admi: 六月 2011

2011年6月28日星期二

Israeli, Palestinian rights groups unite for Shalit (AFP)

在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。
在 ServiceModel 客户端配置部分中，找不到引用协定“TranslatorService.LanguageService”的默认终结点元素。这可能是因为未找到应用程序的配置文件，或者是因为客户端元素中找不到与此协定匹配的终结点元素。

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups issued a joint statement on Friday demanding that Gaza militants end "inhumane" treatment of an Israeli soldier they hold captive.

The declaration, signed by Israeli group B'Tselem, the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and eight others, comes as Israel marks the fifth anniversary of the capture of Gilad Shalit by three groups, including the Islamist Hamas.

"Those holding him have refused to allow him to communicate with his family, nor have they provided information on his well-being and the conditions in which he is being held," the statement said in English, Arabic and Hebrew. "This conduct is inhumane and a violation of international humanitarian law."

"Hamas authorities in Gaza must immediately end the cruel and inhuman treatment of Gilad Shalit," it added. "Until he is released, they must enable him to communicate with his family and should grant him access to the International Committee of the Red Cross."

In a message accompanying the statement, B'Tselem pointed out that its wording represented a consensus between groups with disparate views on the Shalit case.

"The organisations take a variety of positions on the issue," it wrote. "Some call for the immediate release of Shalit, while others support a prisoner swap."

"Some of the organisations have not made any statements until today. It is therefore particularly significant that the organisations have united around a joint message."

An Israeli spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ran Goldstein, told Israeli public radio that the organisation had been in contact with Hamas since the soldier was captured.

"Our main option is covert dialogue and that's what we've been doing for five years in the case of Gilad Shalit, whether in Gaza or elsewhere, meeting senior Hamas officials with the aim of getting access to Gilad Shalit and also in an attempt to persuade them to let him contact his family," he said.

Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday evening that in response to Hamas's continuing refusal to allow Red Cross visits to Shalit he had instructed the Israel Prisons Service to curtail privileges granted to Palestinian militant inmates.

"I'm not going to detail the measures, but I can tell you the party's over," Netanyahu said in a speech at an international conference in Jerusalem.

"I would like to give one example: I have stopped the absurd procedure whereby terrorists in Israeli prisons for murdering innocents can sign up for academic studies. There will be no more masters degrees in murder or doctors of terrorism," he said.

Shalit was 19 when he was captured in southern Israel on June 25, 2006, by militants who staged a cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip. He has been held ever since at a secret location there.

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2011年6月27日星期一

Palestinians pelt Gaza Red Cross office with eggs (AFP)

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Palestinians threw eggs at the international Red Cross office in Gaza on Thursday to protest against a call for Hamas to show signs a captured Israeli soldier was still alive.

Dozens of angry protesters also chanted slogans against the International Committee of the Red Cross and ripped down and destroyed the Red Cross sign over the office.

They were protesting over a call earlier on Thursday by the ICRC, demanding that Gaza rulers show proof that Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured five years ago, is alive.

Hamas, while not directly rejecting the Red Cross call, said Shalit would be freed only once Israel released Palestinian prisoners.

"We will only consider resolving the Shalit issue if the issue of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation's prisons is resolved," said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.

Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a deal that would see 1,000 Palestinians, including 450 with Israeli blood on their hands, released in exchange for Shalit have been stalled for over a year.

Shalit was 19 when he was captured on June 25, 2006, by three armed groups, including Hamas, along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip. He has been held ever since at a secret location in the Palestinian territory.

He has not been allowed visits by the Red Cross, and the last sign of life was in October 2009 when Hamas released a video of him calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do everything to free him.

"The total absence of information concerning Mr Shalit is completely unacceptable," said Yves Daccord, the ICRC's director general.

"The Shalit family have the right under international humanitarian law to be in contact with their son."

But the protest, organised by a Palestinian prisoners organisation, said the Red Cross should focus on the plight of the thousands of Palestinians in Israeli jails.

"The world and its Red Cross cry for one Israeli prisoner and try to forget thousands of Palestinian prisoners," one banner said.

The Red Cross has regular access to all Palestinian prisoners.

Israel has accused the Red Cross of not doing enough to secure access to Shalit.

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Israel takes down barbed wire at West Bank protest site (AFP)

BILIN, Palestinian Territories (AFP) – Israeli troops on Wednesday began taking down barbed wire around the West Bank village of Bilin, focus of years of protests against Israel's controversial separation barrier, an AFP correspondent reported.

Army bulldozers were seen razing a watchtower on a hill overlooking the village but the military declined to comment on the significance of the operation.

Last year, the defence ministry announced that it would begin altering the course of the barrier around Bilin in conformity with a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that it significantly impinged on the property rights of Palestinian landowners.

Israel says the barrier is designed to prevent attacks but the Palestinians view it as an "apartheid wall" that carves off key parts of their promised state.

When the 709-kilometre (435-mile) barrier is complete, 85 percent of it will have been built inside the occupied West Bank.

"The Israeli army began removing the barbed wire around the village today, four years after the ruling of the Israeli court," said Rateb Abu Rahmah, one of the organisers of the weekly protests in the village.

"The dismantlement of the wall is the fruit of the struggle by the people of the village," he added.

The Palestinians' protests against the barrier in Bilin have met with a sometimes deadly response from the Israeli security forces.

In January, a woman protester, Jawaher Abu Rahmah, died after inhaling tear gas. Her brother Bassem Abu Rahmah died in April 2009 after being struck on the head by a tear-gas canister.

In a non-binding 2004 judgement, the International Court of Justice called for the dismantling of all parts of the separation barrier built on occupied territory.

After a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories last month, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos described the barrier's impact on the lives of ordinary Palestinians as "devastating".

"I witnessed first hand the impact of the barrier on Palestinian communities. I was deeply disturbed by what I saw," she said.

"I recognise Israel's concern about security but the impact of the barrier is devastating. It's clear that civilians are bearing the brunt of the continuing conflict and occupation."

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Israel 'determined' to halt Gaza flotilla: UN envoy (AFP)

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – Israel is "determined" to stop an activist flotilla that will try to reach the besieged Gaza Strip next week, the country's UN envoy said Thursday.

Setting off a new dispute with his Palestinian counterpart, ambassador Ron Prosor said: "Israel is determined to stop this flotilla. Israel has the right to self defense." He called the protest a "provocation."

"The flotilla has nothing constructive -- there is nothing humanitarian or anything that has to do with Palestinian welfare in the organizing of this flotilla," he told reporters as the UN Security Council held talks on the Middle East including the flotilla.

Prosor called the organizers "extremists."

About 10 boats are to take part in the flotilla which is set to leave 13 months after Israeli commandos halted a previous aid armada heading for Gaza, killing nine people, mainly Turkish nationals.

A group of pro-Palestinian activists, led by several Turkish groups, have said they plan to sail to Gaza, mainly from Greek ports, in a repeat of the mission violently halted on May 31 last year.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and a number of governments have warned the flotilla not to start. The US government has warned its nationals against taking part in the protest.

Israel has strongly urged Turkey to block the flotilla from leaving. The United Nations has said that aid shipments should be sent through formal UN structures.

The Palestinian envoy to the United Nations, Riyadh Mansour, spoke up for the flotilla protest however. "If this blockade of Gaza was lifted there might not be the need for many of the things which are happening and might happen," he told reporters.

Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2006 after militants snatched Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. A ban on civilian goods and foodstuffs was eased last year but many restrictions remain in place.

Mansour rejected the Israeli envoy's condemnation of Palestinian moves to seek international recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September. Prosor said the "unilateral" action risked putting back peace efforts.

"The biggest illegal action we have seen for a long time is the illegal settlement campaign by Israel against our people," Mansour said.

Palestinians were ready to negotiate on final status issues with Israel, he said. "Our independence is not one of these six final status issues."

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Cyprus bans all sailings to Gaza ahead of flotilla plan (Reuters)

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Cyprus said on Thursday it had banned all sailings to Gaza, serving notice to any pro-Palestinian activists who might use the Mediterranean island as a springboard to challenge Israel's blockade of the territory.

Activists are planning to send an aid flotilla to Gaza from ports around Europe this month, defying warnings from Israel which has tight sea and land border controls around the enclave.

