WASHINGTON, Feb 9: Healthy, obese women who use certain hormonal contraception may have a slightly increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to those who use non-hormonal contraception, a new US study has found.
Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) found that healthy, obese, reproductive-age women who use long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) containing the hormone progestin have an increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes.
The research found that progestin-releasing LARC appears to be safe for use but needs further investigation.
“Contraceptive studies often only look at normal-weight women,” said Penina Segall-Gutierrez, co-investigator of the study.
“Studies such as this are necessary because, today, one-third of women in the US are overweight and one-third are obese. All women, including overweight and obese women, need to have access to safe and effective contraception,” Segall-Gutierrez said in a statement.
The six-month study observed the metabolic markers in three groups of obese women: a control group using non-hormonal birth control methods, including condoms, the copper IUD, and female or male sterilisation; a second group with a progestin-releasing LARC device implanted in the uterus (IUD); and a third group with a progestin-releasing LARC device implanted under the skin.
“All three methods were found to be safe and effective, and they did not create changes in blood pressure, weight, or cholesterol,” Segall-Gutierrez said.
“However, there was a 10 per cent increase in fasting blood-glucose levels among the skin implant users, compared to a 5 per cent increase among the IUD users and a 2 per cent decrease among those using non-hormonal methods,” she said.
“The effects on sensitivity to insulin showed a similar trend. It is unknown if these effects would continue if the devices were used and studied for a longer period of time,” Segall-Gutierrez added.
“Overall, we’re finding that methods such as the progestin injection and the progestin skin implant, which both have higher circulating progestin, may have an increased risk for metabolic changes compared to methods like the IUD, which only has a local effect in the uterus,” she said.
The study was published in the journal Contraception. (PTI)

COLOMBO, Feb 9: Sri Lanka’s parliament has enacted legislation to curtail financial support for terrorism by approving revision of an anti-terror funding law.
The amending of Suppression of Terrorist Financing Act No 25 of 2005, was a further ratification of UN moves when Sri Lanka became part of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) that combats international money laundering and terrorist financing.
Analysts said the amendment yesterday reflected the government’s legislative efforts to deter financial support for the LTTE remnants mostly operating from overseas.
Sri Lanka which had committed to the FATF was required to continue addressing remaining issues regarding criminalisation of terrorist financing and also needed to show sufficient progress to implement the FATF action plan.
The revision was approved in parliament without a vote yesterday, parliamentary officials said.
However the government and the opposition clashed over the definition of the word “terrorist” and “act of terrorism”.
The opposition registered its protests against the definition of the term “terrorist act” by pointing out that its description could impinge on political freedom.
“If those laws were passed none could engage in active politics and it would not only be applicable to the opposition but also to the government therefore the description should be further amended”, opposition legislator Vijitha Herath argued.
Ajith Kumara, another opposition lawmaker said that the words “to compel a government or an international organisation,” would deprive citizens of the country from going before international bodies such as the UN and holding demonstrations and hunger strikes to seek redress.
Sri Lanka endured a brutal 26-year-long civil war that claimed thousands of lives. The conflict ended in 2009. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Feb 9: The US India Business Council has submitted to Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram a wish list of reforms in the taxation sector, which the industry body argues would create a fair and transparent tax environment.
In its pre-budget memorandum submitter to the Union Finance Minister, US India Business Council asked Chidambaram to ensure that any changes to India’s income tax law “will not be retrospective”, as well as “provide clarification” that recent changes to that effect will be legally binding and not subject to arbitrary application.
Prominent among the wish list include updating India-US bilateral tax treaty, emanation of double taxation on software revenue, 15 year tax holiday for software technology parks and special economic zones.
It also calls for ensuring that transfer pricing principles are applied in fair and consistent manner for all tax payers and an assurance that any change in the income tax law will not be retrospective.
Commending the proposal of important clarifications by the Prime Minister’s Expert Committee on GAAR and the recent decision to defer implementation until 2016, USIBC said in order to plan long-term capital allocation and employment- generating investment into India, global investors look forward to final confirmation of these guidelines at the earliest point possible.
