Calcium might assistance you live longer: investigate

Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:26pm EST Related News Calcium may help you live longer: studyThu, Mar 11 2010

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Getting a bit more calcium in your diet could help you live longer, new research suggests.

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Swedish researchers found that men who consumed the most calcium in food were 25 percent less likely to die over the next decade than their peers who took in the least calcium from food. None of the men took calcium supplements.

The findings are in line with previous research linking higher calcium intake with lower mortality in both men and women, the researchers point out in a report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

While many researchers have looked at calcium and magnesium intake and the risk of chronic disease, less is known about the association between consumption of these nutrients in food and mortality.

To investigate, Dr. Joanna Kaluza of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and her colleagues looked at more than 23,000 Swedish men who were 45 to 79 years old at the study"s outset and were followed for 10 years. All had reported on their diet at the beginning of the study. During follow-up, about 2,358 died.

The top calcium consumers had a 25 percent lower risk of dying from any cause and a 23 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease during follow-up relative to men that had the least amount of calcium in their diet. Calcium intake didn"t significantly influence the risk of dying from cancer.

Men in the top third based on their calcium intake were getting nearly 2,000 milligrams a day, on average, compared to about 1,000 milligrams for men in the bottom third. The US Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for calcium intake is 1,000 milligrams for men 19 to 50 years old and 1,200 milligrams for men 50 and over.

"Intake of calcium above that recommended daily may reduce all-cause mortality," Kaluza and her colleagues conclude.

Calcium could influence mortality risk in many ways, they note, for example by reducing blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood sugar levels. For the men in the study, the main sources of calcium in the diet were milk and milk products and cereal products.

In contrast to calcium, there was no relationship between magnesium consumption and overall mortality or deaths from cancer or heart disease. Study participants" intakes ranged from around 400 milligrams per day to around 525 milligrams; the RDA for magnesium is 420 milligrams for men 31 and older.

This analysis, the researchers say, may have found no effect for magnesium because all of the men in the study seemed to be getting enough of the mineral in their diet. "Further studies are needed in other populations with lower dietary magnesium intakes to address this issue," they say.

Future research should also look into calcium and magnesium intake from drinking water, they add, which can be a significant source of these minerals.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, online February 19, 2010.

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U.S. breeze energy flourishing fast but still lags

Harriet McLeod GREENSBORO, North Carolina Thu Mar 18, 2010 6:10pm EDT Related News CORRECTED-U.S. wind power growing fast but still lagsThu, Mar 18 2010

GREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - Wind-generated electricity is growing rapidly in the United States but the pace still lags far behind that in China, the organizer of an industry conference in North Carolina said.

"With the right policies in place, we can see explosive growth ... It"s a global footrace," said Jeff Anthony, business development director of the American Wind Energy Association.

Although the United States has the largest amount of installed wind power capacity in the world, the wind power industry is "fighting to get on a level playing field" with other government-subsidized power-providers, Anthony told a conference of parts manufacturers, suppliers, wind project developers and economic development officers from around the southeastern United States.

"What the wind industry looks like in the U.S. in 10 years depends a lot on what comes out of Washington ... Policy does drive the industry," he told the conference in Greensboro, North Carolina.

A little more than 1.5 percent of power supplied in the United States is generated by wind, Anthony said.

"It"s an important part of how we generate electricity in the U.S. today. It"s still relatively small in terms of percentages, but it"s growing rapidly ... Only in the last seven or eight years has the cost come down ... The price of electricity from wind projects has stabilized."

Last year, 10,000 megawatts of wind capacity were added to the grid, bringing the country"s total wind power capacity to 35,000 megawatts, Anthony said. Industry growth in 2009 was 39 percent, he said.

"China is currently growing at 100 percent. They are doubling the amount of wind power capacity in their country every year," Anthony said.

To reach a goal set by the U.S. Department of Energy for 20 percent of the nation"s electricity to be generated by wind by 2030, "we will need 300,000 megawatts of power generated by wind turbines," Anthony said. "So we"re one-tenth of the way there."

Problems include a lag in manufacturing -- almost all manufacturers of turbine parts are based outside the United States -- and transmission.

"We need a green superhighway" to get power from the windiest parts of the country, in a north-south swath through the middle, to the areas where demand is highest, Anthony said.

