Venezuela throws weight behind China on Tibet issue

CARACAS, Apr 10: Venezuela Wednesday came out in support of China on the issue of Tibet, blaming the United States for the recent anti-China protests and dubbing the action as attempts to derail the Beijing Olympic Games.

"We are with China," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez declared during an interaction with Indian journalists here. "We have already said that beyond all this conflict there is a hand of the US. They want to derail Olympic Games."

"We ask the world to support the Beijing Olympic Games and to support China. The same way we support India, Africa, Latin America. That is the new world, free and multi polar world," he said. (PTI)

Just 20 mins of household chores 'can reduce stress

LONDON, Apr 10: Are you too stressed? Try doing the household chores more often as a new study has found that 20 minutes of physical activity, including domestic work, a week is enough to boost mental health and reduce anxiety.

While regular exercise is known to be good for mental health, experts have always disagreed on how much or what type of activity is the best.

Now, based on the study of 20,000 people, researchers in Britain have determined that 20 minutes of any physical activity once every week is more than effective, the British media reported today.

According to the study's lead author Mark Hamer of University College, London, domestic activities like cleaning and gardening reduce stress levels by 20 per cent, while there is a "greater risk reduction for sports activity" of a third.

In their study, the participants were quizzed about their state of mind and how much weekly physical activity they engaged in. Over 3000 participants were deemed to be suffering from stress or anxiety, using a validated scoring system.

But any form of daily physical activity was associated with a lower risk of distress, when other influential factors, such as age, gender and the presence of a long term condition were taken into account.

The range of activities, which proved beneficial, included housework, gardening, walking, and sports, although the strongest effect was seen for sports, which lowered the risk of distress by 33 per cent.

The results also indicated that while just 20 minutes improved mental state, the more activity a person indulged in, the lower were their chances of psychological distress.

"Physical activity curbs the risks of a range of serious diseases, such as heart disease and certain cancers. And it improves several biological risk factors, such as glucose intolerance and inflammation, which have themselves been linked to depression and dementia," Hamer said. (PTI)

Third World NGOs attack UN rights review "farce"

GENEVA, Apr 10: Campaign bodies from developing countries today attacked the United Nations new-fledged universal human rights review process, with some saying it was quickly descending into farce.

But envoys of Morocco, one of the countries reviewed since the procedure kicked off on Monday, rejected the complaint, arguing that they had been open to criticism based on real facts and were ready to use it to advance human rights at home.

''The Arab and African countries are lining up to praise each other...It is an insult to the intelligence of the peoples they are supposed to represent,'' said Saida Drissi Amrany, President of the Association of Moroccan Women.

And Rafendi Djamin of the Indonesian NGO (non-governmental organisation) Coalition for the Advancement of Human Rights, said a block mentality was dominating the hearings, ''pushing it towards something like farce.''

The process, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), was set up within the two-year-old Human Rights Council -- which replaced a discredited earlier body -- and is supposed to scrutinise the rights records of all UN members over the next four years.

In the UPR, the 47 member countries of the Council -- itself viewed by critics as having fallen under control of a bloc of Islamic and African countries supported by Cuba, China and Russia -- are supposed to discuss reports from each country.

In the three hours allotted to each, they are also meant to probe complaints that have come to other U.N. Rights bodies and suggest how governments can improve their performance.

PROTECTING EACH OTHER

But since Monday NGOs from Africa, the Middle East and Asia -- and Western-based human rights groups -- say the countries that have lined up together in the council are doing the same in the UPR, effectively protecting each other from serious review.

El Hassan Aharrath of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights told a news conference that friendly states were ''working together to ensure real questions are not raised.''

UN summaries of the sessions so far -- in which Bahrain, Tunisia, Morocco and Indonesia have been reviewed -- show that long passages of the remarks from other Islamic and African countries have consisted of praise for the state under review.

NGOs say this is a tactic to reduce the time available for serious review and for more probing questions from European and some Latin American and Asian countries -- who on Tuesday did press Tunisia on torture and press freedom.

Omar Hilale, Secretary General of Morocco's Foreign Ministry, denied any bloc approach at the UPR.

''We have not come here to listen to praise. We have come to learn from criticism and suggestions that will help us improve our own human rights performance,'' he said. ''We did not avoid questions and answered all that were put to us.'' (AGENCIES)

Infant heart defects tied to maternal smoking

NEW YORK, Apr 10: A woman who smokes during pregnancy increases the risk that her child will be born with a heart defect, a new study published in Pediatrics shows.

To clarify the relationship between prenatal smoke exposure and congenital heart defects, Dr Sadia Malik of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock and her colleagues evaluated 3,067 infants born with heart defects, unrelated to genetic syndromes, who were included in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study. These infants were compared with 3,947 babies with normal hearts. The parents of all of the infants were also evaluated.

