US military loses records for bin Laden's driver

GANTANAMO BAY US NAVAL BASE, CUBA, Feb 8: The US military has lost a year's worth of records describing the Guantanamo confinement of Osama bin Laden's driver, a prosecutor said at the Yemeni captive's war court hearing.

Lawyers for the driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, asked for the records to support their argument that prolonged isolation and harassment at the Guantanamo prison have mentally impaired him and could affect his ability to aid in his defense against war crimes charges.

''All known records have been produced with the exception of the 2002 Gitmo records,'' one of the prosecutors, Navy Lt Cmdr Timothy Stone, told the court yesterday. ''They can't find it.''

He said the military was still looking for the records kept at the remote US naval base in southeast Cuba, which he referred to by its nickname.

The chief prosecutor, Army Col. Larry Morris, said all of Hamdan's interrogation records were given to the defense at least a year ago and that the missing 2002 documents are ''local detention records that deal with issues of confinement such as diet, exercise, hygiene and the location of the detainee'' within the camp.

Defense lawyers contend there are still records missing, including some that would show Hamdan was coerced into making some statements that could be used as evidence against him.

US President George W Bush authorized the Guantanamo court to prosecute suspected al Qaeda members on terrorism charges, arguing that existing civilian and military courts were not designed to try war captives who are not part of any national army.

Hamdan, who is in his late 30s, was the prisoner whose lawsuit prompted the US Supreme Court to strike down the initial Guantanamo war crimes system. The charges against him were twice dismissed and then refiled and the military hopes to begin his trial in May.

He was captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 and faces life in prison if convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism. Hamdan has said he never joined al Qaeda but worked in bin Laden's motor pool in Afghanistan because he needed the 200 dollars monthly salary.

JUDGE ASKED TO DROP CHARGES

Prosecutors say he was a trusted al Qaeda member who helped bin Laden elude US forces in Afghanistan and that he had two anti-aircraft rockets in his car when captured at a checkpoint near the southern city of Kandahar.

Hamdan's lawyers asked the judge yesterday to drop the charges on grounds that their client's acts were not recognized as war crimes when committed.

Legal authority to try non-US captives in the Guantanamo tribunals rests on a 2006 law that made conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism war crimes, but Hamdan's lawyers said it could not be retroactively applied.

A US Justice Department lawyer argued that although no international law or treaty specifically listed conspiracy as a war crime, the Nuremberg war court set a precedent by prosecuting German SS members after World War Two. They were accused of membership in what had been declared a criminal organization, essentially the equivalent of conspiring with al Qaeda, said the attorney, Jordan Goldstein.

Hamdan's lawyers also argued that he cannot be prosecuted in the war court for acts committed before the war started, and that the Supreme Court's Hamdan ruling put that date at September 11, 2001.

Prosecutors argue that the war began for Hamdan when he entered Afghanistan in 1996 and joined an existing al Qaeda conspiracy, but they have not accused him of plotting the September 11 attacks.(AGENCIES)

Britney Spears' parents say her life is "at risk"

LOS ANGELES, Feb 8: The parents of pop star Britney Spears returned to a court to deal with the troubled singer's affairs one day after saying they believed her life was at risk.

The hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday was closed to the public, and a court spokesman said the proceedings were sealed. But several media reports said Spears' father, Jamie Spears, and a court-appointed co-conservator were hoping to strengthen control over her affairs.

Neither Spears nor her parents attended the hearing.

A day earlier, the parents said their daughter is in the middle of a mental crisis, and they believe her life is at risk since she left a hospital where she was under psychiatric care.

''As parents of an adult child in the throes of a mental health crisis, we were extremely disappointed ... To learn that over the recommendation of her treating psychiatrist, our daughter Britney was released from the hospital that could best care for her and keep her safe,'' said the joint statement released late on Wednesday on behalf of the singer's father and her mother, Lynne Spears.

''We are deeply concerned about our daughter's safety and vulnerability and we believe her life is presently at risk,'' the statement said.

Spears, 26, was released from the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon after a six-day stay for psychiatric evaluation. Almost immediately, the paparazzi that have followed her every move in recent months began tracking the singer again.

AVERTING 'A TRAGEDY'

Various reports had Spears meeting lawyers and friends in Beverly Hills, and her parents' statement suggested that those meetings could be violating a court ruling earlier this week that gave Jamie Spears control of the singer's affairs.

The parents last Friday were appointed temporary co-conservators.

