Indian-American quits NY regional transport Authority’s key wing

NEW YORK Feb 13: An Indian-American official who was in charge of major transport-related construction projects in the New York City area has resigned.

Mysore L. Nagaraja has been a top official at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which includes the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) that serves the needs of commuters living in the neighbouring island.

Mr Nagaraja, 65, resigned his job as MTA’s Capital Construction Company ending his longstanding association with the authority. His tremendous knowledge about MTA’s most ambitious construction projects and the system’s expansion was widely appreciated.

"Losing Mysore is a significant loss", Barry Feinstein, an MTA board member, said, according to a report in the Daily News.

But he is expected to continue with his work for this month at Capital Construction Company, a five-year-old entity.

Moving the mega projects (of MTA) forward is a real challenge, we are confident that Mr Nagaraja is the ideal person to get these jobs done, on time and within budget, an MTA statement quoted Kalikow as saying at the time.

Mr Nagaraja, a native of Mysore, is the youngest of 11 children in his family. In 1967, when Mr Nagaraja was in his 20s, he arrived in the United States after earning an engineering degree from the University of Mysore. His scholarship that year took him to Brigham Young University in Utah. Before he joined the MTA as a project manager in 1985, Mr Nagaraja had been managing a large capital construction project for M W Kellogg Company for several years.

He helped run and maintain about 1,000 km of track and some 470 stations in the MTA system, which transports nearly 8 million commuters daily.

Mr Nagaraja is expected to be a consultant for various metro projects in India.

(UNI)

Sharia laws, theories vary among world's Muslims

PARIS, Feb 13: Sharia law is understood and applied in such varied ways across the Muslim world that it is difficult to say exactly what it is and how it could fit into a western legal context, according to experts on Islam.

Full Islamic criminal law, the harsh code most non-Muslims think of when they hear the word sharia, is applied in very few countries, such as Saudi Arabia. Islamic ''personal law'' for issues like marriage and inheritance is much more common.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams sparked off a storm last week by suggesting Britain adopt some sharia law. British Muslims defending him stressed most of the Islamic world also rejected the ultra-orthodox model that he clearly ruled out.

''There are 57 Muslim countries in the world and only two or three of them impose full sharia criminal law. Why on earth would we want to have that here?'' asked Sheikh Suhaib Hasan, secretary of the Islamic Sharia Council in Britain.

There are also widely differing interpretations of sharia, both within the four classical Sunni and one Shi'ite schools of jurisprudence and between traditional and modern thinkers.

''In the Muslim world these days, 'sharia' means a whole variety of different things,'' said John Voll, professor of Islamic history at Georgetown University in Washington.

Williams apparently had in mind a modern school of Muslim thinking that sees sharia as a system of essential Islamic values rather than a fixed code of harsh punishments, he said.

LIMITED USE

Most Muslim states limit the use of sharia to ''personal law'' on issues such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody. Western critics say most Muslim personal law limits women's rights and introduces inequality before the law.

Egypt says sharia is the main source of its legislation but has penal and civil codes based mostly on 19th century French law. Hudoud, the corporal and capital punishment outlined in the Koran, has not been applied there in modern times.

Muslims cannot convert to other faiths and non-Muslims who convert to Islam are not supposed to leave it, but a court allowed this for 12 people in a landmark case last week.

Pakistan has a similar split between civil and penal codes carried over from the British colonial period and Muslim personal law. It also has a Federal Sharia Court to decide if laws passed by parliament conform to Islam.

Apart from a few public lashings since Islamisation started in the 1980s, harsh physical punishments have not been imposed. Nobody has been executed under a law banning blasphemy against Islam, but some accused blasphemers have been killed by mobs.

Lebanon has 18 recognised religious denominations among its Muslims, Christians and Druze and all have religious courts for personal law and civil courts for everything else.

In India, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains and followers of other faiths can decide whether they want to be bound by secular personal law or their own religious code.