Women who reported smoking in the month before becoming pregnant or the first trimester were more likely to give birth to a child with a defect in one or more of the walls separating the chambers of the heart, known a septal defect, the researchers found.

The more a woman smoked, the greater was the likelihood that she would have an infant with a defect. Women who smoked 25 or more cigarettes daily during pregnancy were more likely to have infants with obstructions on the right side of the heart.

Compared with the infants of mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy, infants whose mothers were heavy smokers were twice as likely to have a septal defect.

Malik's group found no relationship between second-hand smoke exposure and congenital heart defects.

The investigators also found the 19 per cent of the non-smokers reported smoking just before pregnancy or in the first trimester, the researchers note, which is in line with data reported by other US studies.

''If even a fraction of congenital heart defects and other birth defects could be prevented by decreasing maternal tobacco use, it would result in improved reproductive outcomes and a saving of millions of health care dollars,'' they conclude.

Congenital heart defects occur in up to 10 out of every 1,000 live births in the United States, and infants who survive frequently need multiple surgeries to correct the problem and still may suffer permanent disability, Malik's group points out.

About 28 percent of US women of childbearing age smoke, the researchers add, and one in five of these women don't quit when they become pregnant, meaning about one million babies each year may have been exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb. (AGENCIES)

'China a "central enabler" ofhuman rights abuses

WASHINGTON, Apr 10: While it was critical for the US to be tough with China on human rights issues, Washington also needed Beijing's help on the Myanmar front as urged by India and Japan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

Reacting to Republican Senator Sam Brownback's assertion of China being a "central enabler to human rights abuses around the world" including Sudan and Tibet, Rice said at a Senate Sub Committee hearing on the Department of State's Appropriations for 2009, she would like to add Burma to the list where Chinese help is needed.

"...I would add to your list of places that we need the Chinese to really help on the human rights side is Burma, where they probably have more influence than any other country in the world. We talk to the Indians, we talk to the Japanese, we talk to the Southeast Asians, but they all come back and say, 'You really need to talk to China'," she told lawmakers.

Earlier, raising the issue, Kansas Senator Brownback said, "I just think that with the Olympics coming up, and obviously everybody is keying off of that, the Chinese are one of the central enablers to human rights abuses around the world, whether it's Sudan, whether it's resourcing of commodities in Africa, whether it's North Korean refugees, whether it's Tibet."

"...I agree, we have to discuss and press the Chinese on human rights issues before, during and after these upcoming Olympic games. We have just...We're going to reinstitute our human rights dialogue with China," Rice replied. (PTI)

White House hopefuls woo Gore, focus on climate

WASHINGTON, Apr 10: Democratic White House hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speak often about green jobs, emissions cuts and renewable energy. But they have more than global warming on their minds when they talk of environmental policy.

The long-term goal may be saving the planet, but the short-term one is winning the backing of former Vice President Al Gore.

Gore, who won a Nobel prize for his work to combat rising temperatures, is also a superdelegate, one of the influential Democratic Party leaders likely to determine whether Obama, an Illinois senator, or Clinton, a New York senator, wins the party's presidential nomination.

So the dueling candidates praise Gore during campaign stops, offer up the prospect of roles for him in future administrations, and -- most of all -- they stay in touch.

''They both call. And I appreciate that fact,'' Gore said on the CBS television program ''60 Minutes'' last week.

Obama, the Democratic front-runner, says he keeps in regular contact with Gore and has pledged to make him a major player on global warming in an Obama administration.

''I will make a commitment that Al Gore will be at the table and play a central part in us figuring out how we solve this problem,'' Obama said.

Clinton told reporters she did not know whether Gore wanted to get back into government but was sure the American people would welcome it.

''I am very dependent upon the work that Al Gore has done for so many years on behalf of climate change,'' she said.

Gore's spokeswoman, Kalee Kreider, declined to comment on the Obama offer and was complimentary about the presidential candidates, including Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

''Former Vice President Gore thinks that both candidates are very strong. Both of them have offered plans to address the climate crisis ... As has Senator McCain,'' she said.

''It's a real turnaround to have candidates on both sides of the aisle offering, you know, solutions and plans to the climate crisis.''

REAL CHANGE

Gore, who narrowly lost the 2000 election to George W Bush, has dedicated most of his professional life since then to fighting climate change. Although he may not be eager to get back into the political fray, he has an agenda: to put fighting global warming on the top of the next president's to-do list.

That shouldn't be too hard. All three candidates have made climate proposals that go far beyond Bush's policies, including a cap on industrial carbon dioxide pollution and an emissions trading system similar to the European Union's.

