confessed under the pressure of three days of interrogation by the FBI, but US District Court Judge Sidney Stein said Paracha ''knew what he was doing'' in lending support to al Qaeda.

Paracha remained calm after the sentence was read and waved to relatives as he left the courtroom wearing a blue prison jumpsuit.

A jury in November convicted him on five counts including conspiracy to provide and providing material support to al Qaeda. US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last year cited the case as one of the top US legal victories in the fight against violent extremists.

Prosecutors said Paracha attended several meetings in Pakistan with his father Saifullah Paracha and suspected al Qaeda members Majid Khan and Ammar al-Baluchi.

They said Paracha agreed to mail travel documents to Khan in Pakistan and hold $200,000 in al Qaeda funds. The government believes Khan was planning to blow up gas stations in Maryland.

Little evidence of the suspected plot was presented at the trial, and the judge noted that FBI questioning revealed Paracha did not know details of any planned attack.

''You are a very intelligent and particularly educated young man,'' the judge said yesterday. ''You made a very serious mistake here. It is a loss to the American community and a loss to the Pakistani community.''

The other suspects are being held in undisclosed locations and have not been charged. Defense lawyer Edward Wilford said Paracha had been used by them. But prosecutor Karl Metzner disagreed, calling for a long sentence.

''The consequences of the conduct that Mr Paracha tried to help orchestrate could have been catastrophic,'' Metzner said. (AGENCIES)

UN expert demands inquiry into attack on Gaza power station

NEW YORK, July 21: Demanding an inquiry into an Israeli attack on a power station in Gaza, an independent UN human rights expert has said the strike exacerbated an already critical health situation and could have violated international humanitarian law.

"The destruction of Gaza's electricity power station is profoundly inconsistent with the health and safety of all civilians as well as their right to the highest attainable standard of health enshrined in the International Bill of Rights," the UN Human Rights Council's Special Rapporteur Paul Hunt said in a statement here.

According to Hunt, the lack of power for pumps following the attack is causing "a serious water shortage and affecting sewage disposal" for thousands of households throughout the Gaza Strip.

Amid reports of sewage leakage and reduction in municipal waste collection, the expert noted that reported cases of diarrhoea have increased by 163 per cent compared to the same period last year.

He also warned that communicable diseases like cholera and poliomyelitis could re-emerge.

Hunt said the attack on the power station could have violated humanitarian laws which require that parties to a conflict must always distinguish between combatants and civilians.

"Attacks can only be directed against combatants and military objectives," he said.

Under international humanitarian law, a target may be attacked if it is both making an effective contribution to the enemy's military action and its destruction provides a definite military advantage to the attacker.

"Whether or not both conditions applied in the case of Gaza's electricity power station is an issue that demands careful, independent investigation," Hunt said.

"When undertaking this enquiry, it is imperative that in addition to military matters other relevant issues are also taken into account, including the acute dependency and vulnerability of the people of Gaza," he said.

The expert recommended that an independent enquiry determine whether the recent attack on Gaza's electricity power station was a war crime.

He urged the captors of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit to release him immediately.

"Pending his release, he must receive appropriate medical assistance and care, and he must be treated humanely," he said.

"Also, I remind all parties that the prohibition against targeting a civilian population applies to civilians within both Israel and the Gaza Strip. All such targeting should cease immediately," Hunt added. (PTI)

Kids need more exercise to cut heart risk: Study

LONDON, July 21: Children need to do more exercise than recommended in international guidelines to reduce their risk of developing cardiovascular disease, a team of researchers said.

Instead of one hour a day of moderate physical activity, youngsters may need to do 90 minutes to stave off high blood pressure, raised cholesterol levels and other risk factors that can lead to heart problems.

''Physical activity levels need to be higher than the current international guidelines of at least one hour per day,'' said Lars Bo Andersen of the Norwegian School of Sports Science in Oslo yesterday.

