Prolonged sitting increases risk of obesity, heart disease

The health implications of prolonged sitting has become a hot topic of late, with numerous studies suggesting it can raise the risk of obesity, heart disease and even premature death.

Now, new research adds fuel to the fire, revealing that sitting for more than 3 hours daily is responsible for around 3.8% of all cause deaths over 54 countries.

But it’s not all bad news, the study also found that we can increase life expectancy by an average of 0.2 years by reducing sitting time to less than 3 hours a day.

Lead researcher Leandro Rezende, of the Department of Preventive Medicine at the University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine in Brazil, and colleagues publish their findings in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

On average, Americans spend up to 13 hours a day sitting with around 7.5 hours spent sitting at work which researchers claim can wreak havoc on health.

Last January for example Medical News Today reported on a study that suggested prolonged sitting can increase the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and premature death, regardless of physical activity status.

And a more recent study found that for heart disease patients, sitting for long periods can worsen health, even if they are active.

US spends $3 bn a year on unused cancer drugs

Washington: US doctors and hospitals throw out almost $3 billion (roughly 2.7 billion euros) in unused cancer drugs each year because the medicines come in supersized single-use packages and excess medicine must be discarded for safety reasons, a recent paper suggests.

Researchers focused on 20 expensive medicines that are given by injection or intravenous drip and require doses adjusted based on the patient’s body size. Often, the packages contain much more medicine than patients need, and the leftovers wind up in the trash.

Even when much of the medicine goes in the garbage, patients pay for the whole vial, said lead author Dr. Peter Bach, director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

“The waste is driving up the cost of their care and it is money that they are spending that provides them no benefit,” Bach said by email. “It also drives up the cost for their insurance, which leads to higher premiums, which costs them more money too.”

Patients and insurers pay drug manufacturers about $1.8 billion a year for medicines that are thrown away, Bach and colleagues report in The BMJ.

They also pay an additional $1 billion to doctors and hospitals on wasted medications, according to the analysis.

Waste isn’t inevitable, the researchers conclude.

Take bendamustine, a drug for leukemia, that is sold in a broad array of package sizes. Doctors can combine different sized vials to get so close to the precise amount needed by the patient that only about 1 percent of the drug is wasted, the analysis finds.

But with another drug, bortezomib for multiple myeloma, the only available package size is far larger than what a typical patient needs and up to 30 percent of sales are due to wasted medicine, the analysis finds.

The drugs in the study treat a wide variety of tumors including breast, colon, prostate and pancreatic malignancies. They are all what’s known as biologic medicines, which are engineered from living cells, and they are generally far more expensive than pills.

Biologic medicines often lack preservatives and have a higher risk of contamination than other drugs, and leftovers from single-use vials are thrown out because using them could give patients infections, said Stacie Dusetzina, a pharmacy researcher at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill who wasn’t involved in the study.

“One of the clearest solutions to this waste is to have more dosing options available,” Dusetzina said by email. That would require drug makers to sell the medicines in a variety of package sizes.

More packaging options might also help with drug shortages, Dr. Yoram Unguru, an oncology researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

While drug packages might in theory be used for more than one patient, in reality this would require scheduling people who need the same medicine to come in to receive chemotherapy at the same time, said Dwight Kloth, director of pharmacy at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia.

“This is very difficult to do, and anything but convenient for patients,” Kloth, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

Beyond scheduling, concerns about safe handling and storage of opened vials to avoid contamination generally stop this type of sharing from happening, said Dr. Nancy Keating of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.

“Given concerns about causing harm, most healthcare entities (if not all) consider that use of single-use vials should be for a single patient,” Keating, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “Thus, any leftover drug gets discarded.”

Syria's Assad says military gains will speed up political deal

MOSCOW: The Syrian army´s successes and its strong support from Russia will help accelerate a political settlement to the country´s civil war, President Bashar al-Assad said, as the two allies maintained an offensive against Islamic State militants.

Assad was speaking in an interview with Russia´s RIA news agency published on Tuesday, two days after Syrian government forces, with intensive Russian air support, drove Islamic State from the desert city of Palmyra.

That military advance, which opened up much of Syria´s eastern desert stretching to the Islamic State strongholds of Deir al-Zor province and Raqqa, came after two weeks of indirect talks at the United Nations in Geneva.

Assad told RIA that the Syrian government delegation "displayed flexibility" at the talks with the opposition "in order not to miss a single chance" for settlement.

"Russia´s military support, the support provided by Syria´s friends and the military achievements of the Syrian army – all this will lead to the speeding up of political settlement, and not vice versa," he said.

"We did not change our position before Russia´s support or after it," he added.

Progress at the talks has been slow, with the government and its opponents deeply divided over any political transition, particularly whether Assad must leave power.

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura says he wants the negotiations to address the "mother of all issues", political transition in Syria.

But before the talks started, the Syrian government said the issue of the presidency was a red line.

Iran vows to pursue missile programme despite new US sanctions

DUBAI: Iran will pursue its development of ballistic missiles despite the US blacklisting of more Iranian companies linked to the programme, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander said on Monday.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) test-fired several ballistic missiles this month, drawing condemnation from Western leaders who believe the tests violate a United Nations resolution.

The US Treasury Department blacklisted on Thursday two Iranian companies, cutting them off from international finance over their connection to the missile programme.

Washington had imposed similar sanctions on 11 businesses and individuals in January over a missile test carried out by the IRGC in October 2015."Even if they build a wall around Iran, our missile programme will not stop," Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC´s aerospace arm, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

"They are trying to frighten our officials with sanctions and invasion.
This fear is our biggest threat. "US officials said Iran´s missile test would violate UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which calls on Iran not to conduct "any activity" related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

However, Washington said that a fresh missile test would not violate a July 2015 accord under which Iran has restricted its disputed nuclear programme and won relief from UN and Western financial sanctions in return.

