Half of the world’s population could face food shortages by the end of this century due to climate change, a new study warned Thursday.

According to researchers, there is a 90 percent probability that by 2100 the minimum temperatures in the tropics and sub-tropical regions will be higher than the maximums so far recorded in those areas.

The affect on crop-growing in those regions would be dire, according to the projections based on direct observations and data culled from 2…

US soldiers will not be eligible to receive the Purple Heart for the invisible psychic wounds of war, the Pentagon said Thursday, reserving the medal for those wounded in combat.

The decision was reached following a review suggested by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates after touring a mental health center at Fort Bliss, Texas in May.

“The conclusion then is, as it is now, that PTSD does not qualify, given the 76-year definition of what a Purple Heart recipient is,” said Geo…

The US will pay for a mass vaccination campaign to prevent cervical cancer in the Micronesia region of the Pacific starting next month, a US official said.

More than 30,000 girls aged between 10 and 18 will be vaccinated in the campaign which will cost nine million dollars.

The programme will be carried out in the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Palau, US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) regional epidemiologist Jean-Paul Chaine said Wednesday. b…

Actor John Travolta’s 16-year-old son, Jett, died in the Bahamas yesterday after hitting his head in the shower following a seizure. According to an ABC-News story, an autopsy is planned. While this tragic event clearly new by any measure, it has become big news in the autism community because, for years, it has been suspected that Jett had untreated autism (rather than Kawakaki Disease, as reported by his father). The belief was that Travolta, a Scientologist, was unwilling to admit the possibility of autism.

There has been a good deal of speculation – in and outside of the autism community – about the Travolta’s views of autism and their choices of treatments for Jett. In part, that’s because of attention drawn to the family by John Travolta’s filmmaker brother, Joey, who produced the film Normal People Scare Me and founded the organization Actors for Autism.

The death of Jett Travolta is raising strong feelings among in the autism community; some are angry that a child of a celebrity was not provided with appropriate treatment. Others are simply sympathetic to a couple who has lost a child.

Celebrities who conquered stuttering!

Bruce Willis – Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is a German-born American actor and singer. He became a celebrity in the late 1980s and has since retained a career as both a Hollywood leading man and a supporting actor. Being the leading actor in some of the greatest action movies Bruce Willis has had stuttering problems throughout his youth and was always scared it would affect his acting career. Fortunately he successfully grew out of it not too much from a therapist but from being an actor, it actually removed his speech disorder.

Tiger Woods – Tiger Woods (born Eldrick Tiger Woods, December 30, 1975) is an American professional golfer whose achievements to date rank him among the most successful golfers of all time. Tiger Woods had stuttering problems at childhood but he got past it through hard work and practice. He admitted doing everything possible to conquer his speech disorder including talking to his dog until he would fall asleep. He did have a lot of help from his family, especially his mother. He then became one of the most successful golfers the world has ever known.

Julia Roberts – Academy Award-winning actress. Julia Fiona Roberts (born October 28, 1967) is an Academy Award winning American film actress and former fashion model. Roberts has become the highest paid actress in the world, topping the annual power list of top earning female stars for four consecutive years (2002-2005). Julia Roberts admitted the fact that she stuttered when she was younger without ever going into much detail, but she now speaks fluidly and is a respected actress.

Shaking legs or restless leg syndrome (RLS) can be cured with proper evaluation, diagnosis and treatment says Dr Sunil Sharma, Indian-origin director, Sleep Medicine Research, University of South Carolina.

What is shaking leg syndrome or RLS?

RLS (restless legs syndrome) or the shaking legs syndrome is a real medical condition that can cause pain, frustration and exhaustion. It affects up to10% of the world population.

RLS results in an irresistible urge to move the legs, which is often accompanied by unusual or unpleasant sensations in the legs that may be described as crawly, creeping, tugging, or pulling. RLS can severely disrupt sleep and reduce quality of life because it most often occurs in the evening,

What causes RLS?

Researchers believe that RLS is likely to have different causes that may overlap. We do know that while RLS often runs in families, it also sometimes appears as the result of another condition.

A substantial number of women develop RLS during pregnancy. In addition, peripheral neuropathy, anemia, low iron levels, ends stage renal disease with dialysis, folic acid deficiency are all associated with RLS. Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) may also be associated with RLS.

What are the Symptoms?