There had been no suggestion that Cyprus would be used for sailings, but the Mediterranean island was the launchpad for earlier voyages to Gaza which started in 2008.

It invoked a ban last year, just before nine Turkish activists were killed in an Israeli raid on an aid convoy which triggered a crisis in already strained relations between Israel and Turkey.

Organizers say a new flotilla of 10 ships would sail for Gaza from ports around Europe on June 25.

Israel has said it will prevent any new aid flotilla approaching Gaza, warning that any challenge could have "dangerous consequences."

Activists had said in May that about 1,500 people from around 100 countries would participate in the flotilla, carrying humanitarian aid and construction materials to Gaza.

Cyprus's ban applied to locally and foreign vessels, and to individuals who may attempt to leave Cyprus and embark on a Gaza-bound vessel at sea, the island's transport ministry said in a statement.

(Writing by Michele Kambas, editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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AP Exclusive: Palestinians ready to ease demands (AP)

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The Palestinians are ready to ease their demand for a freeze on Israeli settlement construction to get peace talks back on track, a top official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The softened position reflects the Palestinians' growing realization that their alternative strategies to talks — reconciling with the Hamas militant group and seeking unilateral recognition at the United Nations — are both in trouble.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a sensitive diplomatic proposal, said the Palestinians will ease the demand for a full construction freeze and resume peace talks if Israel accepts President Barack Obama's proposal to base negotiations on a broad Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

The issue is at the heart of the current impasse. The latest round of talks was launched last September at the White House after a two-year breakdown, only to collapse three weeks later with the expiration of an Israeli slowdown on settlement construction.

The Palestinians have been demanding a full freeze on all construction — which would go further than that slowdown — before resuming negotiations. Any move to drop or significantly ease that demand could put greater pressure on Israel to respond positively — perhaps by accepting Obama's formula, which it has not done.

Officials in the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wouldn't comment on the Palestinians' latest offer.

A new complication emerged earlier this year when Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party — frustrated over the impasse with Israel — began unity talks with its rival, Hamas. Israel has said it cannot negotiate with Abbas if he presides over a government that includes the Islamic militant group, which is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Difficulties that have emerged in implementing the unity pact — especially over the choice of prime minister — could render those objections moot.

With both the reconciliation effort and their U.N. strategy on the rocks, the Palestinians appear to be seeking a face-saving formula that would allow them to restart negotiations.

For months, the Palestinians have been saying there is no point in negotiating if Israel continues to build up Jewish enclaves in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, areas captured in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state.

But on Thursday, a senior Palestinian official told the AP that the Palestinians could live with a construction slowdown, in which Israel continues building projects already under construction but agrees not to approve any new projects.

In return, he said the Palestinians want Israel to accept Obama's plan calling for an independent state based on Israel's pre-1967 lines, albeit with some modifications through mutually agreed "land swaps."

The Palestinians have presented their ideas to American mediators visiting the region in recent days in an effort to get long-stalled negotiations moving again, the official said.

An Israeli official, also speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said Israel was sticking to its line on Hamas, and refused to comment on the settlement issue.

Netanyahu has ruled out a return to the 1967 lines and repeatedly said he believes Israel must keep east Jerusalem, home to sensitive religious sites, and broad swaths of the West Bank both for security reasons and to accommodate major settlements.

On Thursday, he repeated his demand that the Palestinians accept the existence of a Jewish state as the homeland of the Jewish people.

Last year's construction slowdown applied only to the West Bank and not to east Jerusalem, though in practice, building in east Jerusalem came to a halt.

Frustrated over the impasse with Israel, Abbas last month agreed to reconcile with Hamas and form a joint, caretaker government to prepare for new elections.

The Palestinians have been split between rival governments since Hamas defeated Abbas' forces and seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, leaving Abbas' Palestinian Authority in control only of the West Bank.

Initially welcomed by both sides, the reconciliation process has quickly run into trouble. Abbas wants to retain his current prime minister, Salam Fayyad, believing he is necessary to maintaining the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars in Western aid to the Palestinians. Hamas believes that Fayyad, a U.S.-educated economist, is too close to the West.

Other difficult issues loom in the future, most critically the reform of rival security forces. Hamas says it will never disband its militia in Gaza, a well-trained force of tens of thousands of men who possess rockets, anti-tank missiles and powerful explosives.

For now, both sides say they remain committed to forming the unity government. But the signs of trouble are clear. Early this week, Abbas called off a summit with Hamas' top leader, Khaled Mashaal, at short notice.

Adding to Abbas' troubles is the growing belief that the Palestinian plan to seek U.N. recognition of their independence will bring limited success at best.

The U.S. has already indicated it would veto any resolution that comes before the Security Council, the powerful body that must approve membership. That would force the Palestinians to turn to the General Assembly, where any vote would be nonbinding and amount to little more than a symbolic victory.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat insisted the Palestinians have not changed their positions. He said they remained committed to reconciliation, the U.N. vote, and a full settlement freeze, though he said negotiations are still their preference.

"The Palestinian position is known and clear. We want the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept the borders of 1967 as a basis for the two-state solution, and to stop all settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, especially in Jerusalem," he said.

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Palestinians: Talks with Israel won't stop UN bid (AP)

UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians will seek membership as an independent state at the U.N. in September even if peace negotiations with Israel are underway, the Palestinian U.N. envoy said Thursday.

Riyad Mansour said the Palestinians are working on three separate tracks — restarting negotiations, completing the institutions for an independent state and gaining additional recognition for a Palestinian state.

"If we succeed in opening the door for negotiations, we're not going to stop from attaining what belongs to us as Palestinians in this General Assembly starting on Sept. 20," Mansour told reporters after the Security Council's monthly meeting on the Mideast. "Whether we succeed in the negotiations or we don't, the other two tracks are continuing."

Mansour dismissed speculation that the Palestinians would decide against taking action to promote an independent Palestinian state and U.N. membership at the annual gathering of world leaders and ministers at the General Assembly.

Some Palestinians have said privately that the project is problematic and promises a messy and unclear outcome that could change little on the ground — and might backfire politically or even spark new violence if Palestinians emerge disappointed with the result.

U.N. membership requires a recommendation from the Security Council — which means no veto by the United States, Israel's closest ally — and approval by two-thirds of the General Assembly, or 128 countries. The U.S. has repeatedly said there should be a negotiated peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians before Palestine becomes a U.N. member state.

Earlier this month, U.S. officials told a visiting Palestinian delegation that seeking U.N. recognition in the absence of a peace deal was a "nonstarter" — the latest indication that the U.S. would veto a resolution at the Security Council.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor told reporters that "doing anything unilateral would not be constructive."

The Palestinians insist they will not resume peace talks until Israel stops building settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem — lands it captured in the 1967 Middle East war and which the Palestinians want for their future state. Israel maintains that the Palestinians should not set conditions for talks and that settlements didn't stop them negotiating in the past.

Mansour criticized Israel for refusing to halt settlement building and agree to resume negotiations based on 1967 borders, with agreed land swaps, as U.S. President Barack Obama has endorsed.

Israel's Prosor said "I think both sides are working together now to find ways to go into direct negotiations."

"I know that unilateral steps don't bring anything constructive, but on the contrary," he said, "so we all should try and work as much as we can with the time that we have in order to set down with the difficult issues that we still have to address."

Mansour wouldn't say exactly what the Palestinians will do at the U.N. in September. Asked when the Palestinians would submit an application for U.N. membership to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, he replied: "When we are ready."

He predicted that more than two-thirds of the 192 U.N. member states would recognize an independent Palestinian state before September, up from "around 120" countries at present.

"Then, we want to know if there is a position in the Security Council of depriving us of our natural right and legal right to join the community of nations as a state," he said. "What would be the argument if more than two-thirds of nations are supporting us in that endeavor?"

Mansour said he believes this year the Palestinians are facing "a historic moment" because the international community "is sick and tired of the continuation of this conflict."

"No one can stop the wheel of history that is rotating," he said. "They want to see it ending — and it has to be ending on the basis of an independent Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with east Jerusalem as its capital."