''There are conservatorship orders in place created to protect our daughter that are being blatantly disregarded. We ask only that the court's orders be enforced so that a tragedy may be averted,'' concluded the joint statement.

Spears, who rose to fame in the late 1990s and built a huge following among young audiences as a pop singer and performer, has in recent months seen her life spin out of control.

She has battled her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, in court for custody of their two sons, spent a brief stint in rehab, been photographed in public wearing no underwear and exhibited bizarre behavior such as wearing pink wings and talking in a British accent despite being a native of Louisiana.

In early January, she was taken to a Los Angeles hospital and placed under mental observation for a few days before walking out. Last week she was again hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation.

Her father then went to a Los Angeles court and received ''temporary conservatorship'' over her affairs. The court commissioner also issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the singer's self-styled manager, Sam Lutfi, who has been a near-constant presence in her life in recent months.

A spokesman for Lutfi told Reuters that since the order was put in place, he has not seen Britney, and respects the TRO.

''He is not the bad guy people think he is,'' said spokesman Michael Sands.(AGENCIES)

Philippines strives to control boom on paradise isle

BORACAY, PHILIPPINES, Feb 8: It's getting crowded in paradise.

About 600,000 tourists came last year to Boracay in the central Philippines, regarded as one of the world's best holiday destinations, and swam, ate and slept on an island that has only about 18,000 full-time residents.

Arrivals should rise to about 670,000 this year, and pressure is mounting on the island's infrastructure as more and more hotels and resorts are built to cater for the boom.

The single narrow road that runs the length of Boracay is jam-packed, drain pipes bring floodwater to the beach and hotel taps can suddenly run dry. About 10 tonnes of garbage need to be treated and disposed of each day.

''It's really taken off (in terms of) congestion, overgrowth,'' said David Light, a retired American actor who has been visiting Boracay for its windsurfing since 1991.

''It was a pristine natural environment and I hated to see it change, but it did.''

Three decades ago, Boracay was the legendary secret destination for a generation of backpackers, pretty much deserted, with stunning beaches, a few huts and only basic facilities.

Now, over 150 hotels and restaurants are crowded along the 5-km White Beach, renowned for its soft, powdery sand and the clear blue water that it gently descends into. Other parts of the island are less crowded but may be getting there.

The government, concerned that the crown jewel of its tourism brochures is getting shopworn, is trying to step in but with limited success.

Environment Secretary Lito Atienza announced a ban on construction on Boracay in August, but it was not implemented until January, and then only for new projects. The moratorium will stay in place at least until July. A master plan for developing the island will be in place by then.

FRAGILE

''I feel that the island is very fragile,'' said Loubelle Cann, president of the Boracay Foundation, a local business association.

''I don't really know how much the island can carry in terms of physical capacity so we are pushing that we should at least study these things because you cannot just build and build and build.''

Despite the moratorium, about 100 unfinished shops, hotels and restaurants have been allowed to be completed and the noise of jackhammers, excavators and power saws can be heard across the island.

These include a huge 183-room deluxe resort being built by Shangri-La north of White Beach. The hotel will cost 100 million dollars and will offer rooms starting at 500 dollars per night. It is expected to open by November this year.

Nearby, a hillside is being excavated to build the Alta Vista resort while the Shangri-La's staff quarters are being constructed across the street.

But still, there's no let up on the boatloads of tourists who cross from the main Panay island through the day.

White Beach, despite the crowds, is clean, and all buildings are a maximum two storeys high, lower than the coconut palms that fringe the sands. Unlike beaches elsewhere in the world, it remains safe at night and there are no overt signs of sleaze or drugs.

''It's nice,'' said Roger Mestric, a Frenchman from Nantes who was on the island with his wife after visits to China and Cambodia.

''It's not particularly crowded. From an ecologist's point of view, Martinique (in the Caribbean) is better, but you can live here easily.''

The government and the resort-owners, residents say, have to find the balance between controlling expansion, providing infrastructure, offering facilities and retaining some mystique.

It's not the big resorts like the Shangri-La or the Alta Vista that are the problem, they say, it's the smaller buildings which sometimes block natural waterways or do not have proper sewage or waste disposal.

And there is never an easy answer for those who hanker for the good old days.

''Some people moan that it was much better 20 years ago,'' said Victor Ocskai, a German who owns a resort on the beach. ''And then they want cold beer, running hot water and air-conditioning.

