When sex can cause heart attacks

When sex can cause heart attacks

(AP) CHICAGO -- Sex and exercise can trigger heart attacks in older people who don't get much of either, a new analysis finds. The risk is low, but it's a good reminder that slackers should change their exercise habits gradually, especially in middle age.


People who exercise regularly have a much smaller risk of having a heart attack immediately after sexual or physical activity, said lead author Dr. Issa Dahabreh of Tufts Medical Center in Boston.


"It would be really bad if someone thought our paper means people should not exercise," Dahabreh said. "If anything, it's the opposite."


The analysis, appearing in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, combined results from 14 studies involving more than 6,000 patients.


The studies involved only people who'd had heart attacks or had died suddenly from a heart problem. The studies looked at what the people were doing during the hour or two before their heart attacks and compared that to the same people's activity on normal days with no major heart problems.


That study design is used to try to answer the question, "Why did the heart attack occur now?"


Physical activity and sex increased the risk of heart attack by a factor of about three, according to the analysis of the pooled results. Exercise increased the risk of sudden cardiac death by nearly five times. The researchers didn't find a triggering relationship between sex and sudden cardiac death, that is, a sudden death from a heart problem.


The risk for any one person is extremely low.


"If you were to follow 10,000 people for a year and if they all decided to increase their physical activity by an hour a week, you could expect to see two to three more heart attacks," Dahabreh said.


That risk is offset for most people by the benefits of exercise. The more frequently people exercise, in general, the less risk they have of exercise or sex triggering a heart attack.


Most of the patients in the studies were in their late 50s and early 60s, but the findings are a cautionary tale for people in any age group who are slowing down.


Exercise might even be considered cross-training for sex, said Mercedes Carnethon, a heart disease researcher at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, who wasn't involved in the research.


"Engaging in regular physical activity is a requirement for maintaining a long, safe, healthy sex life," Carnethon said.


"If this isn't more motivation for people to maintain some degree of physical activity, I'm not sure what is," Carnethon said. "Get out and walk. Do something."

Libya rebels struggle to regroup; US jet crashes

Libya rebels struggle to regroup; US jet crashes

A rebel fighter in the northeastern Libyan town of Ajdabiyah

regrouping in the desert dunes outside a strategic eastern city on Tuesday, and his snipers and tanks roamed the streets of the last major opposition-held city in the west, signaling a prolonged battle ahead. An American fighter jet crashed, both crew ejecting safely.

The U.S. Africa Command said both crewmembers were safe in American hands after what was believed to be a mechanical failure of the Air Force F-15 on Monday night. One was picked up by a rebel force and the other by a Marine Corps Osprey search and rescue aircraft.

Disorganization among the rebels could hamper their attempts to exploit the air campaign by U.S. and European militaries, who themselves have struggled to articulate an endgame. Since the uprising began on Feb. 15, the opposition has been made up of disparate groups even as it took control of the entire east of the country.

Regular citizens — residents of the "liberated" areas — formed an enthusiastic but undisciplined force that in the past weeks has charged ahead to fight Gadhafi forces, only to be beaten back by superior firepower. Regular army units that joined the rebellion have proven stronger and more organized, but only a few units have joined the battles while many have stayed behind as officers struggle to get together often antiquated, limited equipment and form a coordinated force.

The ragtag band of hundreds of fighters who made their way to the outskirts of Ajdabiya on Tuesday milled about, clutching mortars, grenades and assault rifles. Some wore khaki fatigues. One man sported a bright white studded belt.

Some men clambered up power lines in the rolling sand dunes of the desert, squinting and hoping to see Gadhafi's forces inside the besieged city of 140,000 that is the gateway to the east.

"Gadhafi is killing civilians inside Ajdabiya," said Khaled Hamid, a rebel who said he been in Gadhafi's forces but defected to the rebels' side. "Today we will enter Ajdabiya, God willing."

Misrata, the last western city held by rebels, was being bombarded by Gadhafi's forces on Tuesday, his tanks and snipers controlling the streets, according to a doctor there who said civilians were surviving oon dwindling supplies of food and water, desperately in search of shelter.

