? ?
WORLD / Health
Exercise, caffeine fight skin cancer
(AP)
WORLD / Asia-Pacific
Musharraf may quit army to seal Bhutto deal
(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-07-31 09:23
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf may hang up his army
uniform to pave the way for a pact with former prime minister Benazir
Bhutto after the pair met in Abu Dhabi, a minister said Monday.
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf may hang up his army uniform to pave
the way for a pact with former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, pictured 20
July 2007, after the pair met in Abu Dhabi, a minister said Monday.[AFP]
Military ruler Musharraf and Bhutto held secret talks in the Gulf emirate
on Friday on a pre-election power-sharing deal, but reached no agreement
on two key issues, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sher Afgan Niazi told
AFP.
The sticking points were the issue of Musharraf's dual role as president
and head of Pakistan's powerful army and a bar that prevents Bhutto
having a third term as premier, Niazi said.
Bhutto, who has lived in self-imposed exile in London and Dubai since
1998 due to corruption allegations against her, insisted Sunday she would
not strike a deal with Musharraf so long as he remained army chief.
"The two met in Abu Dhabi on Friday to hammer out a political
understanding so that moderate forces can join hands to defeat extremists
in the coming general elections," Niazi said.
General elections are due by early 2008. Officials have said Musharraf
aims to be re-elected separately by parliament as president-in-uniform,
ahead of a constitutional deadline for him to quit the army by the end of
this year.
But Niazi said he believed that Musharraf "would be willing to shed his
uniform if he has the PPP (Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party) and the
ruling Pakistan Muslim League behind him."
The secret Bhutto-Musharraf meeting has still not been officially
confirmed by their spokesmen.
The talks come as Musharraf faces trouble on all sides, from a wave of
Islamist attacks sparked by the army's storming of a radical Islamabad
mosque to a bruising legal defeat by the country's chief justice.
Bhutto, who served as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 and again from
1993 to 1996, told Sky News on Sunday that she would probably return from
exile to stand in Pakistan's next general election.
However the 54-year-old could be jailed on the corruption charges that
she still faces upon re-entering Pakistan.
Niazi, a former Bhutto ally who left the PPP after the last general
elections in 2002, said that if the two agreed on a deal, the
constitution could be amended to allow prime ministers to serve a third
term.
The ban was inserted into the constitution by Musharraf in 2003, with
support from an alliance of hardline Islamist parties which have since
turned against him.
The amendment was aimed at preventing Bhutto and former prime minister
Nawaz Sharif -- whom Musharraf ousted in a bloodless coup in 1999 -- from
taking office a third time as both have ruled the country twice.
"An alliance between Bhutto and Musharraf is a necessity in the
prevailing situation, it is also the desire of the international
community, particularly the United States and Britain," Niazi said.
Musharraf was meeting with his current allies, the ruling Pakistan Muslim
League, on Monday to brief them on his talks with Bhutto, officials said
on condition of anonymity.
Railways Minister Sheikh Rashid, who is known to be close to the
president, said Musharraf would be re-elected as president-cum-army chief
sometime between September 15 and the middle of October.
"He will quit his military uniform at his own sweet will," the minister
added.
Bhutto's contacts with the president have drawn severe criticism from
other opposition parties which are accusing her of trying to shore up
Musharraf's regime.
Sharif, who also lives in exile, has reminded Bhutto of a pledge she made
in a pro-democratic charter they both signed last year against any
dealing with the military ruler.
Islamist leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman also criticised Bhutto and said any
deal with Musharraf would be contrary to Pakistan's national interests.
Meanwhile the Supreme Court is to begin hearing a challenge to
Musharraf's military role, officials said Monday.
The legal appeal filed by Qazi Hussain Ahmad, leader of Pakistan's main
alliance of hardline Islamic parties, says Musharraf should give up his
post as army chief next month, court officials said.
Top World News
� No word on hostages as Taliban deadline passes
� Bush, Brown seek to establish rapport
� Iraqis bask in rare joy after soccer win
� Afghan leaders: Free female hostages
� More S.Korean hostage talks sought
Today's Top News
� Governments warned against price intervention
� Taliban claim to kill 2nd hostage
� Banks' reserve rate raised again
� Green effort key to officials' future
� Floods, drought show no let-up
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Learn Chinese online, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet
Updated: 2007-07-31 09:16
WASHINGTON - Can adding a cup or two of coffee to the exercise routine
increase protection from skin cancer? New research indicates that just
might be the case.