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Latest developments in Arab world's unrest (AP)

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SYRIA

Syrian troops push to the Turkish border in their sweep against a 3-month-old pro-democracy movement, sending panicked refugees, including children, rushing across the frontier to safe havens in Turkey. The European Union announces it is slapping new sanctions on the Syrian regime because of the "gravity of the situation," in which the Syrian opposition says 1,400 people have been killed in a relentless government crackdown.

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LIBYA

Supporters of Moammar Gadhafi rally in Tripoli after the Libyan leader lashes out at NATO over civilian casualties, calling the alliance "murderers" following an airstrike on the family home of a close associate. A few hundred supporters, most of them women, gather in the capital's Green Square hours after the late-night speech, vowing to defend the Libyan leader against rebels seeking to oust him and NATO forces giving them air support. Gadhafi also warns the alliance that its more than three-month mission in Libya is a "Crusader's campaign" that could come back to haunt the West.

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EGYPT

The outgoing Arab League chief says the Arab world's uprisings have set the region on a path of change. It is Amr Moussa's last speech Thursday to the 22-member organization before he leaves to run for president of Egypt. Moussa says the ongoing revolts will not be in vain, because "the Arab nation is on the right track."

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YEMEN

A senior U.S. diplomat pushing for a peaceful transfer of power in Yemen says that whichever side emerges from the four-month political crisis to lead the nation will cooperate with Washington in battling Yemen's al-Qaida branch. The Obama administration fears Yemen's turmoil will give al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula more room to operate freely and plot attacks on the West from the country's remote and mountainous reaches. The U.S. says the Yemen-based militants are now the terrorist network's No. 1 threat and has carried out expanded strikes against them with armed drones and warplanes.

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U.N. chief alarmed by Bahrain opposition sentences (Reuters)

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon voiced alarm on Thursday about conditions in Bahrain where activists and opposition leaders have received long prison sentences for protesting in the Gulf state.

"(Ban) notes with deep concern the harsh sentences, including life imprisonment, handed down in Bahrain against 21 political activists, human rights defenders and opposition leaders," Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky said.

"He urges the Bahraini authorities to allow all defendants to exercise their right to appeal and to act in strict accordance with their international human rights obligations, including the right to due process and a fair trial," he said.

Bahrain sentenced eight prominent Shi'ite Muslim activists and opposition leaders to life in prison on charges of plotting a coup during protests this year.

Nesirky said Ban hoped Bahrain authorities would take steps to facilitate a genuine national dialogue that would "address the legitimate aspirations of all Bahrainis."

The U.N. reaction echoed remarks from State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Wednesday, who said that Washington was concerned about the severity of the sentences.

Demonstrators have mounted scattered daily protests in the island kingdom since its emergency law was lifted on June 1.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Xavier Briand)

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Bahrain opposition figures given life sentences (Reuters)

MANAMA (Reuters) – Bahrain sentenced eight prominent Shi'ite Muslim activists and opposition leaders to life in prison on Wednesday on charges of plotting a coup during protests in the Gulf island kingdom earlier this year.

The sentencing stoked tensions in the kingdom, where small groups of demonstrators have held daily protests since emergency law was lifted on June 1, and may undermine a national dialogue planned by King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa to start next month.

"No dialogue with al-Khalifa! We demand the release of the prisoners," shouted some 100 protesters in one village near the capital Manama, before riot police broke up the demonstration.

In all 21 defendants, six of them tried in absentia, were charged with plotting to overthrow the government by force in collusion with "a terrorist organization" working for a foreign country. They can appeal the sentences.

Seconds after the verdict was issued, one of the defendants lined up in grey prison suits shouted: "We will continue our peaceful struggle." Other defendants responded by shaking their fists and shouting "peaceful, peaceful."

Policemen hustled them from the courtroom. Some relatives responded by chanting the Muslim rallying cry "Allahu akbar" (God is greatest) and one woman was dragged out of the chamber.

Among those who received life sentences was Shi'ite dissident Hassan Mushaimaa, leader of the hardline opposition group Haq, and Abduljalil al-Singace, from the same party. Haq joined two other groups in calling for the overthrow of the monarchy during mass protests in February and March.

Abdel Wahab Hussain, head of Wafa, another group that called for a republic, was also jailed for life. Ibrahim Sharif, Sunni Muslim leader of the secular leftist Waad party, received five years in prison. Waad and Bahrain's largest Shi'ite opposition group Wefaq had called for reform of the monarchy.

Danish-Bahraini citizen Abdulhady al-Khawaja, a rights activist, also received a life sentence, in the presence of several foreign diplomats who said the Danish embassy had not been granted access to Khawaja.

Bahrain's government said in a statement the "sentencing sends a message that law and order will be preserved.

"The defendants convicted today do not represent any significant number of the population, who actually believe that the way forward is through dialogue and peaceful means."

The United States, whose Fifth Fleet is based in Bahrain, criticized the sentences. "We are concerned about the severity of the sentences handed down," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. "We're also concerned about the use of military courts to try these civilians."

Britain, too, expressed concern that civilians were being tried before military judges. Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt said Ibrahim Sharif was "a prominent moderate politician who has been a constructive participant in Bahraini politics and represents a registered political party."

The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned as "political score-settling" the charges against the defendants, who included two bloggers.

"It is now incumbent on the international community, and particularly the kingdom's closest allies, to unambiguously convey to Bahrain that such blatant contempt for basic rights will not be tolerated," the group said in a statement.

PROTESTERS OUTRAGED

Bahrain's Sunni rulers, backed by forces from neighboring Sunni Gulf Arab states, crushed weeks of protests, mostly by majority Shi'ites, in March. Manama says the demonstrators had a

had a sectarian agenda backed by Shi'ite power Iran.

The opposition denies this, saying the protests aimed only to bring about democratic reform in the island monarchy.

Helicopters buzzed above Shi'ite villages and police armed with sound grenades and tear gas sought to snuff out protests.

In the island of Sitra, a hotspot for protests, youths blocked police cars by strewing cinder blocks, nails and wooden cupboards along village roads.

"I was furious at the nerve of the ruling family that they would give life sentences and then ask us to go to talks," said one woman protester named Maryam. "They were our symbols and the government chose to crush them. What does that say for us?"

Young men behind her regrouped in a protracted cat-and-mouse game with police. "Down, down (King) Hamad," they shouted.

Some observers have suggested King Hamad may try to cool tensions before the dialogue by granting a general amnesty to many of those jailed in recent trials.

In a statement, Wefaq said "these sentences will create an eternal political crisis without a quick ... solution."

Earlier, Wefaq spokesman Khalil al-Marzouq said Wefaq would not meet the government's Thursday deadline for responding to the invitation to dialogue, and could not say if it would join.

"Those people are a critical portion of the movement. How can there be a dialogue while they are in prison?" he asked.

(Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

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Analysis: Bahrain reform dialogue faces a rocky start (Reuters)

MANAMA (Reuters) – Some Sunni groups taking part in Bahrain's national dialogue say the Shi'ite-led opposition is serving Iran. Most participants have yet to announce their stance, and the largest opposition bloc may not even take part.

With only a week to go until the talks begin, deep-seated divisions and mutual suspicions mean consensus will be tough to reach and any reforms that are agreed are unlikely to satisfy everyone.

The Sunni-ruled Gulf kingdom quashed weeks of Shi'ite-led pro-democracy protests in March and imposed martial law until June 1. King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa then called a national dialogue, insisting that all reforms were up for discussion.

But with 300 people invited to join the talks and hundreds of opposition activists languishing in jail, critics hold out little hope that any meaningful reconciliation can be achieved.

"The possibility of it ending positively are nearly zero," said Shadi Hamid, from the Brookings Center in Doha.

Complicating matters on the tiny island is the presence of troops from fellow Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which is wary of unrest among its own Shi'ites, clustered in the oil-producing Eastern Province that is linked to Bahrain by a bridge.

Hundreds of mostly Shi'ite Bahrainis have been arrested for taking part in the protests, which the government says serve the political agenda of Shi'ite power Iran, just across Gulf waters.

With dozens facing military trial and the dismissal of up to 2,000 mostly Shi'ite workers and students, the leading Shi'ite opposition party, Wefaq, has warned that it might not be able to hold back protesters if the dialogue proves fruitless.

"The situation is boiling," Wefaq spokesman Khalil al-Marzouq said. "If people lose hope that this dialogue will achieve anything serious to solve their problems, I don't know how we will be able to keep things in check."