“While the proposed guidelines have granted substantial assurances, global companies require predictability and remain concerned about how such assurances will translate into law,” USIBC said in its memorandum.
Of the believe that Goods and Services Tax (GST) would dramatically increase government revenue while streamlining operational and cost planning for business, while potentially decreasing some tax rates, USIBC said it remains prepared to support the development and expeditious implementation of a revised DTC (Direct Taxes Code).
“An updated, harmonised direct tax framework would have tremendous multiplier effects to fiscal balance and macroeconomic stability, which clearly benefits consumers, domestic industry, and global investors in India,” it said.
USIBC said one of the primary frustrations of foreign multinational companies investing in India is an often inconsistent transfer pricing regime and a lack of a predictable, efficient dispute resolution mechanism.
As such it asked the Finance Minister to ensure that transfer pricing principles are applied in a fair and consistent manner for all taxpayers, as well as allow a reasonable method for determining transfer pricing comparables to support fees on services performed in India for non-Indian affiliated entities that match the nature of the company’s services performed.
“As international norms dictate, transfer pricing principles should never be viewed as a selective and arbitrary mechanism for raising revenues,” it said.
“In the interim, we believe the GOI and the US government should consider adopting alternative dispute resolution procedures to more efficiently and expeditiously resolve tax disputes. Specifically, the two governments could consider an MOU for Binding Arbitration,” USIBC said. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Feb 9: The top US commander in-charge of the Pacific Command stretching from California to India has called for creation of a security environment in the region, which he said is facing a series of challenges that need to be addressed tactfully.
“The future structure of regional institutions – and whether international relations in the region will be characterised more by conflict, competition, a balance of power, or collective security – is unclear,” PACOM Commander, Admiral Samuel J Locklear III, said in a speech yesterday.
“But we must work together to create a security environment that is resilient and can withstand the inevitable shocks and aftershocks of our complex security environment,” he said.
Locklear said if not managed properly, these challenges can significantly stress the security environment.
Among the challenges he listed climate change and transnational, non-state threats including pandemics, pirates, terrorists and criminal organisations.
“Historic and emerging border and territorial disputes will no doubt continue and will stress the security environment. Access and freedom of action in the shared domains of sea, space and cyberspace will be increasingly challenged,” he said.
“The rise of China and India as global economic powers and their emergence as regional military powers will continue. And finally, one of our challenges that must be addressed is the fact that no single governance mechanism, like NATO, exists in the Asia-Pacific to help manage relationships and provide a framework for conflict resolution,” he said.
He said that instability on the Korean Peninsula will persist as North Korea continues to threaten the regional and global security environment with their nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
“It can be a tough neighbourhood with nationalistic tendencies that can split and divide us and can lead to a weak system of security environments,” he added.
The security environment consists of a patchwork of interwoven security relationships that have been shaped by history, shared interest, and are increasingly driven by economic interconnectivity, the PACOM commander said. (PTI)

LONDON, Feb 9: Scientists have identified a protein that kick-starts the process by which stem cells can develop into different cells in the body, for instance liver or brain cells.
The discovery could help scientists improve techniques enabling them to turn stem cells into other cell types in the laboratory.
Scientists from the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, who studied embryonic stem cells in mice, also developed a technique enabling them to highlight the presence of the key protein – Tcf15 – in the cells.
This means that researchers can identify which cells have the protein and watch how it affects stem cells in real time to gain a better understanding of how it works.
“This gives us better insight into the crucially important first step stem cells take to differentiate into other cell types. Understanding how and when this happens could help to improve the way in which we are able to control this process,” Dr Sally Lowell, from the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said.
Researchers pinpointed the protein by looking at how some stem cells are naturally prevented from specialising into other cell types.
They found two sets of proteins, one of which binds to the other blocking them from carrying out their various functions.
They were then able to screen the blocked proteins to find out which ones would enable stem cells to differentiate.
The study was published in the journal Cell Reports. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Feb 9: The core of al-Qaeda is on the path to defeat, US President Barack Obama has said adding that this has been mainly due to the relentless actions being taken by his administration against terrorist groups.
