140kg accused killer in US complains jail doesn't feed him enough

April 28, 2008

BENTONVILLE (Arkansas) - AN INMATE awaiting trial on a murder charge is suing the county, complaining he has lost more than 45kg because of the jailhouse menu.

Broderick Lloyd Laswell says he isn't happy that he's down to 140kg after eight months in the Benton County jail.

He has filed a federal lawsuit complaining the jail doesn't provide inmates with enough food.

According to the suit, Laswell weighed 187kg when he was jailed in September. Police say he and a co-defendant fatally beat and stabbed a man, then set his home on fire.

'On several occasions I have started to do some exercising and my vision went blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out,' Laswell wrote in his complaint. 'About an hour after each meal my stomach starts to hurt and growl. I feel hungry again.'

But Laswell then goes on to complain that he undertakes little vigorous activity.

'If we are in a small pod all day (and) do next to nothing for physical exercise, we should not lose weight,' the suit says. 'The only reason we lost weight in here is because we are literally being starved to death.'

The suit also asks that the county be ordered to serve hot meals.

The jail has served only cold food for years.

The meals, provided through Aramark Correctional Institution Services, average 3,000 calories a day, jail Capt. Hunter Petray told The Morning News of northwest Arkansas for a story on Saturday.

A typical Western diet consists of 2,000 to 3,000 calories a day.

Laswell's suit was filed without a lawyer in US District Court in Fayetteville. -- AP

Aerobic exercise helps turn back biological clock

April 25, 2008

NEW YORK - MAINTAINING aerobic fitness through middle age and beyond could delay the aging process by more than a decade and prolong independent living, according to a new review of research on aerobic fitness and dependency in old age.

Twenty years ago, Dr R. J. Shephard of the University of Toronto in Ontario and his colleagues proposed that adequate aerobic capacity was a key factor in helping very old people to maintain a high quality of life and live independently. In a review published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, Shephard analyses the latest data on the issue.

Regular aerobic exercise improves the body's ability to take in oxygen and use it, but a person's maximal aerobic power falls steady as people age.

According to Dr Shephard, studies of aerobic training response in older people have shown that workouts, especially more intense physical activity maintained for a longer duration, can improve aerobic power. In fact, seven studies of this type of exercise found people's aerobic power increased nearly 25 per cent - equivalent to reversing 12 years' worth of aging-related loss of fitness.

Based on his review, Dr Shephard concludes that elderly people who engage in progressive aerobic training can maintain their independence longer, in effect by turning back the clock on the loss of aerobic fitness that occurs with aging.

Other positive spin-offs of aerobic fitness include reduced risks of serious illness, faster recovery after injury or illness, and reduced risks of falls due to maintenance of muscle power, balance and coordination.

'There remains a need to clarify the importance of deteriorations in fitness relative to other potential causes of dependency but, from the practical viewpoint, regular aerobic activity can address many of the issues of both functional loss and chronic disease,' he writes. -- REUTERS

Scientists say menstrual blood can repair hearts

April 24, 2008

TOKYO - THE monthly discomfort many women see as a curse could pay off someday as Japanese researchers say menstrual blood can be used to repair heart damage.

Scientists obtained menstrual blood from nine women and cultivated it for about a month, focusing on a kind of cell that can act like stem cells.

Some 20 per cent of the cells began beating spontaneously about three days after being put together in vitro with cells from the hearts of rats. The cells from menstrual blood eventually formed sheet-like heart-muscle tissue.

The success rate is 100 times higher than the 0.2-0.3 per cent for stem cells taken from human bone marrow, according to Shunichiro Miyoshi, a cardiologist at Keio University's school of medicine, who is involved in the research.

Separate in-vivo experiments showed that the condition of rats who had suffered heart attacks improved after they received the cells derived from menstrual blood.

Dr Miyoshi said women may eventually be able to use their own menstrual blood.

'There may be a system in the near future that allows women to use it for their own treatment,' Dr Miyoshi said on Thursday.

The cells can be stored for a long time in a tube the size of a pinky finger and cultivated when necessary, he said.

He also said menstrual blood could be used to build stockpiles of cells which have a variety of immune types.

This could help people with matching HLAs, or human leukocyte antigens, a key part of the human immune system, he said.

'In proper storage, we would be able to stock up a tremendous count of cells in a small space. If they are not used for 100 years, they could stay there for 200 years or 300 years' waiting for a perfect match, he said.

In a strict sense, the connective cells harvested from menstrual blood cannot be called stem cells, which can turn into any type of cell in the body, Dr Miyoshi said.

But they also have high potential to develop into muscle cells, suggesting the blood could in time be used to treat muscular dystrophy, he said.