You have a strong urge to move your legs, which you may not be able to resist. The need to move is often accompanied by uncomfortable sensations. Some words used to describe these sensations include: creeping, itching, pulling, creepy-crawly, tugging, or gnawing. Your RLS symptoms start or become worse when you are resting. The longer you are resting, the greater the chance the symptoms will occur and the more severe they are likely to be. Your RLS symptoms get better when you move your legs. The relief can be complete or only partial but generally starts very soon after starting an activity.

Relief persists as long as the motor activity continues. Your RLS symptoms are worse in the evening especially when you are lying down. Activities that bother you at night do not bother you during the day.

What treatments are available?

There are many non-pharmaceutical and pharmaceutical therapies that help ease RLS symptoms. In addition to the four common drug classes that offer help for RLS, (dopaminergic agents, sedatives, anticonvulsants, and pain relievers), Benzodiazines are found very effective,

Other options available are as follows

You and your doctor can:

• Check for a vitamin or iron deficiency.

• Find an exercise schedule and physical activities that help you deal with RLS.

• Find activities to keep your mind

• Engaged when RLS presents itself.

• Discuss eliminating alcohol and

• Caffeine from your diet.

• Look at your diet to assure it is healthy and balanced.

• Identify habits and activities that worsen your RLS symptoms.

• Implement a program of good sleep habits.

• Dr Sunil Sharma’s advice to RLS patients is to improve sleep schedule and reduce the intake of alcohol, caffeine and tobacco, besides medication.

• A cold compress and massage of the affected parts can also help ease the painful sensation.

• For those seeking help, the US-based Restless Leg Syndrome Foundation offers online advice.

With proper evaluation, diagnosis and treatment, RLS can be cured.

Christmas and New Year saw revelers pack on the pounds; and January will soon witness the party-goers make a beeline for popular “detox” products – which will do absolutely nothing to help them recover.

A report by Voice of Young Science (VoYS), representing more than 300 post-graduate and post-doctorate science students, found that no two companies use the same definition of “detox” and their claims were largely “meaningless”.

They found that the word “detox” was being u…

Retired policeman Yukio Shige is still on patrol, walking daily along the Tojinbo cliff, one of the best-known suicide spots in Japan where he pursues a private mission to prevent people leaping.

Shige’s method of persuading someone to stay alive is quite simple, he said.

When he spots a person standing on the edge of the cliff, he talks to them gently and brings them back to his cafe, where he serves them warm rice cake.

“You can see what the person is here f…

Spending a couple of hours outdoors each day could help children avoid becoming short-sighted, Australian researchers said Tuesday.

Exposure to bright light for two to three hours daily helps regulate the eye’s growth, dramatically reducing the risk of myopia, an Australian Research Council study found.

Short-sightedness, traditionally a problem among the highly educated, has reached record levels in east Asia, lead researcher Professor Ian Morgan told AFP.

Gr…

Alzheimer’s disease affects not only the elderly, said a study Monday that found 14 percent of the estimated 500,000 Canadians suffering from dementia are under the age of 65.

The Alzheimer Society warned that an expected doubling of cases in the coming two decades, due to the aging population and the trend toward earlier diagnosis, risks overwhelming Canada’s health care system.

“As it stands today, the number of Canadians living with Alzheimer’s disease or a related dem…

Childhood trauma, including sexual abuse, emotional abuse and emotional neglect, was linked to a six-fold risk increase for chronic fatigue syndrome in adults, in a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

“Stress in interaction with other risk factors likely triggers chronic fatigue syndrome symptoms through its effects on central nervous, neuroendocrine and immune systems,” the study’s authors said.

About 2.5 percent of adults in the United States are affe…

India’s state-run carrier Air India has dismissed 10 women flight attendants who were grounded last year for being overweight, a report said Monday.

The sackings came after the cabin crew were warned about meeting minimum physical fitness standards and given sufficient time to lose weight, the Press Trust of India news agency reported quoting airline sources.

The flight attendants were also offered alternative ground assignments which they refused, the report said. b…

People wounded in fighting in the Gaza Strip are dying because ambulances cannot reach them, the International Committee of the Red Cross said Monday.

“The situation is extremely dangerous and the coordination of ambulance services is very complex because of the incessant attacks and military operations,” ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas said in Geneva.

“Wounded people have died while waiting for Palestinian Red Crescent ambulances,” she added.

“In some oth…

The deepening global economic crisis could significantly raise infant mortality and malnutrition rates, a UN official said Tuesday, urging Asian governments to protect millions of vulnerable children.