“We’ve put the core of al-Qaeda on the path to defeat, and we’ve been relentless against its affiliates,” Obama said yesterday during the farewell ceremony of outgoing US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta.
Obama hailed Panetta’s role as CIA Director and then as Defence Secretary saying he played a key part in action against al-Qaeda and its affiliates.
“Your leadership of the CIA will forever be remembered for the blows that we struck against al-Qaeda and perhaps the greatest intelligence success in American history – delivering justice to Osama bin Laden,” Obama said praising Panetta.
“Because we ended the war in Iraq, and are winding down the war in Afghanistan, our troops are coming home, and next year our war in Afghanistan will come to an end,” he said.
Panetta, in his remarks, said that as the son of immigrants, he has truly lived the American Dream.
“Being an Italian-American in Congress, at senior levels in the executive branch has been, for me, a very unique experience. I will never forget the pride and exhilaration when I walked out of the White House after the President announced the success of the bin Laden operation,” he said.
The memory of that operation and the team that helped put it together — both the intelligence team and the military team — will be with him forever, Panetta said.
Panetta said the US has developed and begun implementing a new defence strategy for the 21st century that protects the strongest military power in the world and meets its responsibility to fiscal discipline.
“We’re bringing, more than a decade of war to a responsible end — ending the war in Iraq and we’ve kept pressure on al-Qaeda, and we’re going after extremists wherever they may hide. And we have shown the world — we have shown the world — that nobody attacks the United States of America and gets away with it,” Panetta said. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Feb 9: The White House has defended the decision of US President Barack Obama overruling the recommendations of his cabinet, to provide arms to the Syrian rebels, arguing that he did not want any weapons to fall into wrong hands.
“As the President and his national security team have looked at these issues, we have had to be very careful,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, told reporters yesterday.
“We don’t want any weapons to fall into the wrong hands and potentially further endanger the Syrian people, our ally, Israel, or the United States. We also need to make sure that any support we are providing actually makes a difference in pressuring Assad,” Carney said in response to a question.
A day earlier, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta had told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing that he had favoured arming the Syrian rebels, which was turned down by Obama.
“I think it’s widely viewed that a lack of weapons is not the problem in Syria right now. Keep in mind that there is no shortage of weapons in Syria. That’s why we’ve focused our efforts on helping the opposition to become stronger, more cohesive, and more organised,” Carney argued.
“Now, as a general principle, this is not the kind of thing around which there is one discussion. We almost constantly or continually review what we’re doing with regards to Syria and that conversation continues,” he said.
“But it is, of course, of paramount interest on this matter in particular that we not create a situation where weapons provided by the United States end up in the wrong hands and we thereby accidentally, create more danger for the United States, for the Syrian people, or for Israel,” Carney explained defending the decision of the president.
Republican Senator John McCain urged the president to heed the advice of his cabinet members in this regard.
“The crisis in Syria represents a graphic failure of American leadership. I urge the president to heed the advice of his former and current national security leaders and immediately take the necessary steps, along with our friends and allies, that could hasten the end of the conflict in Syria,” McCain said in a statement. (PTI)

WASHINGTON, Feb 9: Tata Group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata along with eight Indian Americans has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Engineering, which is the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer in the US.
The National Academy of Engineering in a statement said that Ratan Tata has been elected as one of the 11 new foreign members of the academy for his outstanding contributions to industrial development in India and the world.
The top American engineering institute also announced election of 69 new members of which eight are eminent Indian American engineers.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer.
Academy membership honours those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature,” and to the “pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education. ”
Anant Agarwal, president, edX (online learning initiative of MIT and Harvard University) and professor electrical engineering and computer science department in Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been elected for his contributions to shared-memory and multicore computer architectures.
While Murty P Bhavaraju, senior consultant PJM Interconnection has been elected for probabilistic reliability evaluation tools for large electric power systems; Ashok Gadgil, director and senior scientist, environmental energy technologies division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, has been elected for engineering solutions to the problems of potable water and energy in underdeveloped nations.
Ganesh Kailasam, research and development vice president and global research and development director, performance materials division, Dow Chemical Co, has been elected for development of processes for production of high-performance polymers including polyetherimides. (PTI)