''The most important role that Vice President Gore plays for all candidates is to raise the bar very high on what needs to be done to solve this critical problem,'' said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters.

Keeping the issue prominent on the campaign trail will give the next US president a mandate to put new policies into place, he said.

The candidates discuss the issue regularly at rallies and town hall meetings, where lines about global warming often draw applause, especially from Democratic audiences.

Environmentalists say a new president, armed with the right policies and a cooperative Congress, could make Washington an influential leader in talks to form an international climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which goes through 2012 and which the United States has not ratified.

But for any new US policies to succeed, American citizens will have to be engaged, a problem Gore aimed to address with a newly launched 300 million dollar climate campaign.

Obama talks about the need for an attitude adjustment among Americans and boasts of a trip he made to Detroit, where he admonished car makers to make more fuel efficient vehicles.

Clinton says she would promote ''green-collar'' employment to replace lost manufacturing jobs around the country.

McCain says even if global warming is not real, working to stop it will have beneficial effects.

The talk has attracted the attention of environmentalists and policy makers around the world who see a chance for a significant shift in US climate policy starting in 2009.

''Everybody in Europe is watching the election very closely,'' said Mahi Sideridou of the environmental group Greenpeace in Brussels. ''No matter which party wins ... We're pretty sure that we're going to see a huge shift in policy making in climate change.'' (AGENCIES)

'Malaysia made progress in upgrading Tsunami warning system

PUTRAJAYA, Apr 10: Malaysia has made considerable progress in upgrading and adapting the sub-systems of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS), Head of the Tsunami Unit, Secretariat of the Unesco Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), Peter Koltermann said.

He said Malaysia was involved from the first moment in defining and setting up the IOTWS.

"It is committed to establish the Malaysian system as part of the IOTWS as a system of systems. The government is strongly committed, and plays an important part as an effective and active partners, he told Bernama here.

Koltermann is here to attend the Fifth Session of the "Intergovernmental Coordination Group for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System (CG/IOTWS-V) from April 8 to 10.

According to him, the IOC of UNESCO had been coordinating the Pacific Tsunami Warning System PTWS since 1965.

After the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the IOC extended its involvement to the Indian Ocean.

The United Nations General Assembly in 2006 established the IOC as the lead agency in the UN system, and in 2007 recognized the IOC's role in dealing only with recognised, officially nominated Government representatives. (AGENCIES)

Returned British migrants fuel luxury home boom in Bangladesh

SYLHET, BANGLADESH, Apr 10: British restaurateur Mohammed Nannu admires the new crystal chandeliers adorning his mansion just a stone's throw from the impoverished Bangladeshi village where he grew up.

The luxury six-bedroom house was a dream come true for his late father who emigrated to Britain with his wife and four sons but always longed to return to Sylhet, the region once home to most of Britain's Bangladeshi immigrants.

"My father devoted a lot of time to bringing us up and so we wanted to build a home for him and my mother here," said Nannu, 33, from the British city of Birmingham where he and his brothers run a string of family-owned restaurants.

"Dad had a small stall here selling tea and biscuits. He went to Britain when I was 10 planning to earn a living and come back. We settled but this was always his home," he said.

No expense was spared in the construction of the house which was finished earlier this year shortly after Nannu's father's death.

A Japanese themed garden complete with artificial lakes and bridges will provide the final touch.

Standing on the edge of a dusty Sylhet village in northeastern Bangladesh, the mansion is one of many built by former migrants and their families.

They were among the thousands who began leaving from the late 1950s onwards armed with little more than a determination to work their way out of poverty.

Over the past five decades, many have prospered in Britain, especially running Indian restaurants, and are now keen to spend part of their twilight years in their homeland. (AGENCIES)

Elton John sings, helps raise USD2.5 million for Clinton

NEW YORK, Apr 10: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham tapped one of pop music's most venerable rockers to help fill her campaign coffers with USD 2.5 million.

Elton John, who has sold records and filled arenas for four decades, played a benefit concert for Clinton yesterday at Radio City Music Hall.

"I've always been a Hillary supporter," John, 61, said before launching into his 1970 breakthrough hits, "Your Song" and "Border Song." "There is no one more qualified to lead America."

The English singer, composer and pianist added: "I'm amazed by the misogynistic attitudes of some of the people in this country. And I say to hell with them .... I love you Hillary, I'll be there for you."

The cheapest tickets, USD 125 and USD 250, sold out quickly, campaign aides said. The other seats were filled by fans paying as much as USD 2,300, the limit for an individual's contribution to a federal candidate.

Preceding John on stage were Clinton, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, and their daughter, Chelsea.