"Electricity is the only commodity you can"t store," he said.

The highest demand is on the East Coast, where 28 coastal states use almost 80 percent of the electricity in the country, said Nick Rigas, a Clemson University wind expert who spoke at the conference.

Offshore wind turbines, in use around the world for years, have yet to be built off U.S. coasts. Duke Energy"s three proposed wind turbines in Pamlico Sound on the North Carolina coast will probably be the first in-water wind engines to be built in the country, Rigas said.

Rigas is senior scientist and director of Clemson University Restoration Institute"s $98 million drive-train testing facility being built on the coast of South Carolina to test the next generation of global large wind turbines, 15-megawatt engines that can weigh up to 300 tons.

The facility is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy along with public and private partners, and will allow access to all manufacturers and protect intellectual property rights, he said.

New technology will change the wind power industry, Rigas said. Turbines will get quieter and lighter, and efficiencies in wind power will improve, he said.

"The cost of offshore is high right now," said.

But, he said "If we do not find a way to harness a large resource sitting near a big demand -- it"s Economics 101 -- I think we have some issues with ourselves," Rigas said.

"It comes down to: Do we as a nation think that carbon emissions have an adverse impact on our environment and our future? The other issue with the fossil fuels is that they are a finite resource. Why are we depleting a finite resource by just burning it?"

He agreed that sustainable energy policy is crucial. Energy policy "can"t come and go depending on who is in office," he said. "In China, wind power is huge and still growing while we sit here and contemplate our navels," he said.

"We still think we"re the center of the universe and the big economic engine, but the world is changing. Are we going to change with it?"

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Marguerita Choy)

Triumph to buy Vought for $1.44 billion; shares burst

BANGALORE Tue Mar 23, 2010 11:24am EDT Related News UPDATE 3-Triumph to buy Vought for $1.44 bln; shares jumpTue, Mar 23 2010 Stocks & &

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Aircraft components maker Triumph Group Inc (TGI.N) agreed to acquire Vought Aircraft Industries from D.C.-based private equity giant Carlyle Group in a $1.44 billion cash-and-stock deal, sending its shares up as much as 14 percent to a new year high.

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The acquisition of Vought, whose customers include Boeing Co (BA.N) and EADS-owned (EAD.PA) Airbus as well as the U.S. Air Force, will help Triumph broaden its market presence in the commercial, military and business jet aircraft segments.

Vought, which makes fuselages, wings, empennages, nacelles and helicopter cabins, has companies such as Hawker Beechcraft, Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) and Northrop Grumman (NOC.N) also among its key customers.

Carlyle had bought Vought from Northrop Grumman in 2000 in a deal valued at $1.2 billion, which included $400 million debt, according to a Flight International magazine report at the time.

Triumph said it expects the deal, which will be about 7.5 million shares and $525 million of cash, to add in excess of $1.00 per share to earnings on a full-year run-rate basis.

The deal also includes the assumption of debt Vought has on their books, Triumph said.

"The integration of Vought with Triumph will create a leading tier one capable supplier with strong positions in commercial and military platforms," Triumph Chief Executive Richard Ill said in a statement.

The company said it expects to fund the deal with a combination of current and new credit facilities and has obtained certain financing commitments subject to customary conditions.

Triumph shares were trading up 14 percent at $69.81 in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Bijoy Koyitty in Bangalore and Megan Davies in New York; Editing by Maju Samuel)

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West Ham United endorse seductiveness in Olympic Stadium West Ham

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West Ham United will confirm today their interest in moving to the Olympic Stadium after the Games in 2012.

The club are keen to rent the stadium in East London when it is redeveloped and have said that they are aware of the pledges made by the Government and Lord Coe, chairman of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, that the athletics track should remain.

The clubs move comes after the Olympic Park Legacy Company began accepting registrations of interest this week. West Ham"s bid is expected to be opposed by Leyton Orient, the Coca-Cola League One club, based close by. West Ham last week met UK Athletics officials, who also insist that the track should remain, although David Sullivan, the West Ham joint-chairman, has previously been against it.

There are other problems, such as the question of who pays for the redevelopment of the stadium. The cost of reducing the 80,000-seat capacity to about 50,000 seats after the Games could be 100 million, although about 38 million of that will come from the Olympic Park Legacy Company.