The study has been conducted jointly by researchers from private Keio University and the National Institute for Child Health and Development.

Initial results were recently published in the online edition of the US journal Stem Cell. -- AFP

Umno still in dreamland despite wake-up call

April 24, 2008

By Karim Raslan
AS SOMEONE with a long family tradition linked to Umno and who counts many party leaders among his personal friends, the results of the last general election came as an enormous surprise to me.

Initially, I found it almost impossible to believe that Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and the Democratic Action Party (DAP) could have secured five state governments.

I was concerned about their ability to manage these states as well as about the potential impact of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's leadership: Could the leopard change its spots?

Prompted by these concerns, I hit the road to interview the new political players, to find out for myself what they are like. I must admit that the leaders of the new opposition states have impressed me with their seriousness and integrity.� �

Even more eye-opening was the company I found myself in when I ventured out of my privileged Damansara Heights eyrie. Descending one night into gritty Puchong, I ended up at a vast election thanksgiving dinner sitting around a table with DAP chairman Karpal Singh and his colleagues.

What a difference one day's vote can make. I never thought that I would one day end up sandwiched between DAP leaders. But as the physically weakened Mr Singh was wheeled in, and I saw the warmth and admiration with which he was greeted, I got a sense of how 'connected' the opposition coalition's leaders are to Malaysians at large. �

Compare that to Umno's and Barisan Nasional's (BN) leaders. What are we to make of the back-biting, racialist chest-beating and general turmoil that have beset the ruling party since the elections?

I'm beginning to wish that BN had lost on March 8. Because it held on to power, the ruling coalition is still deluding itself that it will be business as usual. It appears to feel that it can continue to rule without a total overhaul of its policies and principles.� �

Umno leaders should be learning from Asia's other, once dominant parties - Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT), India's Congress and Indonesia's Golkar - which lost office but were able to reinvent themselves and regain power. The KMT in particular should be a sterling example to Umno. The parallels between the two parties are startling. Both led their respective people to self-governance. Both oversaw tremendous economic growth, but at the cost of spiralling corruption and autocratic leadership. Like Umno, the KMT lost power in an election, but its defeat was complete whereas Umno's was not but should have been. After 50 years of rule, the KMT was defeated in Taiwan's 2000 presidential election and suffered the further indignity of being routed in the 2001 legislative polls. �

The Nationalists, however, looked themselves in the mirror and did what needed to be done. They took steps to dismantle the business empire that the KMT had acquired through decades of patronage. They also broke many policy taboos that would have been unthinkable under Chiang Kai-shek.

By contrast Umno, after the election result, is dealing mainly with the superficial - blogs for MPs, say, or outbursts against ungrateful voters. The substantive - namely whether or not the party should pursue a more multiracial future - is being ignored.

Several Umno leaders like Datuk Razali Ibrahim and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin have tried to place this issue on the agenda. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has also surprised many by calling for Umno to become a 'supra-ethnic, national party' that deals in a just manner with all Malaysians regardless of race while still defending its 'traditional vision'.�

These leaders recognise that Umno has to move either to the 'right' - embracing a more Malay nationalist and Islamist ethos - or to the 'left' - to garner votes from the multiracial 'Middle Malaysia'.

To my mind a push to the right would be disastrous for the party. Umno can never hope to defeat PAS on its own turf. Moreover, in pursuing the nationalist and Islamist vote, Umno would destroy its chances with the larger vote-banks in 'Middle Malaysia'.�Sadly, while Malaysia has changed, the party of 'Merdeka' is still locked in a time warp, regurgitating credos about Malay rights and power. What party leaders do not seem to want to acknowledge is that their monopoly of the Malay vote is gone - forever. Their arrogance and smug complacency have repelled large chunks of the community. The community has become too diverse to be represented by one political party and this is why the PKR and PAS were able to reap the electoral harvest. �

The burden of history and the party's own failings are preventing Umno from regaining the Malay vote, much less the support of 'Middle Malaysia' - the world that slipped its grasp on March 8.

Umno and its leadership do not seem to have realised that a broader, non-communal approach could well regain for BN much of what is currently under opposition control. The party is trapped in the arrogance and rent-seeking that cost it so many votes. One wonders if a defeat on the scale that the KMT suffered would be the only thing that could truly shake up Umno. Is it possible the strong medicine Umno needs to save itself is a good four or five years on the opposition benches?�

The writer is a Malaysian columnist.

World No. 1 Lin Dan out

April 20, 2008

Johor Baru - Chen Jin of China upset compatriot and world No 1 Lin Dan in the semi-finals yesterday at the Asia Badminton Championships, the last qualifying tournament before the Beijing Olympics.