Since Bahrain lifted the emergency law, protests have erupted daily in Shi'ite villages clustered around the capital.

A military court sentenced eight prominent Shi'ite activists to life in prison Wednesday, on charges of plotting to overthrow the government. The ruling sent angry youths into the streets shouting "No dialogue with the Khalifa family," as riot police rushed to stamp out unrest.

BALANCE OF POWERS?

Bahrain's majority Shi'ites complain they are discriminated against in jobs and housing services. Opposition groups of all stripes complain that parliament's upper house, which is appointed by the king, can overrule the elected lower house.

Those sentenced to life belonged mainly to three hardline parties who called in March for the overthrow of the monarchy. They were small parties, but had begun to gain traction among young protesters inspired by the revolts in Egypt and Tunisia.

Along with a handful of moderate opposition parties, Wefaq has long called for a constitutional monarchy in which the Khalifa family remains, but elected deputies have more say.

With 18 MPs elected to the 40-seat lower house in the last election, Wefaq wants direct talks with the monarchy.

Instead, all seven registered opposition parties will have 35 seats between them. They say their voice will be drowned out among 300 figures taking part in talks.

"If I represented a majority in the parliament, how can I go to a dialogue where I get a fraction of the vote?" Marzouq said.

Sheikh Abdul-Aziz bin Mubarak al-Khalifa, international counselor at the Information Affairs Authority, called on Wefaq to "be a leader" and join the talks, arguing that consensus would need to be reached, no matter the percentages.

"All parties must see eye to eye, and who doesn't want more political participation? They all want the same thing," he said.

CLASHING VIEWS

Yet the tenacity of the opposition protesters and the ferocity of the government crackdown against them, have left such gaping wounds in Bahraini society, that those who could once find common ground are now entrenched in their views.

The head of the National Unity Gathering, a large political bloc seen as loyal to the government, is skeptical of Wefaq's calls for a reformed constitutional monarchy.

"I feel like we are in a constitutional monarchy now. We have a constitution and nothing is imposed without law," Sheikh Abdullatif al-Mahmoud told Reuters.

Many of the Sunni or pro-government groups that are taking part in the dialogue say opposition Shi'ites want to bring Bahrain into Shi'ite Iran's sphere of influence.

"The opposition's demand is not a civil state or a democracy," said Abdulhaleem Murad, of the Islamist Sunni group Asala. "To be brief, their demand is to implement the Iranian agenda that aims to create an Iranian empire, starting in Bahrain as a key to the rest of the Arab Gulf."

Even government officials told Reuters they questioned the loyalties of groups like Wefaq.

In an interview, Wefaq leader Sheikh Ali Salman shook his head and said there was nothing more his party could do to convince their dialogue partners of their Bahraini loyalty.

"All we can do is repeat: We want a civil state for all religious groups and political movements in Bahrain," he said.

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Americans warned against sailing in Gaza flotilla (AP)

WASHINGTON – The State Department is warning Americans against participating in an international flotilla aimed at breaking Israel's sea blockade of the Palestinian Gaza Strip.

In a new travel advisory for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, the department says the Gaza coast is "dangerous and volatile."

The advisory notes that the Israeli navy has stopped previous attempts to enter Gaza by sea, and that's resulted in deaths, injuries and arrests.

The U.S. says those participating may face arrest, prosecution and deportation. Israeli authorities say they will seek to ban anyone attempting to break the blockade from traveling to Israel for 10 years.

A group of 36 U.S. citizens has announced plans to sail aboard a U.S.-flagged vessel in a flotilla to this month to challenge the blockade.

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Clinton: Gaza flotilla a bid to provoke Israel (AP)

WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday criticized activists planning to challenge Israel's sea blockade of the Gaza Strip, saying their efforts are neither "necessary or useful" in helping the Palestinian people of Gaza.

A day after the State Department warned Americans against participating in the planned flotilla, Clinton said the flotilla, which Israel has said it will thwart, is not helpful and will only increase tensions. She noted that Israeli authorities had this week approved new shipments of housing construction material to enter Gaza legally and that the aim of the organizers appeared to be to merely provoke Israel into using its right to defend itself.

"We do not believe the flotilla is a necessary or useful effort to try to assist the people of Gaza," Clinton told reporters at a news conference with the visiting foreign minister of the Philippines. "We think that it's not helpful for there to be flotillas that try to provoke action by entering into Israeli waters and creating a situation in which the Israelis have the right to defend themselves."

On Wednesday, the State Department specifically discouraged U.S. citizens from taking part in the flotilla, which is planned for later this month. In a new travel warning for Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, it said the Gaza coast is "dangerous and volatile" and pointed out that the Israeli navy had stopped previous attempts to enter Gaza by sea, and that's resulted in deaths, injuries and arrests. A dual U.S.-Turkish citizen was killed in a clash between Israeli forces and activists on board a Gaza-ship last year.

The department said those who participate may face arrest, prosecution and deportation by Israeli authorities, who have also said they will seek to ban anyone attempting to break the blockade from traveling to Israel for 10 years.

A group of 36 U.S. citizens has announced plans to sail aboard a U.S.-flagged vessel in a flotilla to Gaza to challenge the blockade.

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UN chief to Bahrain: Reconsider harsh sentences (AP)

UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging the government of Bahrain to allow political activists involved in the Arab Spring opposition movement to appeal their harsh sentences.

A Bahrain court on Wednesday handed down eight life sentences and other harsh penalties to 21 people in an attempt to cripple protests against the regime.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said Thursday that Ban also urged government authorities to act "in strict accordance with their international human rights obligations" and ensure the convicts rights to due process and a fair trial.

The U.N. chief stressed that a national dialogue announced by the king should fulfill the legitimate aspirations of all Bahrainis, Nesirky said.

(This version CORRECTS APNewsNow. Corrects to say eight were sentenced to life in prison instead of death. For global distribution.)

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Bahrain cleric condemns life sentences for leaders (AP)

MANAMA, Bahrain – Bahrain's top Shiite cleric is sharply criticizing the life sentences given to eight opposition leaders by a special security court for their role in anti-government protests.

Sheik Isa Qassim says the verdict is a "bad message" to people demanding more freedoms in the Gulf kingdom, which is home to the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet.

He also called the mass trials of Shiite opposition figures unfair and appealed to the nation's Sunni rulers to overturn the sentences. The cleric spoke during Friday's sermon in Diraz, an opposition stronghold northwest of the capital, Manama.

Bahrain on Wednesday sentenced convicted 21 opposition figures of plotting to overthrow the royal family. Eight leaders received life sentences; 13 others got long prison terms.

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Palestine may be partner: Council of Europe assembly head (AFP)

STRASBOURG, France (AFP) – The Palestinian National Council could this year gain "partner for democracy" status at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Strasbourg-based body said Wednesday.

The assembly's Turkish head, Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking as Morocco gained the same status, said he hoped that "during our next session (in October) we shall also be able to grant the Partner for Democracy status to Palestine and that other countries will soon apply".

The Council introduced the new status last year to strengthen cooperation with parliaments of non-member states that wish to participate in debates that transcend European borders.

The Palestinian National Council, the parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization, officially applied for the status last November.

Tiny Kox, the Dutch rapporteur for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on the case, visited the Palestinian territories in March when he invited president Mahmud Abbas to address the European body, which may happen at the October session.

The partnership status allows parliamentary delegates from countries from the southern Mediterranean, the Middle East and Central Asia to take part in PACE's activities, though without the right to vote -- which is reserved for parliamentarians from the 47 Council of Europe member states.

Morocco on Tuesday became the first parliament to receive the recognition which comes with certain obligations.

These include the holding of free and fair elections and working for the total abolition of the death penalty.

Kox recently hailed the signing in Cairo of a reconciliation agreement between feuding Palestinian groups.

Three countries have a separate observer status at the PACE; Canada, Mexico and Israel.

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Bahrain opposition slams life terms for Shiite activists (AFP)

DUBAI (AFP) – Bahrain's largest Shiite opposition group slammed the jailing for life of eight activists, saying the harsh punishment will do nothing to ease the political crisis in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

The Islamic National Accord Association (Al-Wefaq) has "received these sentences with shock, especially as they contradict the call for national dialogue" proposed by King Hamad and set to begin on July 1, the group said in a statement received by AFP on Thursday.