Andersen and his team assessed the impact of exercise on 1,732 children from Denmark, Estonia and Portugal, aged either nine or 15.

They compared the amount of exercise they did every day and measured their risks of developing heart disease.

They found that the more the children exercised, the more their combined risks factor score decreased.

Nine-year-olds who did 116 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise a day and the teens who exercised for 88 minutes daily had the lowest risk factor scores, according to the research published in The Lancet medical journal.

Cardiovascular disease is a leading killer in developed countries. High blood pressure, raised cholesterol levels, inactivity, obesity and diabetes, which raise the odds of developing the illness, can develop from childhood.

In a commentary on the research, Ram Weiss and Itamar Raz of the Hebrew University Hospital in Jerusalem said the impact of exercise on heart disease risk was the same in lean or overweight children.

''Those who might potentially benefit the most from increased physical activity are probably those who are less fit to begin with,'' they added.(AGENCIES)

Gays accused of discrimination in US resort village

PROVINCETOWN, MASS, July 21: Provincetown, New England's summer gay capital, is facing a rise in harassment and discrimination. But this time it's straight people who say they are being ridiculed as ''breeders'' and ''baby makers.''

Less than a decade after a successful campaign to end violent paroxysms of ''gay bashing'' in the beach town at the tip of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, police and town officials report a resurgence in tension between gays and straight people.

Police Chief Ted Meyer said straight people complained of being called ''breeders'' over the July Fourth holiday weekend, and that in one serious incident a man was charged with assaulting a woman who signed a petition to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, the only state where it is legal.

Equally troubling, he said, Jamaican workers in Provincetown say they have been the target of racial slurs.

''It's been a series of issues,'' Meyer said.

The flare-ups in a town that overflows in summer with a colourful mix of gay couples often openly holding hands or kissing, cross-dressers and flocks of curious tourists coincide with a planned vote this year in the state Legislature on an amendment to ban gay marriage -- a measure that has rallied activists on both sides of the issue.

Gay-marriage advocates have set up a Web site -- www.Knowthyneighbor.Org -- that publishes the names of people who have signed the petition, including at least two locals in Provincetown who say they have been singled out and verbally abused by gays since their names appeared on the Web site.

Town officials said the town is struggling to strike a balance between protecting the right to freedom of expression for petition signers, and ensuring its gay majority contain their anger at what many see as an assault on their hard-won right to marriage.

Police would not classify the slurs and name-calling as ''hate crimes.'' But a town meeting was called last Friday to discuss whether social attitudes were changing in the gay resort village with a population of 3,431 that swells to 60,000 in summer and includes a large number of Jamaicans.

'HELLO, YOU'RE IN OUR TOWN'

''We have business that we haven't talked about as a family,'' Town Manager Keith Bergman said. ''The impact of the same sex marriage petition is high on that list.''

Some gays expressed shock at being accused of discrimination after years of suffering harassment.

''There are still a lot of straight people who treat gays badly,'' said Steve Bowersock, 35, an artist who owns the Bowersock Gallery on the town's main Commercial Street.

Bowersock, who was once married to a woman, said he moved to Provincetown in 2004 with his partner because it gives gays a political voice. He admits he sometimes discriminates against straight people he finds offensive

''If there's a straight couple and I hear them in the background going 'oh fags', I'm like 'hello, where the hell do you think you are?' So in turn I get mad,'' he said.

''If I see someone nervous like a big butch guy, and you can just tell he's a redneck, I'll grab my partner and I'll kiss him. It's not being mean, but 'hello you're in our town'.''

The Rev. Henry J. Dahl, pastor at St. Peter's Church, said several of his parishioners had complained to him of being singled out and verbally abused after signing the petition.

''I don't think it's totally unexpected that there would be some reaction to people who signed the petition,'' he said.

''Let's just hope we can have civil discourse.''