Related LinksWest Ham agree 2.2m Curbishley payoutBrady risks good name with West Ham Olympic

West Ham believe that their case is strengthened by the possibility that the stadium could become an embarrassing white elephant. They also cite the precedent of Manchester Citys move to the City of Manchester Stadium after the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

"We are very excited to be working with Newham and are already bursting with some fantastic and innovative ideas," Karren Brady, the West Ham vice-chairman, said. "West Ham United is a people"s club at the heart of its community and, like the Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales and the council, we want to grab this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create a real, life-changing legacy - not just for this part of London, but for the wider area as well.

"It"s about realising the full potential of the Olympic Park. As well-established local organisations, Newham Council and West Ham United are best placed to make it happen. If achievable it is the ideal answer for those who, rightly, demand a sustainable legacy from the 2012 Games and not a white elephant.

"We acknowledge the need for the stadium to host world-class athletics and so it should. But it can accommodate football, too - and a whole lot more. There has to be a way of achieving that."

Upton Park is likely to be sold for a mixture of retail and housing development and the club have received some support for their plans from Newham Council. Sir Robin Wales, the Newham Mayor, is a season ticket-holder.

"The last thing anyone wants is for the Olympic Stadium to become a ghost of Olympics past," Sir Robin said. "We were concerned about this when London successfully won the bid to host the 2012 Games and we continue to be concerned.

"The only realistic solution is to make the stadium work for a Premier League football team and that should be West Ham United. We have never understood why that wasn"t obvious. Look at what Manchester did after the Commonwealth Games. Why can"t we do that here? West Ham understands the community. It will mean there is a tenant that will look after the place, rather than let it go to ruin."

Yemen sappers come in Shiite insurgent building

Mohammed Ghobari SANAA Sat Feb 27, 2010 11:55am EST Related News Yemen declares state of emergency in southern citySat, Feb 27 2010Top Yemen al Qaeda leader threatens U.S. attacksTue, Feb 23 2010Yemen arrests 80 separatists over southern unrestMon, Feb 22 2010Yemen holds separatists in south, U.N. urges aidSat, Feb 20 2010Yemen rebels hand over two Saudi soldiersThu, Feb 18 2010

SANAA (Reuters) - Yemeni army sappers entered a northern Shi"ite rebel stronghold to clear mines after rebels quit the city of Saada as part of a truce to end a war that has drawn in Saudi Arabia, the defense ministry said on Saturday.

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But tension flared in southern Yemen where authorities imposed heightened security measures in a provincial capital to guard against attacks by separatists.

Yemen, the poorest Arab country, struck a truce on February 11 with rebels who have been fighting the state since 2004 over religious, economic and social grievances in the mountainous north.

The two-week-old northern truce has largely held, while a conflict with southern separatists has simmered.

The rebels left their Saada stronghold, some 240 km (150 miles) north of the capital Sanaa, on Thursday on condition they were masked, and that they were not followed by security.

"After the evacuation, special military engineering teams moved to survey the city and a number of roads and buildings to remove any mines," the defense ministry said in its online newspaper.

The engineers were also removing unexploded ordnance.

A number of displaced residents of the city had also begun to return to inspect their houses in Saada, the website said. The conflict in north Yemen has displaced 250,000 people.

Yemen has shot to the forefront of Western security concerns after the Yemeni arm of al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a failed attempt to bomb a U.S.-bound plane in December.

Western governments and neighboring Saudi Arabia, the world"s biggest oil exporter, fear al Qaeda is exploiting instability on several fronts in Yemen to recruit and train militants to launch attacks in the region and beyond.

Saudi Arabia was drawn into the conflict with northern rebels in November after the insurgents seized Saudi border territory and accused Riyadh of letting Yemeni troops attack them from Saudi ground.

PROTEST IN SOUTH

In Riyadh, where Western and Arab donors were meeting to discuss economic aid for Yemen, a Yemeni official said Sanaa wanted "a faster march" to membership in the wealthier six-member Gulf Cooperation Council.

"Yemen is convinced that its integration within the GCC represents one of the most important means...to enable Yemen to contribute in consolidating regional and international security," said Abdulkareem al-Arhabi, Deputy Prime Minister for Economy, Planning and International Cooperation.