Chen quickly downed the defending champion 21-13, 21-14. Lin, once again, was stopped short of his first ABC crown. Lin's usual attacking play was absent, and Chen, seeded No 4, won comfortably.

'Both of us played our usual game,' said Chen. 'And because we knew each other so well, we could anticipate each other's shots. But I believe Lin Dan was nursing an injury and it affected his game.'

The event, which offers a total prize money of US$125,000 ($169,000), is the last tournament to determine rankings for the Olympics in August.

Lin's surprisingly quick defeat was good news for China, as it maintained Chen's Badminton World Federation (BWF) ranking at No 4 - enough to ensure an Olympic berth.

Lin is still No 1. Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei is No 2 and China's Bao Chunlai is No 3.

According to BWF guidelines, a country has the right to three places in the Olympics if its players are ranked among the top four.

[Comment: It is fortuitous then that the world #1, whose position was not at risk, lost to the world ranked #4 who might have be reduced in ranking if he had lost. In other words, a happy coincidence my eye! I smell a rat!]

Chen will go up against South Korea's Park Sung Hwan in the final today. The latter beat Indonesia's Sony Dwi Kuncoro 14-21, 21-16, 21-19 in the other semi-final.

The 24-year-old Park said: 'I'm happy to be in the final. I'm going to give it my best shot, even though, in our last meeting at the Asian Games in Doha two years ago, I lost to Chen.'

It will be an all-China affair in the women's singles final, with defending champion Jiang Yanjiao taking on Wang Lin.

Jiang beat 2006 champion Wang Chen of Hong Kong 21-17, 21-16, while Wang Lin beat another Hong Kong player, No 3 seed Yip Pui Yin, 21-14, 21-18 in the semi-finals.

The women's doubles final will be between world No 1 pair Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen of China, and Taiwan's Cheng Wen-hsin and Chien Yu-chin, the third seed.

AP

Teen detained at President's pleasure for murder of lover's husband

April 15, 2008

TEENAGER Muhammad Nasir Abdul Aziz, who killed his lover's husband, was ordered by the High Court on Tuesday to be detained at the President's pleasure, an indefinite jail sentence.

Muhammad Nasir Abdul Aziz, 17, pleaded guilty to the murder but was not given the death penalty because of his age. He was two months short of 17 when he stabbed Mr Manap Salip, 29, a disc jockey, to death outside his 16th storey flat at Block 74, Whampoa Drive, on July 1 last year.

In all, he stabbed Mr Manap nine times in the back and on his neck. He threw the knife into a canal next to the block after the killing before taking a taxi home.

["Detained at the President's pleasure sounds like he becomes the President's sex slave. A better phrase is needed. How about, "Detained at the discretion of the President"?]

Bush paid S$302,975 in 2007 federal tax

April 12, 2008

CRAWFORD (Texas) - PRESIDENT George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush reported taxable income of US$719,274 (S$983,248) for 2007 and paid $221,635 in federal income tax, the White House said on Friday.

Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, earned more than three times as much, reporting taxable income of US$2,528,066 while paying US$602,651 in federal income taxes, forms released by the White House showed.

The president's income included his salary as president, listed as US$397,839, and income from trusts in which his assets are held. The first lady received a US$150,000 advance for a children's book she co-authored with daughter Jenna, the White House said.

Mrs Bush donated her net proceeds from the advance to Teach for America and the New Teacher's Project. President and Mrs Bush contributed US$165,660 to churches and charitable organizations, including the Volunteer Fire Department in Crawford, Texas.

The Cheneys income included US$292,208 in salary, US$75,420 in taxable interest, US$654,730 in ordinary dividends, business income of US$180,976, US$1,418,428 in capital gains and US$430,276 in other income.

Both the Bushes and the Cheneys had a big tax bill at the end of the year. The Bushes had to pay US$17,741, while the Cheneys had to send in a check for US$136,486.

The release of the president's and vice president's tax forms came as President Bush spent the weekend at his Crawford ranch with his parents, brother Jeb and other family members. -- REUTERS

[Comment 1: The US President's salary is only US$400,000. Obama & Hillary are raising and spending up to US$20m a month each to win the nomination for President. When the Democrat and the Republican candidates campaign for the presidential election, they will probably spend even more. All this for a US$400,000 a year job? US President and the people who support them are either stupid, have no sense of cost-benefit analysis, or are fully aware that there are more to the Presidency than the salary and they have more to gain than just the explicit salary.

Comment 2: We never hear the Istana give a public report of what the Singapore president, or the ministers' paid in taxes. This is a transparency that the US has and we should also have. ]