Joe Solmonese, president of gay rights group Human Rights Campaign, said the petition signers invited trouble by taking a position that says ''loud and clear that you believe that gays and lesbians should be treated as second class citizens.'' (AGENCIES)

Moderately premature infants often ill early on

NEW YORK, July 21: Infants born prematurely at 30 to 34 weeks' gestation experience significant morbidity in the early months of life, researchers report

''Near-term babies are at high risk for adverse outcomes,'' Dr Gabriel J Escobar from Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, Oakland, California told Reuters.

Escobar and colleagues evaluated birth outcomes and 3-month follow-up of 850 30- to 34-week infants who survived the birth stay in the hospital -- a group they dub ''unstudied infants,'' since much of the recent neonatal literature has focused on more premature infants.

They report in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, Fetal and Neonatal Edition that almost half the babies required some form of assisted ventilation to help them breathe and about a quarter of the infants received surfactant, substance that helps the lungs expand.

Among the 30-32 week infants, the results indicate, 4.9 per cent developed sepsis or meningitis, 1.2 per cent developed inflammation of the intestines, a condition known as necrotizing enterocolitis, and 0.6 per cent developed bleeding in the brain.

These rates are all substantially higher than those reported for term infants, the investigators explain.

Just over 11 per cent of the infants required readmission to the hospital within 3 months of being discharged, the researchers note. This compares with a readmission rate of only 4.3 per cent for term infants in the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program in 2002.

Escobar recommends ''greater attention to initial management in the neonatal period; in particular, these babies should not be a) treated on the basis of their birth weight; b) rushed out of the hospital; and c) evaluated unaggressively when they show temperature instability, poor feeding, or respiratory distress.''

''We need more research on these babies to decide what works and what does not,'' Escobar concluded. ''Working with a team of investigators from the March of Dimes, we are going to look at Kaiser Permanente data to ascertain developmental outcomes among near-term infants.''(AGENCIES)

Snake-spotting may have helped us evolve:Study

WASHINGTON, July 21: Snakes may make people jump for a good reason -- human close-up vision may have evolved specifically to spot the reptiles, researchers reported.

Humans, monkeys and other primates have good colour vision, large brains, and use their vision to guide reaching and grasping.

But while some scientists believe these characteristics evolved together as early primates used their hands and eyes to pick fruit and other foods, Lynne Isbell, a professor of anthropology at the University of California Davis, believes they may have evolved to help primates evade snakes.

''A snake is the only predator you really need to see close up. If it's a long way away it's not dangerous,'' said Isbell, who has published her theory in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Neurological studies show the structure of the brain's visual system seems to be well connected to brain structures involved in vigilance, fear and learning, she said.

Mammals evolved about 100 million years ago and fossils of snakes with mouths big enough to eat those mammals appear at about the same time, she pointed out.

Other predators such as big cats, and hawks and eagles, evolved later. And then venomous snakes evolved about 60 million years ago, which forced primates to get better at detecting them.

''There's an evolutionary arms race between the predators and prey. Primates get better at spotting and avoiding snakes, so the snakes get better at concealment, or more venomous, and the primates respond,'' Isbell said.

And there are no dangerously venomous snakes on Madagascar, and lemurs, which only live on that large island and which have poor eyesight, have not evolved much in other ways in the past 60 million years, either, Isbell added. (AGENCIES)

Miss Universe contestants put politics aside

LOS ANGELES, July 21: Even as conflict embroils much of the world, some 88 women hoping to be ambassadors of goodwill have gathered in Los Angeles this week vowing to put politics aside as they compete to become Miss Universe.

The beauty pageant, which will be held here this Sunday and watched in some 170 countries, is now in its 55th year. The winner will spend her reign as Miss Universe traveling the globe speaking out on humanitarian, health and other issues.

Canadian Natalie Glebova, Miss Universe for the past year, has become an advocate of HIV/AIDS education, research and legislation, and went so far as to take an HIV test in a Johannesburg hospital to raise public awareness.

This year, world conflicts have dominated news headlines, but over the past two weeks as the contestants toured Los Angeles and competed in preliminary competitions, the women said politics have been put aside.