Yemen has previously said it wanted GCC membership by 2015.

In south Yemen on Saturday, authorities said they would toughen security measures in the provincial capital of Dalea, including a ban on carrying weapons in public, citing the possibility of separatist violence two days after a policeman was shot dead in an ambush in a nearby province.

An official earlier said a state of emergency was called in the city but the defense ministry website later denied this.

Hundreds demonstrating in Dalea on Saturday against recent arrests, some carrying the flag of the former South Yemen, which united with the North in 1990, residents and pro-southern websites said.

A southern leader called in a speech on the donors meeting in Riyadh to address the unresolved conflict in the south.

"The marches today ... carry a message to the Riyadh meeting and to the world (toward) the fulfillment of the just demands of the people of the south," Shalal Ali Shayeh told protesters.

People in south Yemen, home to most Yemeni oil facilities, complain that northerners have abused a 1990 agreement uniting the country to grab resources and discriminate against them.

Demonstrations were also held in several other cities, some shut by a strike call by southern activists, websites said. In Abyan province two people were wounded as security forces opened fire to disperse protesters blocking a road.

The policeman"s death on Thursday brought to four the number of people killed in attacks on southern security men in a week as authorities also mounted arrest sweeps targeting separatists.

Tension flared after a protester was killed on February 13 by police. This ignited a week of unrest in which separatists burned northern-owned shops and tried to block a key road.

Security officials have since launched sweeps that netted at least 130 arrests in four southern provinces including Dalea.

(Additional reporting by Mohammed Mukhashaff in Aden, and Ulf Laessing and Souhail Karam in Riyadh; Writing by Cynthia Johnston and Firouz Sedarat; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

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Deere considers sale of $1 billion breeze portfolio

BOSTON Thu Feb 25, 2010 11:50am EST Related News Enel green unit adds 60 MW wind parks in ItalyTue, Feb 9 2010Is clean tech China"s moon shot?Thu, Jan 28 2010

BOSTON (Reuters) - Deere Co has retained Goldman Sachs Group Inc to help review options for its $1 billion wind energy portfolio, including a possible sale, the U.S. agricultural equipment maker said on Thursday.

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The world"s largest maker of tractors and harvesters said it owns 34 wind farms in seven U.S. states that are capable of generating 706 megawatts of power, in addition to owning some wind farms that are still in development.

The Moline, Illinois-based company"s wind energy arm is an outgrowth of its credit business, which also helps farmers and other customers to finance purchases of Deere equipment.

While the turbines can tower hundreds of feet above the ground, they have a relatively small footprint, which has encouraged some small-scale U.S. farmers to allow turbines to be installed on their land as an additional source of income.

At the end of 2009, the United States had about 35,000 megawatts of installed wind capacity, enough to power 9.7 million typical American homes, according to data from the American Wind Energy Association.

Other major investors in U.S. wind farms include Florida utility FPL Group Inc and conglomerate General Electric Co.

(Reporting by Scott Malone, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

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Nigerian boss returning from Saudi: sources

ABUJA Tue Feb 23, 2010 6:48pm EST

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Umaru Yar"Adua was being flown back to the capital Abuja on Tuesday, three months after he left for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, Nigerian government sources and a Saudi airport official said.

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"The president left at 10:22 p.m. (1922 GMT) alone in a plane and another plane carried Nigerian government envoys," the official at Jeddah airport told Reuters.

There was no word on the state of his health.

Nigerian government and presidency officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Soldiers and armed police arrived at the presidential wing of the airport in Abuja, a Reuters witness.

The 58-year-old leader left Nigeria in late November to receive medical treatment at a clinic in Jeddah for pericarditis, an inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart that can restrict normal beating.

His absence brought Africa"s most populous nation to the brink of constitutional crisis and threatened to paralyze the business of government, until Vice President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in as acting leader two weeks ago.

Neither the presidency, the ruling party nor the cabinet has given any details on his health since shortly after he left, fuelling speculation about his true condition.

A delegation of Nigerian ministers travelled to Saudi Arabia on Monday for an update on his health and had been expected to report back to a weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

(For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ )

(Reporting by Nick Tattersall and Felix Onuah in Abuja, Asma Alsharif in Jeddah)

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