The life sentences "will overshadow the stability in the country as they will also make the political crisis remain for life as well," the Al-Wefaq statement said.

The National Safety Court of first instance on Wednesday sentenced eight Shiite opposition activists to life in prison for "plotting to overthrow" the kingdom's rulers, the official Bahrain News Agency said.

It also jailed 13 other activists for two to 15 years on similar charges.

The judgement drew an expression of concern from Washington, which stations its Fifth Fleet in the small but strategic Gulf archipelago.

The kingdom said in an English-language statement by the Information Affairs Authority late on Wednesday that the "sentencing sends a message that law and order will be preserved."

This will reassure "the majority of the population of Bahrain that their security will not be allowed to be compromised by violence or attempts to overthrow the regime or by the calling for the establishment of an Islamic republic," it added.

The Gulf kingdom's government reiterated its calls for national dialogue.

"Those who attend the dialogue will show leadership and distance themselves from the radical elements and therefore prove to the international community that the majority believes in this inclusive forum to pave a better future," it said.

The defendants "do not represent any significant number of the population who actually believe that the way forward is through dialogue and peaceful means," it added.

Khalil Marzooq, a member of Al-Wefaq has slammed the sentences as contradictory to the king's calls for dialogue.

"There are political forces, some of whom have received harsh sentences today, which have not been invited for dialogue," said Marzooq in excerpts of a speech he gave at a press conference in Manama posted on Al-Wefaq's Facebook page. "How will there be a dialogue without those figures?"

US State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said: "We are concerned about the severity of the sentences handed down... in Bahrain. We're also concerned about the use of military courts to try these civilians."

"Such steps are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain's citizens," he told reporters.

But Bahrain's government said "the nature of recent incidents and the threat to national security makes the Law of National Safety a legitimate means to prosecute the perpetrators in a court, where they had access to legal counsel and representation, for bringing the country to the brink of total anarchy."

Scores more activists are facing trial on charges linked to Shiite-led protests that rocked the kingdom for a month from mid-February, in the semi-martial court set up under a "state of national safety" decreed by King Hamad.

Bahrain's interior ministry said 24 people, including four policemen, were killed in the unrest. The opposition said scores were arrested, amid widespread allegations of torture, while hundreds were dismissed from their jobs.

Four people have been sentenced to death and three others to life in prison over the killing of two policemen during the protests. Nine others were jailed for 20 years after being convicted of abducting a policeman.

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2011年6月26日星期日

6 Infertile Women Get Pregnant After Weight-Loss Surgery (LiveScience.com)

Weight-loss surgery may treat infertility in some obese women, a new study says.

Six women in the study who were infertile due to polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a condition that can occur with weight gain and cause infertility, became pregnant following weight-loss surgery, the researchers say.

The study was small and more research is needed to confirm the findings. But for women with PCOS, weight-loss surgery may be a cure for infertility, said study researcher Dr. Mohammad Jamal, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

"Many other studies have shown bariatric surgery can improve or resolve a multitude of diseases and conditions," including diabetes, Jamal said. "It appears that infertility now joins that list."

However, infertility experts disagree the surgery is a cure. If women with PCOS regain the weight, their infertility would likely return, said Dr. Beth Plante, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Brown University Medical School who was not involved in the study.

"We wouldn't typically recommend having the surgery just to treat infertility," Plante said.

But she said weight loss through any means has been shown to improve fertility in those with PCOS.

"If this is how a patient chooses to achieve that weight loss, then we would usually encourage that," Plante said.

The study will be presented today (June 15) at the meeting of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in Orlando.

Infertility and surgery

PCOS is a disorder in which a woman's levels of sex hormones are out of balance, according to the National Institutes of Health. Symptoms include changes in the menstrual cycle, small cysts in the ovaries and infertility. The condition occurs in up to 10 percent of women of childbearing age, Jamal said.

It's not known what causes PCOS. But obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes are common in those with the condition. Women are usually diagnosed with PCOS in their 20s and 30s, but symptoms can begin at puberty, according to the NIH.

In the new study, Jamal and colleagues reviewed the medical records of 20 women who had PCOS before weight-loss surgery.

Six of these women wanted to become pregnant but had been infertile. All six became pregnant within three years of having the surgery.

Seventeen women in the study had irregular periods before the surgery, and 14 of them saw a restoration of their menstrual cycle afterward.

After the surgery, the women lost an average of 60 percent of their excess weight, the researchers said.

Precautions

The surgery comes with risks, Plante said. For this reason, women with PCOS should only have the surgery if they were already considering it for other reasons, to treat their obesity or other conditions, including high blood pressure and diabetes, Plante said.

In addition, because of potential nutrition deficits after surgery, it is recommended women who undergo weight-loss surgery put off trying to conceive until 18 months after surgery, Jamal said.

Obesity itself can pose risks during pregnancy, including the risk of gestational diabetes. So weight-loss surgery can reduce the risk of many pregnancy complications, Jamal said.

Pass it on: Obese women with polycystic ovarian syndrome may be able to become pregnant after weight-loss surgery.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner.

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Experts Issue Guidelines on Safe Weight Loss for Athletes (HealthDay)

MONDAY, June 20 (HealthDay News) -- Gymnasts, wrestlers and boxers often feel pressure to lose weight to boost performance, but the drastic methods they sometimes use -- including strictly limiting calories and intentional dehydration -- can be dangerous to their health, experts warn.

To offer guidance to athletes, coaches and parents, the National Athletic Trainers' Association has issued a new set of guidelines for safe weight loss by athletes.

They include: using body composition assessments to measure lean body mass versus fat; gradually shedding no more than 1.5 percent of body weight a week; eating a balanced diet that includes all food groups; and losing weight under the supervision of nutrition, health and weight management experts.

"In the performance sports -- gymnastics, dance, ballet -- they have this huge responsibility to not only do a performance but to look good while they are doing it. It's a unwritten rule that they have to be a certain weight, and they get a lot of pressure, not just from dance masters but from the public's expectations and themselves," said Paula Sammarone Turocy, lead author of the guidelines and chair of the department of athletic training at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. "We also see it in traditional sports -- jockeys, wrestlers, boxers. They all have weight requirements. If they don't make the weight, they don't compete."

And the pressure to shed weight cuts across all sports, she added. Many cyclists, swimmers, runners, soccer players and even football players believe that losing weight will mean they can run, swim and jump faster.

Getting down to an ideal body weight to improve performance isn't a problem in and of itself, she said. It's when athletes go to extremes that their drive can backfire. "When it's done improperly or done to extremes it does interfere with performance," she explained.

The new guidelines were to be presented Monday at the annual meeting of the National Athletic Trainers' Association in New Orleans and are published in the June issue of the Journal of Athletic Training.

Ashleigh Clare-Kearney has been there. As a high school student, she was a standout gymnast, in more ways than one. She was powerful and graceful, although she was 5-foot-4 and weighed 155 pounds.

"I didn't fit the stereotypical frame, which is 4 feet, 10 inches, 110 pounds," Clare-Kearney said. "I was told, 'You need to lose weight. You will be viewed as a risk. You are not going to be able to compete in elite international competitions.' People said I wouldn't make it because of my size."

She defied their predictions. As a gymnast at Louisiana State University (LSU), she became the NCAA national champion in vault and floor, captain of the team and a NCAA Woman of the Year finalist.

Yet she couldn't deny it -- slimming down would help her performance. She'd put on weight when she got to college, and she knew that carrying less heft might allow her to vault even higher.

Working with the athletic trainers and the coaches at LSU, she got down to about 145 pounds by focusing on nutrition. "I was never going to be 110 pounds. That's not the way I'm built," she said. "What really resonated with me was the way the athletic training staff understood that. They said, 'Let's be realistic.'"

For Clare-Kearney, that included keeping a food diary, making sure to always eat breakfast, drinking water instead of sweetened beverages and eating more fruits and vegetables and less processed foods.

But not every athlete manages to handle the pressure to lose weight so well.

Before competitions, some wrestlers, jockeys and boxers intentionally dehydrate themselves by exercising in heavy clothing and restricting certain foods and fluids to lose weight quickly.