Despite budgetary constraints, there is no reason to cut back on social spending, said Anupama Rao Singh, director for East Asia and the Pacific at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Singh warned that, based on previous experience, the current economic crisis could…

At least 1,732 people have died in Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic and the number of cases diagnosed has risen to 34,306, the World Health Organisation said Tuesday.

The organisation last Thursday reported 1,586 dead and 31,656 suspected cases of the water-borne disease.

United Nations aid agencies have been warning for weeks that the number of cases could top 60,000, with the impending rainy season likely to facilitate the spread of the disease.

All 10 of the cou…

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The current recession is fuelling further exploitation of poor nations by its richer counterparts, allege activists. They claim that money-rich, resource-hungry nations are snapping up huge tracts of agricultural land in poor Asian nations, a practice that in future is sure to worsen poverty and malnutrition.

Global trends including high prices for oil and commodities, the biofuels boom, and now the sweeping downturn, are spurring import-reliant countries to take action to protect th…

Despite a 60-metre (200-foot) plunge from a bridge and a failed parachute, an Australian base jumper has miraculously survived to tell the tale.

The man, aged in his late 20s, injured his feet and ankles after he jumped off the EJ Whitten Bridge in Melbourne, ambulance spokesman Ray Rowe said.

Rowe could not confirm at what point the man’s parachute failed but national news agency AAP said it was believed to be when he was close to the ground.

“He’s a very lucky man, …

Scientists say they have pinned down a DNA mechanism that gives rise to a rare but distressing form of baldness that strikes before adulthood.

Flaws in a gene called U2HR are to blame for a condition called Maria Unna hereditary hypotrichosis, or MUHH, named after the German trichologist who identified the problem.

Children with MUHH have sparse or no hair at birth, followed by wiry or coarse hair in childhood but progressively lose it at puberty.

Researchers …

Israel’s military onslaught against Hamas has aggravated Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, with electricity and communications cut and the population now facing dire food shortages, aid agencies said Sunday.

The Israeli army said the World Food Programme halted emergency shipments to Gaza because its warehouses are full but the UN agency insisted it was desperate to get supplies into the enclave.

“The military incursion compounds the humanitarian crisis following more than a we…

As mass-produced electric cars come closer to reality, their makers are trying to polish the image of what experts say could be a hard sell in the current recession.

“Please erase your image of electric cars being like golf carts,” a spokesman for Japan’s fourth-biggest automaker said before taking a zero-emission vehicle out for a spin.

“It’s fast, powerful and smooth,” Mitsubishi Motors Corp. spokesman Kai Inada said of the iMiEV electric car, which is due to be launche…

While explaining the risks of poor diet and a lack of exercise an online campaign that lets you build a personalised ‘Yoobot’ has been hailed a success.

The site has had more than 500,000 hits in the two weeks since it launched, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) said and more than 200,000 Yoobots have been created.

The site was created by BHF in response to a report that showed almost three-quarters of eight to 15-year-olds were not aware that a junk food-laden diet could potentially shorten their life.

“It’s fantastic to see so many kids having fun while getting life-saving information about heart health at the same time said Betty McBride, director of Policy and Communications at the BHF said:.”

Once you have created your Yoobot, you can set a diet and exercise regime for it to see how it develops over time and what kind of health problems it could encounter.

The government launched a campaign to fight the nation’s expanding waistlines on Friday with a cartoon by the Oscar-winning animators of Wallace and Gromit to hammer home the message.

The TV adverts by Nick Park’s Aardman Animations featuring plasticine figures is the centrepiece of the Change4Life drive to reduce the 9,000 premature deaths linked to obesity in Britain every year.

The campaign, which includes 75 million pounds of government marketing cash over three years…

Singapore’s plans to usher in the Chinese Year of the Ox this month have been clawed back by bearish economic sentiment as the city’s budget for celebrations has been slashed, organisers said Friday.

As sponsorship dries up amid the global financial crisis the amount of money earmarked for the event has been cut by 20 percent, said Philip Loh, vice-chairman and head of publicity for the organising committee.

“Many (sponsors) have cut down (funding) or are not participatin…

The Yoobot is an online game (yoobot.co.uk) which allows children to play with their future, helping them understand the long term effects of a poor diet.

Users create their own Yoobot – a mini version of themselves that they can personalise with an uploaded photograph.