''Twenty years ago, it was quiet, but there was no cold beer.'' (AGENCIES)

Ancient trees give clues to climate change

PUERTO BLEST, ARGENTINA, Feb 8: On the shores of lake Nahuel Huapi, in the wild mountains of Argentina's Patagonia, live some of the world's most ancient trees.

Known in Spanish as the alerce, the Patagonian cypress grows extremely slowly, but can reach heights over 50 metres (165 feet) and live for 2,000 years or more, putting some of them among the oldest living things on earth.

For scientists who come from around the world to study them, the alerces give an exciting snapshot of years past.

Argentine geoscientist Ricardo Villalba, a contributor to the Nobel Prize-winning United Nations report on climate change last year, studies what the ancient trees say about changing weather patterns.

Like other trees, alerces form a new layer of wood under their bark every year. So samples taken straight through the trunk can help gauge what the weather was like in each year of the tree's life.

''This has allowed us to see that in some sectors of Patagonia, the year 1998 was the hottest in the last 400 years,'' Villalba said during a recent expedition.

''The marked tendencies that have occurred over the last few decades have no precedent in the last 400 or 500 years, which is as far as the registers in Patagonia have permitted us to analyze up until now.''

The tree rings show that temperatures in the 20th Century were ''anomalously warm'' across the southern Andes. At their worst, mean temperatures over the last century went up 0.86 degree Celsius when compared to temperatures in the previous 260 years.

REACHING INTO THE PAST

At the nearby Puerto Blest Biological Research Station, Villalba has been able to compare his results with those of other leading scientists.

Evidence from tree rings is what scientists call proxy data, meaning they know the data is not exact but if it corroborates other proxy data -- like evidence of glacier retreat -- it can be used to draw real conclusions.

The scientists have also been able to use their proxy data to test computer models used for predicting climate changes in the future.

''In this part of the world there is a decrease in precipitation in the last decade and a very marked increase in temperature, which is entirely what the computer models predict for global change,'' said researcher Brian Luckman of the University of Western Ontario and the InterAmerican Research Institute. ''So we can use some of the results that we have to verify and to test some of the computer models and to see if they really give realistic pictures of what has happened in the past or what will happen in the future.''

Tree rings also provide a long-term perspective in the climate change debate, such as in the question of whether global warming is a result of human activity or is part of a natural earth cycle.

The more scientists learn about those natural cycles and about weather patterns in the past, the more they are able to answer that question.

And the alerces still have a lot more information to provide.

''The Alerce has the peculiarity of longevity and of being very resistant to wood decay,'' Villalba said. ''So you can find buried material or subfossil material that can be used to extend these chronologies further back into the past.''

When these chronologies are fully compiled, they could provide a new source of data currently only available from ice core samples, ocean sediments and ancient pollen.

And that would help scientists reach further into the past, far beyond human records, which began in 1856 -- when the British Meteorological Society began collecting data around the world. (AGENCIES)

Amnesty fails to block Canada's Afghan transfers

OTTAWA, Feb 8: Amnesty International Canada lost the first round of its bid to prevent Canadian troops in Afghanistan from transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities, where Amnesty fears they could be tortured.

Canada's Federal Court denied a request by Amnesty and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association for an injunction to prohibit the transfer of Afghan detainees, while the court conducts a more lengthy review of the issue.

Justice Anne Mactavish ruled yesterday that the rights groups had failed to demonstrate ''that irreparable harm will likely result unless the injunction is granted''.

Canada stopped handing over prisoners to the Afghan authorities last November after receiving evidence that a detainee had been mistreated.

Canada's minority Conservative government says the transfers could resume at any time if it is determined that enough safeguards against torture in place, and the rights groups wanted to block that possible resumption.

According to an Afghan human rights official, Canada has kept up to 20 prisoners at its southern Afghan base in Kandahar since the interruption of the transfers. It has 2,500 troops at the base.

Mactavish said her decision would not prevent the Canadian rights groups from renewing its request for an injunction if transfers resume.

Amnesty said the judge's ruling was ''a powerful and unequivocal vindication'' of what the group had been saying about the problems with the transfers.

''She's laid out a litany ... Of problems, including deficient record-keeping, missing detainees, the serious and very worrying allegations of mistreatment,'' Amnesty International Canada's secretary-general Alex Neve told Reuters. (AGENCIES)

Renewed ADB support for Kathmandu water project

SINGAPORE, Feb 8: A delayed water-supply project in Nepal is set to proceed, after its lead financer Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to new terms for the project.