SHARIA-COMPLIANT

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation and quite moderate in Islamic terms. Its western province of Aceh uses sharia law as part of a local autonomy deal granted by Jakarta and people have been caned for adultery, gambling and stealing.

Nigeria's northern states adopted a harsh sharia code in 2000, but punishments have been rare. A woman convicted of adultery, Amina Laval, was freed on appeal after her sentence of stoning to death caused an international uproar.

About a dozen other women convicted of adultery have also been freed on appeal.

In contrast to this traditional jurisdiction, modern Muslim scholars such as Swiss-born Tariq Ramadan interpret sharia more broadly as ''the expression of the universal principles of Islam'' and a way of thinking that helps express them in daily life.

This approach can accept secular laws as ''sharia-compliant'' if they reflect Islamic values. ''Even simply by trying to respect Muslim ethics, one is already in the process of applying the sharia,'' Ramadan has written.

Thus Williams, who cited Ramadan in his speech, said Britain already had sharia in its legal system through laws that allowed Islamic no-interest mortgages and contracts.

Another leading thinker, French imam Tareq Oubrou, advocates a ''sharia for minorities'' respecting Islamic values as ethical guidelines for Muslims and civil jurisprudence as the law for all citizens in a country.

(AGENCIES)

Smoking may raise risk of colon polyps

NEW YORK, Feb 13: Cigarette smoking appears to promote the development of polyps in the colon, especially those that are more likely to progress to cancer, a research review suggests.

In an analysis of 42 studies, researchers found that current smokers were twice as likely as nonsmokers to develop colon polyps. Former smokers also showed a heightened risk, though it was less than that of current smokers.

What's more, the analysis found, smoking was particularly linked to ''high-risk'' polyps; while most colon polyps are not dangerous, high-risk ones are relatively more likely to become cancerous.

The findings offer ''strong evidence'' that cigarette smoking contributes to both the formation of polyps and their aggressiveness, said Dr. Edoardo Botteri, of the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy.

He and his colleagues report the results of their review in the journal Gastroenterology.

While smoking does appear to be a risk factor for polyps, past studies have been mixed as to whether it raises the risk of colon cancer itself.

This paradox may be explained by the design of the studies, according to Botteri's team. For example, many studies may not have followed smokers for a long enough period; any heightened colon cancer risk from smoking could take decades to emerge.

The current findings suggest that people who refrain from smoking can lower their risk of polyps and, potentially, colon cancer, Botteri told Reuters Health.

They also raise the possibility that smokers would benefit from earlier colon cancer screening, according to the researchers.

As it stands, adults are advised to start colon cancer screening at the age of 50, though people at higher-than-average risk -- such as those with ulcerative colitis, or a family history of colon cancer -- often start earlier.

Some experts have already suggested lowering the screening age for longtime smokers, Botteri and his colleagues note, but this is not yet standard practice.

Colon polyps typically emerge after age 50, and the large majority of colon cancers develop after this age as well. According to Botteri, it's still not clear whether smokers tend to develop polyps at an earlier-than-average age, or whether their polyps tend to progress more rapidly to cancer.

What is clear, he said, is that both current and former smokers should be especially vigilant about following the current recommendations on colon cancer screening. (AGENCIES)

Kids of abused mothers visit ER more often

NEW YORK, Feb 13: Children whose mothers experience severe abuse at the hands of an intimate partner are more likely to wind up in hospital emergency departments, and their increased risk may persist for up to three years after the abuse has ended, new research shows.

''It appears that even when the abuse ends, children's health and health care use may be continued to be affected,'' Dr Megan H Bair-Merritt of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, the study's lead investigator, told Reuters Health. ''That has implications for how we think about designing screening and interventions for abused women and their children.''

Bair-Merritt and her colleagues looked at data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being on more than 2,500 children whose families had been reported to Child Protective Services in 1999 and 2000 to investigate whether exposure to intimate partner violence would affect how frequently children went to the emergency department or were hospitalized. Mothers had reported whether or not they had been abused at the study's outset, and the surveyors had followed up

with families 18 and 36 months later.