AP/Anja Niedringhaus

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals if the city falls to Gadhafi's troops, he accused international forces of failing to protect civilians as promised under the United Nations resolution authorizing military action in Libya.

"Snipers are everywhere in Misrata, shooting any one who walks by while the world is still watching," he said. "The situation is going from bad to worse. We can do nothing but wait. Sometimes we depend on one meal per day."

Mokhtar Ali, a Libyan dissident in exile elsewhere in the Mideast, said he was in touch with his father in Misrata and described increasingly dire conditions.

"Residents live on canned food and rainwater tanks," Ali said. He said Gadhafi's brigades storm residential areas knowing that they won't be bombed there. "People live in total darkness in terms of communications and electricity."

The air campaign by U.S. and European militaries that began Saturday has unquestionably rearranged the map in Libya and rescued rebels from what had appeared to be imminent defeat.

Monday night, Libyan state TV said a new round of strikes had begun in the capital, Tripoli, marking the third night of bombardment. But while the airstrikes can stop Gadhafi's troops from attacking rebel cities — in line with the U.N. mandate to protect civilians — the United States, at least, appeared deeply reluctant to go beyond that toward actively helping the rebel cause to oust the Libyan leader.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and others said the U.S. military's role will lessen in coming days as other countries take on more missions and the need declines for large-scale offensive action like the barrage of Tomahawk cruise missiles fired Saturday and Sunday mainly by U.S. ships and submarines off Libya's coast.

A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss classified data, said Monday that the attacks thus far had reduced Libya's air defense capabilities by more than 50 percent. That has enabled the coalition to focus more on extending the no-fly zone, which is now mainly over the coastal waters off Libya and around the rebel stronghold of Benghazi in the east, across the country to the Tripoli area this week.

In his first public comments on the crisis, Army Gen. Carter Ham, the lead U.S. commander, said it was possible that Gadhafi might manage to retain power.

"I don't think anyone would say that is ideal," the general said Monday, foreseeing a possible outcome that stands in contrast to President Barack Obama's declaration that Gadhafi must go.

The Libyan leader has ruled the North African nation for more than four decades and was a target of American air attacks in 1986.

Budget renews eco retrofits, but no HST deal

Budget renews eco retrofits, but no HST deal

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty puts on his newly resoled shoes during a pre-budget photo op at an Ottawa shoe repair store on Monday, March 21, 2011. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

The Conservative government's budget will include student loan forgiveness for rural doctors and nurses, $400 million to renew a home energy retrofit program and a new program to link veterans with job training opportunities, CBC News has learned.

According to a government source, the budget will provide for student loan forgiveness of up to $40,000 for doctors and up to $20,000 for nurses in remote or rural areas.

The source said the budget will also include $50 million for Waterloo's Perimeter Institute and $4 million for Thunder Bay's Regional Research Institute.

The source said the budget will have four main themes: job creation; families and communities; research, innovation and training; and "preserving Canada's fiscal advantage."

One of those training initiatives, the source said, is to help Canadian Forces veterans find apprenticeship opportunities in the construction industry.

But a deal to compensate Quebec for implementing the harmonized sales tax (HST), which the Bloc Québécois wants to see in Tuesday's budget, is not done yet and won't be part of the budget, according to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe demanded to know in question period Monday whether the budget will include $2.2 billion in compensation for Quebec for harmonizing its provincial sales tax with the GST in the 1990s. Quebec and Ottawa have been working on a deal for months, similar to the ones reached with Ontario and British Columbia.

Duceppe said Quebec's finance minister has sent a draft agreement to Flaherty and the province is waiting for him to sign off on it. It has already taken far too long for the federal government to conclude the negotiations, Duceppe said.


NDP MP Thomas Mulcair suggested Monday in question period that the Conservatives are deliberately stalling on reaching a deal for political reasons.

He said the Conservatives might be withholding the money for Quebec in Tuesday's budget because it would mean the Bloc Québécois would be more inclined to vote for it. While the Conservatives need the support of an opposition party to pass the budget, the Conservatives don't want to be seen as being propped up by a separatist party, Mulcair suggested.