The choices they make for their Yoobot, from the food it eats, to the exercise it does, have a direct impact upon the lifespan and wellbeing of their mini-me. The Yoobot has many appealing and not-so appealing habits – from break dancing to breaking wind.

The Yoobot doesn’t just live on the website, it talks to its creator throughout the day using SMS and e-mail. It will complain if it’s hungry, ask for junk food and generally make itself a part of the user’s life.

BHF Director of Prevention and Care Mike Knapton said: “Today’s junk food generation can’t see beyond the burger box. They are missing the fact that eating unhealthily can have dire consequences on their long-term health.

“The Yoobot is an innovative way for children to explore the effects of eating a diet of junk food. The clock is ticking on the obesity time bomb and it is now more important than ever for children to be educated enough to take control of their diets.”

To join the Yoobot revolution go to www.-yoobot.co.uk

Do you want to help explain the effects of healthy or unhealthy eating and lifestyles to children – while having lots of fun yourself!? Then have a look at Yoobot.

Yoobot lets you create a ‘mini you’ which involves creating an animated version of yourself. You upload a photograph of yourself and Yoobot asks you to highlight your eyes, mouth and the shape of your face and build. Then at a mouse-click your Yoobot is ‘hatched’.

Once born then you can plan the hatchlings daily routine; breakfast, dinner, tea and play activities and exercise. These daily routines then can be analysed – especially through a ‘Time Warp’ function which will reveal the possible effects of that lifestyle on your Yoobot.

I created the Duffybot and stuffed him full of a diet of cakes, buns and cola along with a strict exercise regime of watching TV and listening to music. I’m dreading to see how Duffybot turns out at age 70 – if indeed he survives that long – because I’ve grown quite fond of the handsome chap!

The British Heart Foundation have created Yoobot and does make some qualifications about it which are reproduced below, but this is a novel way to engage children on healthy living issues! It allows children to experiment with a range of diets and lifestyle and could be one of the ways that child obesity issues might be more effectively tackled.

“Yoobot is designed to allow a child to experiment on their mini version of themselves with a range of diets and exercise regimes. The nutritional content and physical benefits of exercise are modeled on real data in order to give the experience a degree of realism. However, in order to clearly link certain actions with health implications we have exaggerated reality in order to emphasise the key points we would like users to understand. We have also had to simplify risk factors for heart disease, and to some extent alter the progression of the process of heart disease in order to not dilute the message of healthy eating and physical activity. The Yoobot does not get heart failure, or angina for instance, neither does it die from accidents, suicide or other disease processes. Overall, the British Heart Foundation has endeavoured to make Yoobot an engaging and scientifically based educational tool.

Disclaimer: Yoobot is a game based in reality but some information has been exaggerated or simplified in order to get the key messages across clearly.” From www.yoobot.co.uk ‘Grown up stuff’

The United Nations has introduced a new ready-to-use food supplement which could significantly boost efforts to reduce child malnutrition in Somalia, said a statement received by AFP Thursday.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said the new type of supplement, called Plumpy’Doz, will be distributed to more than 100,000 of the most vulnerable children in Somalia, a Horn of Africa country ravaged by war and famine.

“Plumpy’Doz is the latest generation of nutritious, safe, conv…

More than 30,000 people in Zimbabwe have been diagnosed with cholera, the World Health Organisation said Thursday, as the number of those contracting the deadly disease continues to mount.

As many as 31,656 suspected cases were diagnosed to date with one third of them in the capital of Harare, the WHO said.

The organisation last reported some 29,131 suspected cases on Monday and 1,564 deaths from the water-borne disease.

Cholera also continues to plague neighb…

Australian researchers funded by US billionaire Bill Gates Friday claimed a breakthrough which could help in the fight against dengue fever by stopping the often deadly disease in its tracks.

University of Queensland researchers said they have successfully infected the mosquito which spreads the tropical disease with a bacterium which halves its 30-day lifespan, thereby reducing its ability to transmit dengue to humans.

Scientists hope their work will help halt the spread…

With the night’s revelry, fireworks and hangovers behind them, hundreds of thousands of people turned out to watch London’s New Year’s Day parade.

Around 10,000 performers, including cheerleaders, marching bands, musicians, clowns and vintage vehicles paraded through the city centre, watched by an estimated 500,000 people, according to organisers.

Bob Bone, the parade’s executive director, said the event would boost tourism and business in the capital.

“We pro…