There are even anecdotal reports that elite, international athletes have their blood removed by IV prior to weigh-in. The blood is then re-infused before competition.

Among wrestlers at least, intentional dehydration may be less popular than it used to be due to changes in the rules from the high school level on up that call for urine tests to detect hydration status at weigh-in. In 2006, for example, the National Federation of State High School Associations not only adopted the hydration status rules, but also minimum body fat requirements (greater than 7 percent in boys and 12 percent in girls) in order to compete.

Not only can rapid weight loss hurt performance over the short term because athletes simply don't have the energy to perform at their best, but experts add that restricting calories can also have long-term consequences.

Over time, dietary restrictions can impact the endocrine system, hindering the growth and functioning of muscles and bones. A poor diet can also impair thyroid function, lower metabolism and hormone production and suppress the immune system.

Clare-Kearney, now a law student at Southern University Law Center of Baton Rouge and a volunteer coach for her alma mater, urges young athletes to consider the consequences of their diets.

"Food really does fuel your body. Your body can only handle so much without the proper fuel and nutrition," she said. "And there is life beyond gymnastics. We also have to keep our body healthy for life after gymnastics."

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more on eating disorders.

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Weight-Loss Surgery May Not Lower Death Risk: Study (HealthDay)

SUNDAY, June 12 (HealthDay News) -- Weight-loss surgery doesn't decrease the risk of death among severely obese middle-aged adults, a new study says.

U.S. researchers looked at 850 male patients at Veterans Affairs medical centers who had weight-loss (bariatric) surgery between January 2000 and December 2006. Their average age was 49.5 and their average body mass index was 47.4 (a body mass index, or BMI, over 40 is considered severely obese).

The death rate in this group of patients was compared to that of a control group of about 41,000 VA patients (average age 54.7, average BMI 42) who didn't have surgery.

Eleven of the 850 bariatric surgery patients (1.29 percent) died within one month after surgery. Unadjusted analysis of the death rates over a six-year period showed that the bariatric surgery patients had lower death rates than those in the control group, but further analysis showed that bariatric surgery was not significantly associated with reduced risk of death, said Matthew L. Maciejewski, of the Durham VA Medical Center in Durham, N.C., and colleagues.

The study, published online and in the June 15 print issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, was to be presented Sunday at an AcademyHealth research meeting in Seattle.

Even though bariatric surgery doesn't reduce the risk of death among middle-aged male patients, many of them still decide to undergo the procedure because there's strong evidence that it reduces body weight and obesity-related health problems, and improves quality of life, the researchers said.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about bariatric surgery.

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Obesity and lack of exercise linked to chronic pain (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – It may not be surprising, but people who exercise at least one hour per week have a lower risk of troublesome back, neck, and shoulder pain, a new study shows.

The new evidence supports the possibility that obesity and physical inactivity play a role in a person's risk of developing chronic pain in those areas, said study co-author Dr. Paul Mork, of Norwegian University of Science and Technology in an email to Reuters Health.

Mork and colleagues followed more than 30,000 adults who participated in a large Norwegian health study. They recorded participants' body mass index (BMI) - a measure of weight related to height - at the start of the study, as well as how often they exercised, and then tracked them over the next 11 years.

The authors divided the participants into four categories based on how often they exercised, and four categories based on their BMI. They also looked at how many people in each category developed chronic neck, shoulder, and lower back pain.

Overall, 1 of every 10 people in the study developed lower back pain, and nearly 2 of every 10 developed shoulder or neck pain.

After taking into account participants' age, BMI, whether or not they smoked, and whether they did manual labor at work,

the research team found that men who were exercising 2 hours or more per week at the start of the study were 25 percent less likely to have lower back pain 11 years later, and 20 percent less like to have neck or shoulder pain, compared men who didn't exercise at all. And women who exercised at least 2 hours per week were 8 percent less likely to develop lower back pain than women who were inactive, and 9 percent less likely to develop neck and shoulder pain.

Weight, not surprisingly, also affected the risk of chronic pain later on. Obese men were almost 21 percent more likely to develop chronic lower back pain than men of normal weight, and 22 percent more likely to develop neck or shoulder pain. Obese women were also 21 percent more likely to develop lower back pain than women of normal weight, and 19 percent more likely to develop neck and shoulder pain.

Based on the results, Mork believes that even moderate physical exercise - just one hour or more per week - "can, to some extent, compensate for the adverse effect of being overweight and obese on future risk of chronic pain."

"Chronic neck and back pain are important to public health due to their substantial influence on quality of life, disability, and health care resources," Dr. Adam Goode from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina told Reuters Health by email. Goode, a physical therapist, was not involved in the study by Mork's group.

Back in the mid-1990s, a study from the Netherlands estimated that low back pain cost that country nearly 2 percent of its gross national product. In their new paper Mork and colleagues write that "just a small reduction in the incidence of chronic lower back pain would have a profound economic impact."

Because of the way it was designed, the Norwegian study can't prove that lack of exercise and being overweight actually caused people's chronic pain, or that regular exercise and a more healthy weight prevented it. It could be that the people who did or didn't have chronic pain are different in ways the study did not measure.

However, given the known benefits of exercise and maintaining a healthy weight, Mork believes that "community based measures aimed at reducing the incidence of chronic pain...should aim at promoting regular physical exercise and the maintenance of normal body weight."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/jaoix5, online June 11, 2011

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Ways to Curb Childhood Obesity Outlined in U.S. Report (HealthDay)

THURSDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) -- Strategies to encourage physical activity, healthy eating and good sleep habits are needed to reduce high rates of obesity among infants, toddlers and preschoolers in the United States, says an Institute of Medicine report released Thursday.

Limiting children's TV time is a key recommendation.

Rates of excess weight and obesity among U.S. children ages 2 to 5 have doubled since the 1980s. About 10 percent of children from infancy up to age 2 years and a little more than 20 percent of children ages 2 to 5 are overweight or obese, the report said.

"Contrary to the common perception that chubby babies are healthy babies and will naturally outgrow their baby fat, excess weight tends to persist," report committee chair Leann Birch, professor of human development and director in the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University, said in an institute news release.

"This is a national concern because weight-related conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure once occurred almost exclusively in adults but are now occurring at rising rates among teens and young adults," Birch said.

"Child care providers, health professionals, and policymakers can be helpful partners to parents in reducing obesity risk by creating healthy environments and implementing positive practices during the crucial early years of development," she added.

Tackling only one factor will not solve the problem of obesity among infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The issue requires a wide-ranging approach that includes identifying when young children are overweight, increasing physical activity, encouraging healthy eating, and making sure children get enough sleep, the report said.

Recommendations include:

Limiting young children's television and other media use,Requiring child-care providers to promote healthy sleeping practices,Educating parents about age-appropriate sleep times and good sleep habits,Requiring child-care providers to provide opportunities and environments that encourage physical activity,Increasing efforts to promote breast-feeding,Requiring child-care facilities and preschools to follow the meal patterns established by the U.S. Child and Adult Care Food Program.

The report recommendations are aimed at policymakers and health-care and child-care providers, but these professionals can educate and support parents in establishing health habits in the home, too, the report authors said.

The institute is under the umbrella of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines how parents can keep their children at a healthy weight.

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Rushed Discharge After Weight-Loss Surgery May Raise Risks (HealthDay)

WEDNESDAY, June 15 (HealthDay News) -- Weight loss surgery patients who are discharged from the hospital too soon after undergoing gastric bypass have an increased risk of complications and death, a new study has found.

After analyzing data from nearly 52,000 gastric bypass patients, researchers found that those released from the hospital the day of surgery were 12 times more likely to have serious complications (1.9 percent versus 0.16 percent) and 13 times more likely to die than patients who left the hospital after the U.S. average of a two-day stay.

The death rate within 30 days of discharge was 0.1 percent for those who stayed in the hospital for two or more days, versus 0.8 percent for those who left the day of surgery.

Patients who were discharged from the hospital less than 24 hours after an overnight stay were two times more likely to die within 30 days than those who remained in hospital for two days after their surgery, the investigators found.

Like all surgeries, bariatric surgery carries surgical risks, including serious infections, internal bleeding, blood clots, and death, according to the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBA).