That agreement between Iran and six world powers was endorsed in Resolution 2231.The Revolutionary Guards, Iran´s elite fighting and security force, maintains dozens of short and medium-range ballistic missiles, the largest stock in the Middle East.

It says the missiles are solely for defensive use with conventional, non-nuclear warheads.

President Hassan Rouhani, a pragmatic conservative, said on Sunday that boosting Iran´s defence capabilities is a "strategic policy" though Iran should take care not to provoke its enemies.

"We will pursue any measure to boost our defence might and this is a strategic policy," Rouhani was quoted as saying by Press TV in the first cabinet meeting in the new Persian year.

"But at the same time we should remain vigilant so that Iran´s enemies do not find any excuse to take advantage of the situation."

Iran has denied US accusations that it is acting "provocatively" with the missile tests, citing a long history of US interventions in the Middle East - including a US-engineered coup in Tehran in 1953 - and a right to self-defence.

Mumbai press club condemns ‘dastardly’ attack on KPC

MUMBAI: The Mumbai Press Club strongly condemned what it called the dastardly attack on the Karachi Press Club (KPC) on Sunday evening mounted by ‘fanatics belonging to the Anjuman Talba-e-Islam, the students wing of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan’.

According to a statement issued here today, initially, the attackers were protesting outside KPC against the hanging of Mumtaz Qadri.

“The protest was part of the campaign mounted by various religious organizations in Pakistan against Qadri's execution. Qadri, a police and security officer, was responsible for the assassination of Salman Taseer, the Punjab Governor, on 4th January 2011,” the statement said.

The demonstrators of Anjuman Talba outside the KPC premises yesterday suddenly went berserk and invaded the club premises saying their demonstration should be shown live on television.

The journalists and camera persons tried to explain but in vain that KPC has nothing to do with news coverage. Seeing tension, the gates of the KPC were closed. The attackers were carrying lathi, petrol bombs, etc. They stormed into the Club and tried to set Jaag TV's DSNG on fire. Many journalists were hurt in the melee and equipment and cameras broken and snatched by the goons.

“The Mumbai Press Club demands that the Pakistan government and the Sindh provincial government take stringent action against the attackers and the organization that perpetrated this outrage.”

The statement went on to say that it is the responsibility of the government to provide an atmosphere where journalists can work without any fear or favour. “The Mumbai Press Club has official and close bilateral relations with the Karachi Press Club, and we stand with them in solidarity,” it added.

The Mumbai Press Club has also conveyed solidarity with the journalist community of Karachi who are struggling against all odds for the freedom of expression.

India looks to bury Italy feud to achieve bigger ambition

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to a European Union summit this week, seeking to patch up a four-year diplomatic feud with Italy that has grown toxic enough to threaten New Delhi's ambitions to become a bigger global player.

India hopes the Brussels summit will bring a thaw in ties with Italy, and keep it from blocking the Asian nation's membership of a key global group on missile technology, after Rome single-handedly scuppered India's bid to join last year.

"We have always wanted a vibrant, robust partnership with Italy," said Indian foreign ministry official Nandini Singla. "We see Italy as a key EU partner."

The row between the two nations stems from India's arrest of two Italian Marines to stand trial for the killing of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012, a crime Italy said was beyond the jurisdiction of Indian courts.

One of the men has been allowed to return home for medical treatment, while the other is confined to the Italian embassy. Italy has sought international arbitration of the case, with a United Nations tribunal set to hold hearings this week.

An Italian government source said Italy seeks the return of the second Marine held at its New Delhi embassy, since the trial process in India had effectively ended after both parties agreed to international arbitration.

"There’s no reason for him to stay in India for the arbitration. We have asked that he be allowed to follow the proceedings from his own country," said the source, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the case.

India has joined the arbitration process and would respect the tribunal's decision, said Singla, who is the joint secretary for Western Europe at the Indian foreign ministry.

"This is not really a bilateral issue anymore, it has been taken out of the bilateral ambit and to an international tribunal."

She did not say how India would respond to the Italian request, however.

The sailors were part of a military team protecting an Italian oil tanker when, they say, they mistook a fishing boat for a pirate vessel and fired warning shots. Two fishermen died.

The EU plans to raise the issue of the Marines with Modi, according to an internal EU council note seen by Reuters, which said that such cases can influence the global fight on piracy.

For India, membership of the Missile Technology Control Regime, along with three other groups controlling the transfer of nuclear and other armaments is part of a diplomatic campaign to become a global player.

The MTCR is due to meet in October, when New Delhi will renew its bid for membership.

"We are interested in membership of all four regimes, we are engaged in dialogue with the groups as well as individual members," said Amandeep Singh Gill, head of the international security division of the Indian foreign ministry.

Afghan President calls PM Nawaz, condoles casualties in Lahore attack

ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Monday telephoned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and expressed grief over the loss of lives in terrorist attack in Lahore.

According to a PM House statement, the Afghan President also condemned the cowardly act of terrorists in which more than 70 people including women and children lost their lives.

PM Nawaz told Afghan President that military operation Zarb-e-Azb and the National Action Plan would continue unabated until the scourge of terrorism was eliminated from Pakistan.

A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a park in a densely populated area of Lahore on Sunday, killing more than 72 people including 29 children and injuring over 300 others, police and rescue official said.

The blast place took place just outside the exit gate and a few feet away from children´s swings at the Allama Iqbal Park in Iqbal Town, the police said.