The Manila-based ADB today said it has initially agreed to support the Melamchi Water Supply Project in 2000, but changes since then have seen the cost lowered from 464 million dollars to 317.3 million dollars with careful prioritisation and phasing of the project components.

Work was delayed by political instability and challenges engaging private-sector partners.

The project which includes tunneling 26 kilometers through a mountain to ease chronic water shortages in Kathmandu is essential for its 1.5 million residents, most of whom receive piped water for only a couple of hours a day. Many people rely on alternative water sources such as shallow wells, public taps, tankers, rainwater or bottled water - which are expensive.

''This project is the only realistic way to obtain a sustainable, long-term supply of drinking water for Kathmandu Valley,'' said Leonardus Boenawan Sondjaja, Head of the Project Administration Unit of the Urban Development Division of ADB's South Asia department.

''While the need to address the water crisis is growing, the changing circumstances surrounding the project required adjustments in scope and implementation arrangements,'' he said.

ADB is providing a loan of 137 million dollars equivalent for the project. Other donors are the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, the Nordic Development Fund and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries Fund for International Development.

The Government of Nepal is contributing 90.6 million dollars. The biggest civil works package under the project is the 26-kilometer water diversion tunnel. The tunnel will divert 170 million liters of water daily from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu Valley to ease chronic water shortages in that area.

The project also involves the development of a water treatment plant as well as a bulk water distribution system. Existing distribution networks will also be rehabilitated under the project, while access roads to project facilities are being built and will also serve as farm-to-market roads. The project also includes support to mitigate potential social and environmental impacts and improve the living conditions of project affected people.

As part of adjustments made to the project, its implementation will be split into two sub-projects, with the water diversion tunnel under the first sub-project and the water supply and sanitation segment under the second.

ADB has also agreed to remove a loan covenant requiring the award of a private-sector management contract to support the new utility as a precondition for awarding the tunnel civil works contract. This will enable the two subprojects to be implemented in parallel without delay while a new private-sector manager is recruited under the restructured contractual arrangements.

ADB has also approved adjustments to the two loan components under the Kathmandu Valley Water Services Sector Development Program, which complements the Melamchi Water Supply Project. The program is designed to support reforms and institutional development in the water services sector and promote private sector participation.

ADB will maintain a 15 million dollars loan it approved in December 2003, but the program will adopt a new management support plan. (UNI)

Rush to grow biofuel crops adds
to global warming: Studies

SILICON VALLEY, Feb 8: More harm than good is being done by the rush to grow biofuel crops, which actually increases the greenhouse gas emissions rather than reducing them, scientific studies have said.

The claim was made in two studies which have been published in the journal 'Science'.

One analysis found that clearing forests and grasslands to grow the crops releases vast amounts of carbon into the air -- far more than that spared from the atmosphere by burning biofuels instead of gasoline, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"We're rushing into biofuels, and we need to be very careful," Jason Hill, an economist and ecologist at the University of Minnesota who co-authored the study, said.

"It's a little frightening to think that something this well-intentioned might be very damaging."

Hill's analysis looked at the amount of carbon in forests and grasslands that is released into the air when soil is overturned and existing vegetation rots or is burned away.

The study found that clearing an Indonesian peatland rain forest to make way for a biofuel plantation -- a conversion that is rapidly occurring to satisfy Europe's rising demand for biodiesel -- released so much carbon that it would take 423 years to start achieving a net reduction in emissions.

Even converting existing farmland for food to the one for biofuel crops increases greenhouse gas emissions, as food production is shifted to other parts of the world, leading to destruction of more forests and grasslands to make way for farmland, the second study found.

"Any biofuel that uses productive land is going to create more greenhouse gas emissions than it saves," said Timothy Searchinger, a researcher at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University and the study's lead author.

"The simplest explanation is that when we divert our corn or soybeans to fuel (and) if people around the world are going to continue to eat the same amount that they're already eating, (then) you have to replace that food (from) somewhere else," Searchinger said.

In other words, biofuel production in the US is driving agriculture to expand in other parts of the world.

"That's done in a significant part by burning down forests, plowing up grasslands. That releases a great deal of carbon dioxide," Searchinger said.

Using models that calculated carbon emissions in various countries, the researchers found that the production of corn-based ethanol nearly doubles greenhouse emissions over 30 years and increases greenhouse gasses for 167 years.

Similarly, biofuels made from switchgrass, if grown on land originally intended for corn, increased carbon emissions by 50 per cent.