At both time points, the researchers report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, children whose mothers had reported being victims of severe intimate partner violence were about twice as likely as other children to have visited the emergency department.

''Understanding is still emerging about why these women are bringing their children to the emergency department,'' Bair-Merritt noted, pointing out that the data didn't show whether the children were brought there for preventive care, injuries, or other reasons.

Surprisingly, children who had been exposed to minor intimate partner violence were actually less likely to be hospitalized during the second time interval. This seemingly paradoxical finding could have been because these children were lost to the system, or perhaps they were more likely to get help, the researcher said. ''There are many explanations, and they would all be hypotheses at this point.''

She and her colleagues are planning additional studies to further investigate how exposure to domestic violence affects children's health, as well as the role of a mother's mental health in this relationship.

(AGENCIES)

Father's love good for children

LONDON, Feb 13: Father's love proves beneficial for children to behave better and learn more, a study shows.

A good relationship between fathers and children had a positive effect that could last for decades as father's love goes far in a child's life, researchers found.

''Overall, children reap positive benefits if they have active and regular engagement with a father figure,'' Daily Mail quoted Anna Sarkadi, of Sweden's Uppsala University as saying.

''Children who had positively involved father figures were less likely to smoke and get into trouble with the police, achieved better levels of education and developed good friendship with children of both the sexes,'' she added.

In low-income homes, regular contact also lead to less juvenile crime.

The study showed the value of the father's input as a role model from babyhood to the teenage years.

The smallest study focused on 17 infants and the largest covered 8,441 people ranging from premature babies to 33-year-olds.

It was found that children who lived with both the mother and father had fewer behavioural problems than those who lived with their mother only.

Behavioural problems in boys, and psychological problems in girls, were seen less frequent. Intelligence, reasoning and language were more advanced in children who had good contact with both the parents.

''Fathers and mothers complement each other and together provide a rich care within the family which can't be replicated in any other setting,'' she concluded.

(UNI)

Rape "epidemic" in African conflict zones: UNICEF

GENEVA, Feb 13: Rape and sexual violence against children and women are spreading in conflict zones in Africa like an epidemic, the UN children's agency UNICEF said.

Rape was particularly prevalent in countries suffering both conflicts and natural disasters, deputy executive director Hilde Johnson told a news conference yesterday.

Victims in Democratic Republic of Congo ranged from infants to octogenarians, she said. Many suffered genital mutilation as well as rape in the attacks, Johnson added at the launch of a UNICEF appeal to raise 856 million dollar to help children in emergencies in 39 countries this year.

''We have seen that the reported cases of rape and sexual violence doubled within days of the conflict erupting in Kenya,'' she said. Liberia and the Darfur region of Sudan were other areas where rape was increasingly used as a weapon.

''In some of these countries it has reached epidemic levels,'' Johnson said. The agency described the problem as an epidemic because the use of rape as a weapon was spreading from armies and militias to civilians in conflicts and civil wars.

''When societies collapse there seems to be a licence to rape in some of these countries. That's why we call it epidemic proportions -- it takes a life of its own,'' she said.

UNICEF's 2008 appeal includes 106 million dollar for Congo. While most of that would go on the provision of standard aid such as food, shelter and water, some was intended to help counter rape, she said.

This included working with the government, army and militias on preventative campaigns, creating safe havens and helping victims with medical and other care.

Johnson said if a peace deal signed in Congo on Jan. 23 holds, aid agencies would gain access to previously unreachable areas of the country and were likely to find many thousands of refugees and other victims in need of care.

(AGENCIES)

Attention to heart health good for the brain

NEW YORK, Feb 13: A recent survey found that two out of three African Americans worry about developing heart disease and two out of five are concerned about developing Alzheimer's disease, yet only one in 20 are aware that heart health is linked to brain health.