Dave Johnson, left, and Dave Borton, right, smell and taste home roasted
coffee around a kitchen table, Oct. 27, 2006, in Milwaukee. [AP]
The combination of exercise and caffeine increased destruction of
precancerous cells that had been damaged by the sun's ultraviolet-B
radiation, according to a team of researchers at Rutgers University.
Americans suffer a million new cases of skin cancer every year, according
to the National Cancer Institute.
In mice there is a protective effect from both caffeine and voluntary
exercise, and when both are provided - not necessarily at the same time -
protection is even more than the sum of the two, said Dr. Allan H. Conney
of the laboratory for cancer research at Rutgers.
"We think it likely that this will extrapolate to humans, but that has to
be tested," Conney said in a telephone interview.
Nonetheless, he added, people should continue to use sunscreen.
Exposing the mice to ultraviolet-B light causes some skin cells to become
precancerous.
Cells with damaged DNA are programmed to self-destruct, a process called
apoptosis, but not all do that, and damaged cells can become cancerous.
The researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences that they studied hairless mice in four groups. Some
were fed water containing caffeine, some had wheels on which they could
run, some had both and a control group had neither.
"The most dramatic and obvious difference between the groups came from
the caffeine-drinking runners, a difference that can likely be attributed
to some kind of synergy," Conney said.
Compared with the control animals, those drinking caffeine had a 95
percent increase in apoptosis in damaged cells. The exercisers showed a
120 percent increase, and the mice that were both drinking and running
showed a nearly 400 percent increase.
Just what is causing that to happen is not yet clear, though the
researchers have several theories.
"We need to dig deeper into how the combination of caffeine and exercise
is exerting its influence at the cellular and molecular levels,
identifying the underlying mechanisms," Conney said.
"With an understanding of these mechanisms we can then take this to the
next level, going beyond mice in the lab to human trials," he said. "With
the stronger levels of UVB radiation evident today and an upward trend in
the incidence of skin cancer among Americans, there is a premium on
finding novel ways to protect our bodies from sun damage."
Conney said the researchers were originally interested in the effects of
green tea in preventing skin cancer and were doing tests on regular and
decaffeinated teas.
They found the regular tea had an effect, but not the decaffeinated brew.
And, he said, researchers also observed that mice drinking caffeine were
more active than those that didn't get it, so they decided to study the
effects of exercise too.
They put running wheels into some of the cages. The mice "love to go on
it," he said, and will jump on the wheels and run for several minutes,
then get off for a while, and then get on and run some more.
And they found that both caffeine and exercise helped eliminate damaged
skin cells, but the combination worked better than either alone.
"What we would like to see next is a clinical trial in people," Conney
said.
Dr. Michael H. Gold, a Nashville, Tenn., dermatologist and a spokesman
for the Skin Cancer Foundation, said he believes "the concept of systemic
caffeine should be addressed further."
"I think the concept potentially has a lot of merit," he said in a
telephone interview. But mice and humans are different and studies need
to be done to be sure this also applies to people.
In the meantime, he said: "If you go outside, you have to wear a
sunscreen ... it has to be caffeine and exercise with your sunscreen."
Top World News ?
* No word on hostages as Taliban deadline passes
* More S.Korean hostage talks sought
* Afghan leaders: Free female hostages
* Bush, Brown seek to establish rapport
* Iraqis bask in rare joy after soccer win
Today's Top News ?
* Negotiators 'hopeful' in Korean hostage crisis
* US to curb Iran with Gulf army deal
* Illgal gov't charges fuelling soaring house prices
* Penalties vary as kids die in hot cars
* Official urges Dalai Lama to abandon secessionist
Most Commented/Read Stories in 48 Hours
Learn Chinese, Chinese Online Class, Learning Materials, Mandarin audio lessons, Chinese writing lessons, Chinese vocabulary lists, About chinese characters, News in Chinese, Go to China, Travel to China, Study in China, Teach in China, Dictionaries, Learn Chinese Painting, Your name in Chinese, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese songs, Chinese proverbs, Chinese poetry, Chinese tattoo, Beijing 2008 Olympics, Mandarin Phrasebook, Chinese editor, Pinyin editor, China Travel, Travel to Beijing, Travel to Tibet