"Right now, there's little doubt that ethanol is making global warming worse," Searchinger said.

"Any biofuel that uses productive land is going to create more greenhouse gas emissions than it saves," he added. (PTI)

Close mom-child relationship ensures
good future for kids : Study

WASHINGTON, Feb 8: A writer once said what the mother sings to the cradle goes all the way down to the coffin, and the saying goes in sync with the latest study that shows a mother's close and positive realationship with kids is the stepping stone for the child's good future.

According to the study, toddlers who share a close and positive bonding with their mother are well behaved, patient and more mature, which ensures a good future for them, the Science Daily reported.

''Most parents know that when they interact with their infant and young toddler, they are laying important foundations for the child's future development, now we have a better understanding of what that really means. Your investment in building a mutually responsive, positive, close relationship early on will generate considerable payoff several years later, '' says lead researcer Grazyna Kochanska from the University of Iowa, US.

For the study, the researchers tracked 102 mothers, fathers and babies, who had volunteered for the study from the time the children were 7 months old until they were almost 4 and a half years old.

It was found that children who had developed a close, positive, reciprocal, and mutually responsive relationship with their mothers in the first two years of their lives did much better in both respects--responding to their mothers' requests not to do something and regulating their own behavior--than children who hadn't developed such ties.

The researchers also explored how mutually responsive relationships between mothers and children worked. When mothers and babies develop this closeness in the first two years mothers don't need to use forceful discipline later to get their children to do what they ask and refrain from other behaviors.

And in turn, subtle control on the part of the mothers leads to better, more compliant, and more self-regulated behavior when the children are at preschool age.

Some of these findings were similar for fathers and children. Mutually responsive, positive relationships between fathers and children in the first two years of life also were associated with children's better performance in tasks that called for self-regulation when the children were 4 and a half. (UNI)

I did not harm prostitutes, Wright tells court

LONDON, Feb 8: A man accused of murdering five prostitutes in Ipswich denied having anything to do with their deaths despite admitting having sex with them around the time they went missing, a court heard.

On the first day of his evidence, Steve Wright, 49, admitted having sex with with one of his victims on the day she disappeared, Ipswich Crown Court heard yesterday.

He also had sex with another two of his alleged victims shortly before they went missing, jurors were told, but he denied having anything to do with their disappearances.

The court heard he had sex with a dozen prostitutes from the area - including the five he is accused of killing - in the three months before his arrest on December 19.

But under questioning from his barrister, Timothy Langdale, the forklift truck driver denied strangling the woman or having ''rough sex'' with them.

Asked by Mr Langdale if he ''ever put pressure on any of the girls' necks'', Wright replied: ''Never''.

Wright, denies killing Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29, whose naked bodies were found dumped at rural locations around the town within the space of 10 days.

Two victims were found with their bodies deliberately posed in a cruciform shape with their arms outstretched.

He struck after cruising the red light district near his home for suitable victims while his partner was working night shifts and might have had an accomplice, the court heard.

The victims, selected systematically, died while fighting for breath, asphyxiated while under the influence of hard drugs, prosecutors alleged.

Blood stains was found on his jacket in his home, which experts said had a one-in-a-billion chance of not coming from the murdered prostitutes.

During the first of an expected three days in the witness box, Wright was forced to describe in detail his dealings with the prostitutes.

He moved into the area and less than a fortnight later Nichol went missing, the court heard.

Wright also admitted having sex with Adams shortly before she went missing, while he brought Alderton back to his house for intercourse on the day she was last seen catching a train.

Wright, sitting passively and dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and pale blue tie, testified he started using prostitutes at the age of 25 when he was in the Merchant Navy.

Wright, who was convicted of theft in 2003 and who has also been bankrupt, told the jury that his wife, Pamela, did not know he regulary used prostitutes, paying up to 80 pounds for a sexual encounter, mainly in his car - in a ''secluded'' spot - but then later occasionally at his home.

He started paying for sex in Ipswich, after his wife started working night shift because the pair rarely saw each other. Despite their scarce sex life, he admitted his partner would have probably left him had she found out.

''I did not feel good about myself,'' he told the court.

''It was a situation I got myself in (to).''

The trial continues.(AGENCIES)

Finance chiefs urge support for clean energy fund

WASHINGTON, Feb 8: The finance chiefs of the United States, Britain and Japan urged other governments to join their efforts to launch a multibillion-dollar fund to help developing countries switch to clean energy technologies.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, British Finance Minister Alistair Darling and Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga yester said in an opinion piece published by the Financial Times that the fund can help slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions in developing economies.