February is Black History Month and American Heart Month, and the Alzheimer's Association and the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, are teaming up to educate African Americans on how to manage heart health to promote brain health.

''What's good for your heart is good for your brain,'' Dr Jennifer Manly, spokesperson for the Alzheimer's Association, said in a statement.

''African Americans should be aware that there is building evidence that older adults whose hearts are healthy tend to live longer with healthy brain function,'' Manly added in comments to Reuters Health. Manly is with the G H Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease at Columbia University, New York.

Compared to the general public, African Americans have a higher risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other cardiovascular complications, which could lead to a higher risk of stroke and Alzheimer's disease.

Manly said African Americans can help to improve their heart health and cognitive function by ''partnering with their doctor and watching their numbers; keep blood pressure below 120/80 millimeters of mercury, fasting blood sugar less than 100 milligrams per deciliter, cholesterol below 200 milligrams per deciliter, and maintain a body weight in the recommended range.''

Healthy lifestyle choices will also help African Americans improve their heart and brain health. African Americans who are physically and mentally active, maintain their social connections, reduce fat and cholesterol in their diet, and don't smoke may lower their risk for stroke and Alzheimer's disease, the researcher emphasized.

For more information about the links between heart health and brain health, Manly suggests visiting www.Alz.Org/heartbrain and signing up for a free Healthy Heart and Brain Kit, which includes a pedometer while supplies last.

(AGENCIES)

Airport noise instantly boosts blood pressure: Study

LONDON, Feb 13: Living near an airport isn't just irritating, it is also unhealthy, researchers said today, in a study that showed loud noise instantly boosts a sleeping person's blood pressure.

The louder the noise, the higher a person's blood pressure went, a finding that suggests people who live near airports may have a greater risk of health problems, said Lars Jarup, who led the European Commission-funded study.

''Living near airports where you have exposure to night time aircraft noise is a major issue,'' Jarup, an environmental health researcher at the University of Glasgow, told Reuters.

''The reason we did airports is because there was no study that has looked at particular problems of aircraft noise.''

High blood pressure can lead to stroke, heart failure, heart attack and kidney failure. It affects more than a billion adults worldwide.

The research team showed that people living for at least five years near a busy airport and under a flight path have a greater risk of developing chronic high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, than those who live in quieter areas.

That study of nearly 5,000 people found that an increase in night time airplane noise of 10 decibels increased the risk of high blood pressure by 14 percent in both men and women.

''We know that noise from air traffic can be a source of irritation, but our research shows that it can also be damaging for people's health, which is particularly significant in light of plans to expand international airports,'' Jarup said.

In the four-year study, published in the European Heart Journal, the researchers remotely measured the blood pressure of 140 volunteers every 15 minutes while they slept in their homes near London's Heathrow airport -- one of the busiest in the world -- and three other major European airports.

They used digital recorders to determine what noises had the biggest impact on blood pressure, ranging from road traffic to a partner's snoring to an airplane taking off or landing.

The Decibel level, not a sound's origin, was the key factor, but airplanes had the most significant impact, Jarup said.

''Most of the time you will find road traffic noise is not too bad during the night,'' he said. ''If you live near an airport where there are night flights, that is quite another story.'' (AGENCIES)

Darfuris return to charred homes after attack

SIRBA, SUDAN, Feb 13: The stench of burning hung in the air of Sirba, a town in West Darfur, as its inhabitants returned home to find their belongings in a charred pile, their animals dead and their food gone.

Sudan said it attacked the three remote West Darfur towns of Sirba, Abu Surouj and Suleia to force the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement out of the area and reopen roads connecting the population to the outside world, closed since JEM occupied the area in December.

A third of Sirba's straw huts were burned and the market looted. Animals lay dead in the sandy streets. Dust-covered children swung off scorched branches watching as aid workers, journalists and United Nations-African Union peacekeepers inspected the damage yesterday.

