Soaring obesity rate will slow over next two decades but remain high
RALEIGH, N.C. — The nation’s obesity rate may increase more slowly than expected in the next two decades, but the number of people considered severely overweight is likely to keep climbing sharply.
That’s according to a new long-range forecast of obesity trends by researchers at Duke University, RTI International in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They presented the study Monday morning at the CDC’s annual conference on obesity control and prevention, called Weight of the Nation, in Washington, D.C.
Previous projections based on historical trends in obesity had suggested more than half the nation — perhaps even 70 percent — could be obese by 2030, said Eric Finkelstein, the lead author of the new study.
Far-right party rises as first effort to form new Greek government fails
ATHENS, Greece — Election advertisements for Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party called for “taking the dirt out of the country,” “cleaning up Athens” and planting land mines along the borders to stop illegal immigrants from coming in.
On Sunday, Golden Dawn won enough votes to earn seats in the Parliament, and now Greeks — and the estimated 1 million foreign immigrants here — are bracing to see how the party, with its swastika-like logo and the black-shirted toughs who come to its rallies, will try to commandeer the debate.
Putin inaugurated
to 3rd term as
Russia’s president
MOSCOW — Vladimir Putin was inaugurated Monday to his third term as Russia’s president, extending the former KGB officer’s 12-year grip on power most observers considered uninterrupted despite the past four years he served as prime minister.
In the course of a solemn and elaborate ceremony in the Kremlin Grand Palace, the 59-year-old leader was sworn into office under the 1993 version of the Russian Constitution, which was amended by outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev to increase the term of presidency in Russia to six years.
Putin then quickly submitted Medvedev’s name to the parliament as his candidate to be prime minister, a move that had been expected.
In the presence of about 3,000 Russian officials and dignitaries and a few foreign guests — no leaders among them — Putin gave an oath “to safeguard the rights and freedoms of man and citizen, to observe and protect the Constitution of the Russian Federation, to protect the sovereignty and independence, the safety and integrity of the state, to loyally serve the people.”
U.S. won’t negotiate with al-Qaida after kidnapped worker’s video airs
ISLAMABAD — U.S. officials on Monday reiterated they would not negotiate with al-Qaida after an American development worker kidnapped last year in Pakistan appeared in a video released by the militant group saying his captors would kill him if President Barack Obama does not meet their demands.
Warren Weinstein, 70, was abducted from his home in an upscale neighborhood of Lahore last August, just days before he was slated to finish his work in Pakistan and leave for the U.S.
In December, Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a video and stated his terror network was holding Weinstein.
Pakistani officials have said they believe Weinstein is being held somewhere in the country’s volatile tribal region along the Afghan border, where al-Qaida militants and other Islamic extremist groups maintain strongholds.
14 civilians killed
in two NATO airstrikes
KABUL, Afghanistan — Two NATO airstrikes, one in the north of Afghanistan and one in the south, killed 14 civilians, including a mother and five children, Afghan officials said Monday.
Word of the latest civilian fatalities came at a sensitive time, just two weeks before a major NATO summit in Chicago. At the gathering, the allies are expected to affirm plans to pull most combat troops out of Afghanistan, while pledging to continue training Afghan forces and providing long-term development aid.
In the past, President Hamid Karzai has strongly denounced the Western military over civilian deaths, although the United Nations and other observers say the bulk of such fatalities are caused by the Taliban.
The most recent deaths were reported in Badghis province, in the country’s northwest. Officials said an airstrike on Sunday targeted a group of Taliban fighters, killing three of them — but also eight civilians.
By wire sources