Length of stay appeared to be a greater risk factor than age, gender, race, body mass index and obesity-related conditions, the researchers noted.

The study was scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, in Orlando, Fla. Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

"This study shows what a difference a day makes," co-author Dr. John Morton, an associate professor of surgery and director of bariatric surgery at Stanford Hospital & Clinics at Stanford University, said in an ASMBS news release.

"A two-day length of stay appears reasonable for most people and results in a safety profile that rivals gallbladder or hip replacement surgery. To reduce it further may put patients at an increased chance of unnecessary risk," said Morton, who is chair of the ASMBS Access to Care Committee. "A patient should be discharged based on his or her individual risk profile. We counsel our patients to avoid drive-thru fast food, and also advise against drive-thru gastric bypass."

"Bariatric surgery is safer than ever, but discharging patients too soon after surgery may be pushing the envelope too far and may have serious consequences," he added.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about gastric bypass surgery.

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Older men don't live longer with weight-loss surgery (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Weight-loss surgery may not help obese middle aged and older men live longer, according to new research that runs counter to earlier findings in younger people.

The results mean doctors should be extra careful when counseling obese patients about their treatment options, Matthew Maciejewski of Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina and colleagues write in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In 2009, more than 220,000 Americans had some type of weight loss surgery, at a price of about $20,000 per patient, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

Experts say surgery is the most enduring way to bring down one's weight, and earlier studies have suggested it will increase life expectancy by up to three years.

At first, the new study did appear to confirm those findings, but the benefit didn't hold up when comparing similar patients who did or did not have surgery.

The researchers looked back at the outcomes of 850 veterans, mostly men over 50 years old, who'd had weight-loss surgery between 2000 and 2006.

Six years after their surgery, about seven percent of the men had died, compared to 15 percent among a comparison group of obese men who didn't have surgery.

But when patients from the two groups were matched closely according to weight, age, race and other factors, the survival gap disappeared.

Previous studies have found that about seven percent of patients having weight-loss surgery experience complications, although most are minor wound problems.

Serious complications -- such as massive bleeding or kidney failure -- occurred in 2.6 percent of patients in one study from last year.

The new study is the first to compare death rates among heavy middle aged and older men who did or did not have weight-loss surgery, the researchers say, but it did have a number of limitations.

For instance, it's possible that following the patients for longer than six years would have changed the picture in favor of those who had surgery. And, the researchers stress, patients may still want surgery, even if it turns out not to affect their life expectancy, because the weight loss is likely to improve other medical conditions and quality of life.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/ifujZX Journal of the American Medical Association, online June 12, 2011.

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Study Reveals Bariatric Surgery Less Effective in Middle-Aged Adults (ContributorNetwork)

If you're morbidly obese and middle-aged, weight-loss surgery may not decrease your chances of dying, according to a study published Sunday in the online Journal of the American Medical Association. Morbidly obese is defined as having a body mass index greater than 39 and generally means someone who is 100 pounds or more overweight.

Researchers were interested in studying the mortality rates of middle-aged and older adults after bariatric surgery. Data available prior to this study was based almost solely on young, white females who had had the weight-loss surgery. That group of individuals has a lower incidence of mortality related to obesity even before bariatric surgery than do older adults, according to study researchers.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of weight-loss surgery in populations with an increased risk of death related to obesity; these populations were identified as being highest in men and minority populations.

The research team studied follow-up data for 850 men with a mean age of 49.5 years and a mean BMI of 47.4 for an average of 6.2 years. The men in the study had the weight-loss surgery between the years 2000 and 2006. Their mortality (death) rate was compared to a control group of 41,000 other men who did not have the surgery, reports Yahoo! News. All the men were patients at medical centers of Veterans Affairs.

Researchers concluded that bariatric surgery in morbidly obese middle-aged men did not decrease their risk of death compared with care that did not include the surgery. Still, this population may opt for weight-loss surgery based on factors other than mortality rate, such as the reduction of body weight, control of obesity-related health conditions and improved quality of life.

In the United States, weight-loss surgery usually involves one of four procedures, explains the Weight-Control Information Network. The four procedures, each with its own risks and benefits, are: adjustable gastric band (AGB); Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB); biliopancreatic diversion with a duodenal switch (BPD-DS); and vertical sleeve gastrectomy (VSG). The AGB works by decreasing food intake while the other surgeries involve not only the decreased ability to take in food but also affect food absorption and other factors.

Your physician will weigh conditions such as your health, obesity-related health conditions and your eating behaviors in helping to determine which, if any, of the weight-loss surgeries would be to your benefit. The outcome of this new study into mortality rates following bariatric surgery may be a factor in your consideration of the procedure now also.

Smack dab in the middle of the baby boomer generation, L.L. Woodard is a proud resident of "The Red Man" state. With what he hopes is an everyman's view of life's concerns both in his state and throughout the nation, Woodard presents facts and opinions based on common-sense solutions.

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Weight-Loss Surgery Can Be Effective Despite Depression (HealthDay)

WEDNESDAY, June 15 (HealthDay News) -- Being depressed doesn't reduce the effectiveness of weight loss surgery, a new study finds.

University of Michigan researchers analyzed data from more than 25,469 patients who had weight loss surgery and found that patients who were depressed or depression-free before the surgery all lost nearly 60 percent of their excess weight within one year. They also reported an average 30 percent improvement in quality of life, including greater mobility, social interactions, family life and independent living.

Patients with depression did have a higher rate of minor complications (4 percent versus 3.3 percent), but there were no significant differences in major complications between the two groups. (The average rate of major complications from weight loss surgery is 4 percent.)

The study also found that the use of antidepressants by patients who had depression decreased by about 20 percent (from 72 percent to 60 percent of patients) one year after weight loss surgery and remained at that level after three years of follow-up.

The study was slated for presentation Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS).

"Depression and anxiety are relatively common among those with chronic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes, and these conditions can sometimes interfere with treatment," lead author Dr. Jonathan F. Finks, an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Michigan, said in an ASMBS news release.

"This study suggests bariatric patients suffering from depression can experience health outcomes and quality of life improvements comparable to non-depressed patients. However, doctors and patients still need to consider psychological issues, state of mind and commitment to lifestyle changes after surgery in assessing whether bariatric surgery is appropriate and indicated for any particular patient," he added.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the findings should be viewed as preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases has more about weight loss surgery.

View the original article here

Weight loss surgery may cure diabetes in many cases (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Most obese people with diabetes will be cured of the blood sugar disease after undergoing weight loss surgery, a new review of earlier studies suggests.

In a report published in the Archives of Surgery, researchers say eight out of ten patients could stop taking their diabetes medications following a gastric bypass operation.

"Surgery ought to be considered front line therapy for diabetes among obese people," said Dr. Jon Gould, who heads the weight loss surgery program at the University of Wisconsin and was not involved in the review.

The researchers combed through the data of nine studies of diabetics who had either gastric bypass or another form of weight loss surgery called gastric banding.

In gastric bypass, food is diverted around the stomach into a small pouch, reducing the amount of food a person can eat and hindering its absorption.

Gastric banding slips a ring over the top of the stomach to limit how much a person eats.

In 2009, more than 220,000 Americans had some type of weight loss surgery, at a price of about $20,000 per patient, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

Eight of the nine studies included between 23 and 177 patients, while one study tracked the outcomes of 82,000 patients. Each study followed the patients for at least 12 months after their weight loss surgery.

Among diabetics who had gastric bypass -- the gold standard weight loss surgery in the U.S. -- 83 percent wound up free of diabetes medications, some within days of the procedure.

Sixty-two percent of diabetics who had the gastric banding procedure could stop taking diabetes medication while maintaining good control of their blood sugar.

Dr. Rick Meijer at the Institute for Cardiovascular Research at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and the lead author of the new report said those outcomes exceed what can be achieved with conventional methods of diabetes treatment.

"In standard practice, only a very minor group of individuals with an iron-will can lose enough weight to be cured from type 2 diabetes mellitus," Meijer wrote in an email to Reuters Health. "The rest of patients have a chronic disease with the need of daily medication-regimens."

About 18 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with diabetes. Meijer said about 90 percent of cases are due to excessive weight, though not all obese diabetics would be eligible for weight loss surgery.

It's unclear how long surgery's impact on diabetes can last.