''They killed my husband,'' said Kultoum Abdallah, 30, left without a home or breadwinner to care for her three children.

''I have nothing to eat, what should I do?'' she pleaded, breaking into sobs and hiding her face in her bright blue robe. She spent two days in the bush after militias on horse and camelback looted, raped and burned.

Local leader Abakr Suleiman Ibrahim said 10 girls were raped by militiamen, one as young as 10 years old. He estimated that 3,000 people were missing.

Haroun Esam Yehia said he saw the militia, known locally as Janjaweed, burn his home. ''I still don't know where two of my sons are,'' he said. They are 15 and 12 years old.

FACTS DISPUTED

A humanitarian team had brought tents for some who lost their homes, and a first instalment of food for 5,000 people as well as jerry cans and plastic sheeting arrived on UN trucks.

Residents and the governor of West Darfur said militias had killed 45-47 people in the attack and burned their houses. Both said the Sudanese army, which entered later, had not touched them. They said the dead were buried in mass graves.

Residents argued fiercely with army and security officials over what had happened during Friday's attacks.

The army said it was fighting JEM, whose members had hidden among the population dressed in civilian clothes. They showed dozens of rifles, heavy weapons and Israeli-made guns they said they found in houses in the town which had burned in an exchange of fire.

They said they also found two cars belonging to an international aid group with JEM's logo written on them, full of empty bullet shells.

But they denied any links to the militia.

''These criminal gangs hear of an impending operation and take advantage of this,'' said senior army officer Abdel Salam Abdel Hamid, adding papers and identity cards they found inside the town were proof of JEM's presence.

Many of those killed were men. In Sirba on Tuesday mostly women, the elderly and children had returned to the town. JEM logos and slogans were scrawled over the town's buildings.

Residents said JEM had no permanent presence in the town, saying they painted the logos in December but never came back.

''Dr. Khalil (JEM leader) did not kill one person when he came,'' Ibrahim said. ''Why did the government arm these Janjaweed?''

But he wanted more Sudanese army forces to come and protect them against all armed groups -- militias or rebels.

''We are scared of anyone who has guns but the government.''

While the facts are disputed, what is clear is that the world's largest aid operation will have more work as civilians continue to be caught in the crossfire of Darfur's revolt, now approaching its fifth anniversary.

International experts estimate that 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes since mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing central government of neglect.

Washington calls the violence genocide, a charge Khartoum rejects. It blames Western media for exaggerating the conflict. Numerous peace efforts have failed because of rebel divisions and continuing clashes.

(AGENCIES)

New space lab coming alive, ill astronaut better ...

HOUSTON, Feb 13: Astronauts on the International Space Station slowly brought Europe's new space laboratory to life as crewmate Hans Schlegel, forced by illness to miss the spacewalk to install it, said he was feeling fine.

The lab, known as Columbus, was hooked up with computers, power and a heating system ahead of activation of experiments in Europe's first permanent space research facility.

''This is a great moment,'' French astronaut Leopold Eyharts radioed yesterday to ground controllers in Houston and Munich before entering the module for the first time.

''We are very proud,'' added Schlegel of Germany. ''It starts a new era. The European scientific module Columbus and the ISS are connected for many, many years of research in space in cooperation, internationally.''

The 23-foot-long (7-metre-long) laboratory, equipped for medical, pharmaceutical and physics experiments, is Europe's prime contribution of a 5 billion dollars investment in the space station program.

After years of delay, it launched on Thursday from Florida aboard space shuttle Columbus and was attached to the station on Monday during an eight-hour spacewalk.

Schlegel, 56, was to join Rex Walheim on the spacewalk but had to be replaced by Stan Love due to an illness that has not been disclosed.

He said in a media interview on Tuesday he was doing well and looking forward to taking part in the second spacewalk of Atlantis' mission today.

''I feel really great right now. Of course I'm a little bit anxious because tomorrow is really my first (spacewalk),'' said a fit-looking Schlegel.