''By pooling our efforts to support a new clean technology fund, administered by the World Bank, we can help developing countries bridge the gap between dirty technology and clean technology,'' they wrote. ''The fund will support publicly and privately financed projects that deploy technologies that can cut emissions, increase efficiency and save energy.''

Paulson, Darling and Nukaga said the fund will be part of the climate agenda at this year's Group of Eight industrialized nations meeting in Japan. It is also expected to be discussed at this week's Group of Seven finance ministers meeting in Japan, according to US Treasury officials.

US President George W. Bush has pledged $2 billion to the fund over the next three years, while Britain has pledged part of its 800 million-pound (1.6 billion dollars) Environmental Transformation Fund and Japan has announced the creation of a $10 billion financial mechanism to support developing countries committed to combating climate change.

''However, to be large enough to have a meaningful impact, the fund will require the support of other governments. We ask others to join our effort,'' the ministers wrote.

According to World Bank estimates, the cost difference between lower-emitting new technologies and older, dirtier technologies for power plants expected to be built in developing countries by 2030 is about $30 billion.

''Without moving growth onto a cleaner technology path, climate change could have a devastating impact on the world's poorest and most vulnerable people. The fund will be an important step towards meeting the challenge of creating an environmentally sustainable path to prosperity,'' they added.(AGENCIES)

India insists on minimum wage for workers in the Gulf

DUBAI, Feb 8: The Indian Government is introducing a new rule from March 1 stipulating that unskilled workers planning to take up jobs in Bahrain be paid a minimum wage of 100 Dinars (265 dollars) a month.

In a move that will have far reaching impact on the life of over two million Indian blue collar workers in the Gulf, the rule may drastically cut the number of Indians taking up unskilled jobs in the Gulf countries which will be forced to look for cheaper labour from Bangladesh and Nepal while ensuring that the Indian labour in the Gulf will not be exploited, industry watchers said.

The unskilled workers including construction labourers will not be allowed to migrate unless they have contracts attested by the Indian embassy confirming the minimum wage, Bahrain_s Gulf Daily News reported today.

The Indian government is fixing minimum wages for each Gulf country, according to the local cost of living.

It will protect workers from exploitation, inflation and the rising value of the rupee, said Indian Ambassador Balkrishna Shetty. Employers in Bahrain have already fallen in line with the 100 Dinars minimum wage for Indian maids, implemented last October, he said.

The minimum wage legislation comes into force on March 1, and will apply to Indian workers already in Bahrain when their current contract expires.

The Indian ambassador to UAE Talmiz Ahmad told UNI in an interview last week that minimum wages was a sensitive issue as the Indian worker believes he is free to negotiate the terms and conditions he is happy with.

The new law follows a series of protests by workers in Bahrain and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries recently over low pay and poor living conditions. (UNI)

Obese kids should sleep more to loose weight : Study

LONDON, Feb 8: Tired of coaxing your kids to work out for loosing that extra flab ? Here is an easy way out -- ask them to sleep more.

A study published in the journal 'Obesity' shows overweight children can reduce weight by sleeping more, which means more sleep, more weight loss.

The researchers have said with each additional hour of sleep, the risk of a child being overweight or obese drops by nine per cent.

The study recommends that children under age five should sleep for 11 hours or more per day, children age 5 to 10 should sleep for 10 hours or more per day, and children over age 10 should sleep at least 9 hours per day.

''Our analysis of the data shows a clear association between sleep duration and the risk for overweight or obesity in children. The risk declined with more sleep,'' says senior author Dr Youfa Wang, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The results of the analysis showed that children with the shortest sleep duration had a 92 per cent higher risk of being overweight or obese compared to children with longer sleep duration. For children under age five, shortest sleep duration meant fewer than nine hours of sleep per day.

The association between increased sleep and reduced obesity risk was strongest in boys. The effect of chronic sleep deprivation on the brain's food-seeking circuitry is what seems to be influencing obesity as well as raising the risk of insulin resistance, diabetes and heart disease.

''Desirable sleep behaviour may be an important low cost means for preventing childhood obesity and should be considered in future intervention studies. Our findings may also have important implications in societies where children do not have adequate sleep due to the pressure for academic excellence and where the prevalence of obesity is rising, such as in many East Asian countries, ''the Daily Telegraph quoted Dr Wang as saying.

(UNI)