''There's no need to pull politics into a pageant because as beauty queens -- if you want to call us that -- that's not our job ... It's our job to work for our official causes,'' Miss USA Tara Conner told Reuters.

Miss Mexico Priscila Perales agreed. ''You can't really judge somebody else because of what their politicians and countries are doing.''

Contestants from nations ranging from Albania to Zambia compete in traditional categories such as evening gowns and swimsuits. But they also answer questions that give insight into their personality and public speaking ability.

The top 20 finalists for Sunday's live two-hour telecast, which airs in the United States on NBC stations, were chosen in a preliminary round of the competition on Tuesday night. But those contestants will not be revealed until Sunday's show.

The pageant was last held in the United States in 1998, when the Hawaiian capital of Honolulu was the host city. Last year Bangkok hosted the pageant.

This year's pageant has been unusually free of controversy. Last year, for instance, Buddhist traditionalists voiced their outrage when bikini-clad contestants posed outside Bangkok's famed ''Wat Arun,'' or ''Temple of the Dawn.'' (AGENCIES)

Sex-ed program may get adolescents to delay sex

NEW YORK, July 21: After participating in a two-week sexual education program designed and implemented by an academic medical center, more middle-school students said they would hold off on having sex for the first time, Texas researchers report.

''Involvement by the medical profession can assure medically correct content, appropriate research outcomes, and enhanced quality of medical information in this important area of adolescent health,'' Dr Patricia J Sulak of the Texas A&M University System Health Science Center College of Medicine in Temple and colleagues note in a report.

School officials in Temple had approached health care professionals at the medical school for assistance in developing a sex education program for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders. Parents and school officials wanted to emphasize postponing sexual activity, so the program focused in consequences of teen sex, as well as ''skill building, character building, and refusal skills,'' Sulak and her team point out in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Students who were considering having sex were ''encouraged'' to meet with a health care professional.

A total of 26,125 students completed surveys before the program, while 24,550 filled out identical surveys afterwards. Students in all grades showed an improvement in their knowledge, on average, after the course.

Before the sex ed program, 84 per cent of students said they would delay having sex until after high school. This figure rose to nearly 87 per cent after the program.

The biggest effect was seen in the percentage of kids who said they wouldn't have sex until after marriage; before the program, about 60 per cent said they planned to remain virgins until they married, while nearly 71 per cent said they would after the program.

Other factors associated with planning to delay sex included attending religious services and watching two hours or less of television on school nights. Students whose original parents were still married were also more likely to report that they would wait to have sex.

Students who rated themselves as ''less than C'' students were more likely to think that teens should ''have sex whenever they want,'' and also fared worse on knowledge tests after the program.

Kids who start having sex earlier are at greater risk of sexually transmitted disease and pregnancy, Sulak and her colleagues note. ''By placing medical emphasis on risk avoidance and primary prevention of disease,'' they conclude, ''encouraging adolescents to delay sexual onset can lead to significant health benefits.''(AGENCIES)

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High blood calcium tied to better stroke outcome

NEW YORK, July 21: Blood calcium levels on hospital admission may help doctors predict outcome in people who suffer a stroke resulting from a blockage of an artery supplying blood to the brain known as ischemic stroke.

In a study of 237 ischemic stroke patients presenting within 24 hours of symptom onset, higher total blood calcium was strongly associated with less severe stroke and better functional outcome at discharge.

Dr Bruce Ovbiagele and colleagues from UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, report this finding in the journal Neurology.

They note in the paper that their findings mirror those of the only other study that has examined calcium levels during an acute ischemic stroke, which found calcium levels to be ''significantly decreased in patients who died during hospitalization compared with survivors.''

The team also notes that animal studies have shown a significant reduction in tissue injury after calcium infusion in a rat model of brain ischemia (restriction of blood flow) as well as a reduction in stroke mortality after calcium supplementation. (AGENCIES)