''That's all I want to say because medical issues are private,'' Schlegel said, hewing to the non-disclosure line taken by NASA and the European Space Agency.

Today, he and Walheim are to replace a spent nitrogen tank used to pressurize the station's coolant system.

Walheim and Love are scheduled to make the third and final spacewalk of the mission on Friday. Atlantis is currently scheduled to return to Earth on February 19.

NASA had been looking at a loose insulation blanket on one of Atlantis' steering engines to see if needed repair before landing but told the astronauts yesterday not to worry.

''Good news,'' flight communicator Kevin Ford at Mission Control told shuttle commander Stephen Frick. ''The analysis clearly shows there's no safety of flight issue. So the area has officially been cleared for entry.''

''It's a relief to know we don't have to go back there and mess with it,'' said Frick.

NASA is almost 60 per cent finished building the 100 billion dollars outpost. During the next shuttle flight scheduled for launch March 11, astronauts are to begin installing what will be the station's largest laboratory, the Japanese-built Kibo complex.

NASA has just two years to compete the 11 remaining station construction and resupply flights before the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010.

(AGENCIES)

Watchdog says teen alarm should "buzz off" ....

LONDON, Feb 13: A high-pitched sonic device hailed as the perfect weapon to disperse unruly teenagers should be banned because it demonises young people, the children's watchdog said.

Al Aynsley-Green, Children's Commissioner for England, has launched a ''Buzz Off'' campaign to scrap the Mosquito, a gadget that emits a piercing noise only detectable by the sharp ears of the young.

''These devices are indiscriminate and target all children and young people, including babies, regardless of whether they are behaving or misbehaving,'' he said in a statement yesterday.

''The use of measures such as these is simply demonising children and young people, creating a dangerous and widening divide between the young and the old.''

There are an estimated 3,500 Mosquito devices in use outside shops and businesses across the country.

The commissioner said he was concerned about the increasingly negative way that society views children.

''We are sending out the message that we as a society don't value our children and young people and we don't respect their rights,'' he added.

Communities that have a problem with teens hanging around should find different ways to deal with the issue, he said.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of rights group Liberty, said: ''What type of society uses a low-level sonic weapon on its children?''

Teenage crime, binge-drinking and gang-related violence are rising up the political agenda, with all the main parties pledging to tackle the issue.

One recent incident, the murder of father-of-three Garry Newlove, 47, after he confronted a gang of vandals prompted a wave of calls for police to take a tougher stance against anti-social behaviour.

Three teenagers were jailed for life on Monday for his murder.

The Mosquito's inventor Howard Stapleton says he has received hundreds of positive reports from police, councils and businesses.

Teenagers he had talked to welcomed the device too, he said, because they themselves used to be intimidated by gangs hanging around shops.

(AGENCIES)

UK drivers cut up, give finger to funeral hearses ..

LONDON, Feb 13: British drivers increasingly cut up funeral processions and make obscene gestures at hearses, funeral directors said.

Schoolchildren have even thrown stones at a horse-drawn coffin.

The National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors -- which organises 60 per cent of the country's funerals -- said yesterday its members reported poor behaviour from drivers totally unsympathetic to the deceased's final journey.

''There is a disregard by many road users for the sanctity of the funeral cortege,'' said spokesman John Weir.

''People cut up the hearse or cut in between the hearse and the limousine. These are very distinctive vehicles so they must know what they are doing.''

Drivers were at their worst in inner cities like London and Manchester, he said, suggesting that they might simply be frustrated by bad traffic.

''I was out a couple of weeks ago and someone gave me the two-fingered salute,'' he said. ''I think it is representative of a lot of what is happening in modern Britain.''

On Monday, firefighters complained they were coming under increasing attack as they answered emergency calls, echoing similar complaints from doctors and other professionals.

Weir said that in the worst incident he had heard of, east London schoolchildren in uniform hurled stones at a horse-drawn hearse.

(AGENCIES)

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