One study included in the review found that 10 years after surgery, just one third of people whose diabetes had abated continued to have good control of their blood sugar.

Gould said many diabetics could benefit from weight loss surgery, but the approach is underutilized, often because private insurance plans do not reimburse for the procedures.

"It's an incredible source of frustration to me and my colleagues," Gould added.

Surgery does have the potential for complications that wouldn't occur with drugs, however.

One recent study that followed patients up to a month after surgery, for instance, found that seven percent experienced some problem. Most were minor wound infections, but massive bleeding, kidney failure and other serious complications occurred in more than two percent of patients.

Other side effects include nausea and some food intolerance. Some patients also gain back weight over time.

Gould said that the initial cost of surgery, compared to the extended costs of diabetes care and other health effects of being obese, can be recouped after 18 months to two years.

"It would be a huge upfront cost, but looking at this from the bigger picture, I think if we can cure instead of manage the complications, we will save money in the long run," he told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/iQbrHG, Archives of Surgery, June 2011.

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Obesity Surgery Yields Clues to Weight-Loss Mysteries (LiveScience.com)

Surgery for obesity began with a simple premise: if you make the stomach smaller, people will eat less, so they will lose weight.

But in recent years the results of obesity surgery have been so outstanding, researchers went back to the drawing boards to figure out what was going on.

Their findings are beginning to present a far more complicated picture of weight — and of how much diet and exercise can really do to change it. Turns out, a slew of hormones from the gut, and their communication with the brain, play a role in the way the body maintains and loses weight.

Chasing down the answer to exactly how obesity surgery works is providing new insights into human weight loss and appetite regulation, researchers say.

"As a result of weight loss surgery, we finally are beginning to understand the physiology of weight loss better than we've ever understood it before," said Dr. Sunil Bhoyrul, a weight-loss surgeon at Olde Del Mar Surgical in La Jolla, Calif.

Their investigations may reveal how to replicate the results of the surgery without requiring patients to go under the knife.

Ghrelin from the gut

There are several different types of weight-loss surgery (also called bariatric surgery), including gastric bypass and gastric banding, but all involve making the stomach smaller. [Infographic: Types of Weight Loss Surgery].

Patients can lose up to 60 to 80 percent of their excess weight in one to four years after surgery, and many have an easier time keeping it off than they did through dieting, Bhoyrul said. However, up to a third can end up back at their pre-surgical weight seven to 10 years later, he noted.

But researchers are realizing that weight loss after surgery is fundamentally different from weight loss achieved by dieting.

A key player in this difference is the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates appetite. When we diet, our ghrelin levels rise, making us hungry. We may lose weight, but our ghrelin levels stay high, and we continue to feel hungry even after eating. Ghrelin levels come down only if we regain the weight, said Dr. Robin Blackstone, a bariatric surgeon at Scottsdale Bariatric Center in Arizona.

"People who are trying to lose weight are being fought tooth and nail by the body to keep that weight on," said Dr. Miguel Burch, associate director of general surgery and minimally invasive surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

But after gastric bypass surgery, ghrelin levels go down significantly, Burch said.

"They're losing more weight than they ever had before and not only are not hungry, they have to force themselves to eat," Burch said. This may be why surgery patients can keep their weight off, he said.

And ghrelin is likely just the tip of the iceberg in terms of hormonal changes that occur. There are likely many more hormones we don't know about that aid in weight loss after surgery, Burch said.

Mind over stomach

Results from the surgery have also highlighted the role of the brain in weight loss and weight gain. Your mind, not just your stomach, manages your waistline.

"We never realized that the brain was so important," Bhoyrul said. "We thought it was just as simple as getting people to eat less. That turns out to be the least of the issues," he said.

The brain is the body's energy thermostat, Bhoyrul said, controlling how quickly you use energy, and when to store and expend it. There is an ongoing conversation between the gut and the brain that takes place via hormones, he said.

Deciphering this conversation could help researchers understand how to best instigate weight loss, Bhoyrul said.

A recent finding underscores how much there is to learn about the stomach-brain connection. Unlike the drop in ghrelin seen after gastric bypass, those who undergo gastric banding experience a drop in their hunger, but not in ghrelin, said Dr. Emma Patterson, a bariatric surgeon in Portland, Ore. This may be because ghrelin communicates with the brain differently after this surgery, Patterson said.

Surgery without the surgery

It might be possible to replicate the results of the surgery using drugs.

"If we can understand how these surgeries work…we can put whatever that thing is in a pill," Patterson said.

One possible target may be an enzyme involved in the production of ghrelin, Burch said.

Indeed, one approach taken by researchers seeking to develop an obesity vaccine has been to block the hormone's production.

However, some have argued that, because many hormones are involved in weight loss, targeting one is unlikely to help people lose weight.

"Most of us are skeptical that 'turning off the ghrelin switch' is the universal answer to all obesity," Bhoyrul said.

Pass it on: The success of obesity surgery is yielding a better understanding of how gut hormones and the brain regulate weight and controls appetite.

This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner.

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Report: Fight fat even in toddlers, preschoolers (AP)

WASHINGTON – A food pyramid just for the under-2 set? Contrary to popular belief, children don't usually outgrow their baby fat — and a new report urges steps to help prevent babies, toddlers and preschoolers from getting too pudgy too soon.

That's a growing problem: Already, one in five preschoolers — 2- to 5-year-olds — is overweight or obese.

Topping the list of proposed changes: better guidelines to help parents and caregivers know just how much toddlers should eat as they move from baby food to bigger-kid fare. And making sure preschoolers get at least 15 minutes of physical activity for every hour they spend in child care.

Thursday's recommendations, from the Institute of Medicine, aren't about putting the very young on diets. But those early pounds can lead to lasting bad effects on their health as children grow, says the report.

"It's a huge opportunity to instill good habits at a time when you don't have to change old ones," said Leann Birch, director of Pennsylvania State University's Center for Childhood Obesity Research, who chaired the IOM panel.

Consider: Babies drink milk until they're full and then turn away. But children as young as 2 or 3 are sensitive to portion size, important in not inadvertently training them to overeat.

"If you give them larger portions, they eat more," Birch explained.

Pediatricians generally give pretty explicit directions on how to feed babies. And the nation's dietary guidelines include a special section for preschoolers, including information that a portion size generally is about 1 tablespoon of each food type per year of age.

But overall, those national guidelines are aimed at ages 2 and older — though surveys show even very young children eat too few of the fruits and vegetables they need. So the institute called on the government to create consumer-friendly dietary guidelines for birth to age 2.

That would capture the "dramatic dietary transition that occurs, from consuming one single food to, by the time they're 2, ordering up things from McDonald's and, we hope, having also learned to eat a lot of healthy foods," Birch said.

That will be part of the discussion during the next dietary guidelines update in 2015, said Robert Post, deputy director of the Agriculture Department's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which oversees that process. But developing guidelines for these younger children is complex because their nutrition needs are based in part on developmental stage, he cautioned.

Of course, parents have the biggest influence over whether healthy eating and being active become a child's norm.

But the report makes the case that children's habits are influenced by far more than their parents — and thus it's time to expand obesity prevention to more of the other places youngsters spend time. For example, nearly three-fourths of children ages 2 to 5 spend at least part of their day in some form of child care.

Among the recommendations:

_Day care and preschool operators should be trained in proper physical activity for young children, provide at least 15 minutes of it per hour, and avoid withholding physical activity as a punishment.

_Child care regulations should limit how long toddlers and preschoolers sit or stand still to no more than 30 minutes at a time — and limit holding babies in swings, bouncy seats or other equipment while they're awake.

_Day care and preschools should practice what's called responsive feeding: providing age-appropriate portion sizes, teaching children to serve themselves properly, requiring adults to sit with and eat the same foods as the children and following babies' cues as to when they've had enough.

_Breastfed infants are less likely to become obese later in childhood, so doctors and hospitals should encourage breastfeeding and limit formula samples aimed at new moms.

_At checkups, doctors should consider the parents' weight in assessing which children are at risk of later obesity, and then alert parents early that preventive steps are needed. About 10 percent of infants and toddlers already weigh too much for their length.

_To increase healthful eating among the poorest children, the government should take steps to get more families who are eligible for federal nutrition-assistance programs to sign up.

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