Hillary Clinton struck a defiant, underdog note in describing her battle against Sen Barack Obama of Illinois.

"What I want you to know is I'm still standing, and I believe this country is worth fighting for," the New York senator said, playing off the title of one of John's hits. "So we're taking our campaign to Pennsylvania and all the states that haven't voted."

Pennsylvania votes April 22. (AGENCIES)

UN officials warn of looming global food crisis

NEW YORK, Apr 10: Warnings have poured in over soaring food prices leading to increased poverty and unrest from several senior UN officials, who have called for urgent measures to tackle the global crisis which threatens to hit the world’s poor the hardest.

The World Food Programme’s Deputy Executive Director has warned of the rise of a "new face of hunger" that will require the combined efforts of governments, the private sector, and humanitarian organisations to overcome.

"Food prices are now rising at rates that few of us can ever have seen before in our lifetimes," John Powell told the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development Conference.

He expressed particular concern about the fact that markets are full of food but large numbers of people simply cannot afford to buy.

Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes also warned that rising food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability.

The past few weeks have witnessed violent protests over rising food prices in a number of countries including Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Senegal, Morocco and most recently in Haiti, where several people have died in riots.

Holmes, who is also Emergency Relief Coordinator, discussed the issue in his meetings yesterday with officials in Kuwait, the latest stop on his four-nation visit intended to encourage greater partnership with Gulf States in international humanitarian efforts.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization called for urgent measures to reduce the impact of high food prices on the poor, which he said was due to a combination of factors such climate change, increased demand for biofuels production. (PTI)

Scientists find lungless frog species speculated earlier

NEW DELHI, Apr 10: Scientists claim to have found the first complete lungless aquatic frog in Indonesia 30 years after its existence was first mooted.

Two new populations of Barbourula kalimantanensis, the flat-headed aquatic frog, were found by a team of researchers during a recent expedition to Kalimantan in Indonesia.

"People have been trying for 30 years. But when we did and I was doing the initial dissections right there in the field, I have to say that I was very skeptical at first. It just did not seem possible," David Bickford of the National University of Singapore said.

"We were all shocked when it turned out to be true for all the specimens we had from Kalimantan," he added.

The findings were published in the April 8 issue of science journal ‘Current Biology’.

The animal, whose natural habitat is tropical and sub-tropical moist lowland forests and rivers, is believed to carry out its entire respiration by the skin.

This finding is expected to boost the study of evolutionary science.

"Complete loss of lungs is a particularly rare evolutionary event that has probably only occurred three times," Bickford said.

Previously absence of lungs was reported in only two other specimens known to science-salamanders and single species of caecilian, a limbless amphibian resembling an earthworm.

"Loss of lungs might be an adaptation to a combination of factors-a higher oxygen environment; the species presumed low metabolic rate; severe flattening of their bodies that increases the surface area of their skin; and selection for negative buoyancy, meaning that the frogs would rather sink than float in water," the researchers said.

"The thing that struck me most then and now is that there are still major firsts to be found out in the field. We knew that we would have to be very lucky just to find the frog," Bickford said.

Despite the interesting finding, the scientists express concerns about further studies on the "remarkable frog" which is threatened by rapid habitat loss.

Pointing out that further studies of this species’ might be hampered by its rarity and endangerment, Bickford said: "This is an endangered frog that we know practically nothing about, with an amazing ability to breathe entirely through its skin."

The researchers strongly encouraged careful conservation of remaining habitats of the species that is considered to be evolutionary sister group to all other tetrapods. (PTI)

Couples applying for divorce on the rise

ISLAMABAD, Apr 10: Several hundred Pakistani couples are queuing up outside family courts every day to end their marriages.

Of the 1,500 couples who applied for divorce in 33 family courts in the garrison city of Rawalpindi this year, 270 couples have ended their marriages while 778 cases are pending.

Demand for dowry and ill-treatment by parents-in-law have been cited as prominent reasons for going splitsville. But the break up of some marriages has been blamed on excessive use of cellphones or for equally vague reasons such as no access to computers.

"After three months of marriage my husband and his parents started taunting me for not bringing in dowry. So I decided to get divorce," a young litigant told the Daily Times.

Around 300 women sought separation because their husbands wanted to marry for a second time. Over 150 women mentioned misbehaviour by their mothers-in-law as the reason for divorce.

Financial discomfort too led many women to courts. Over one hundred women moved courts because their husbands were jobless and it was hard for them to be together.

Twenty-three marriages fell victim to "Wata Sata" (swapping of matches). Some women sought divorce because their husbands did not spend time with them and spoke to strangers through the night on cellphones.

Of the 1,500 couples who moved courts this year, 452 were reunited. (PTI)