He also suggested the Conservatives might be holding on to news about a deal until a campaign is underway, if one is triggered in the next few days. The government faces possible non-confidence motions in addition to budget votes in the coming days.

Flaherty told the House of Commons that negotiations are going well and that progress has been made but there is still more work to do. "We will continue our negotiations," he said.

Earlier in the day, Flaherty held the traditional pre-budget day photo op, posing for the cameras but letting no details slip on the government's fiscal plan for the year.

It's tradition for the finance minister to buy a new pair of shoes to wear on budget day, but Flaherty opted to have an old pair repaired at an Ottawa store.

On Tuesday at 4 p.m. Flaherty will deliver his sixth federal budget as finance minister in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's cabinet. It's not expected to be a blockbuster; Flaherty and Harper have warned it will contain little in the way of major new spending programs.

However, what could be a lacklustre budget might still spark the government's downfall, depending on how the parliamentary calendar shapes up this week.

If the opposition parties decide they want to bring down the government, they could do it on the first vote related to the budget, but a non-confidence motion related to a committee finding that the government should be found in contempt of Parliament might come first. If successful, that would bring down the government before its budget could be passed.
 
'Stay on course'

Flaherty said Monday the government will continue to follow its plan to get the country back to a balanced budget in the coming years.

"One of the goals of the budget is to make sure we stay on course, that we maintain the fiscal track that we set out in the fall economic update, that we move back to a balanced budget but at the same time, make some investments to promote economic growth, jobs," Flaherty said during the photo-op on Monday.

He wouldn't say whether he thought there would be enough in the budget to persuade one of the opposition parties to support it. The Conservatives need the votes from at least one of the three parties in order to stay in power and avoid an election.

It is possible the government could fall this week on a non-confidence motion, based on a report from a Commons committee that found the government in contempt of Parliament, before Flaherty's budget is even debated by the House.

Flaherty has dropped hints about the government doing more to support senior citizens, though he hasn't specified how it might do that. The CBC's Greg Weston reported last week that the budget would include a $700-million increase in old age security payments. The average Guaranteed Income Supplement is currently worth $455 per month and the average basic old age security cheque amounts to $493.
 
Will measures win opposition support?

An increase in the GIS is among the items the NDP wants to see in the budget, but Leader Jack Layton has signalled that his party needs to see substantive measures in the budget in order to vote in favour of it. The NDP has outlined other measures it wants to see in the budget: the elimination of federal tax on home heating, the renewal of the EcoEnergy Retrofit program, reforms to the Canada Pension Plan and efforts to increase the number of family doctors.

The main thing the Liberals are looking for, but won't find, is a roll back of corporate tax reductions. The corporate tax rate was dropped to 16.5 per cent from 18 per cent on Jan.1, and another cut to 15 per cent is due next year. The Liberals say corporate tax cuts are unaffordable when the country has its biggest deficit in history. The Conservatives have made it clear they do not intend to reverse the corporate tax cuts.

"We've made it clear what measures we'd like to see in the budget. What we've received is radio silence," Liberal finance critic Scott Brison said Monday.

Duceppe said the Bloc Québécois is looking first for a deal on the HST and would only evaluate the rest of the budget after that.

One measure the Conservatives have said will be in the budget is a tax credit for enrolling children in arts programs. That was a campaign promise made in 2008 and it is similar to an existing tax credit for children's sports programs.

Once Flaherty is finished delivering his budget speech, there will be a flurry of activity on Parliament Hill. The opposition leaders aren't likely to immediately declare whether they will support the budget, but they could give their basic impressions of it. All of the parties have caucus meetings on Wednesday morning and following those, the opposition leaders or their finance critics are likely to have more to say.

Parliament Hill will also be packed with financial analysts and representatives from various organizations and interest groups who will react to the budget as soon as it is tabled.

Police driver tells crash inquest of pursuit

Police driver tells crash inquest of pursuit

A New South Wales police officer involved in a pursuit before a fatal car crash in Canberra last year has given evidence at a coronial inquest into the accident.

A family of three was killed instantly when their car was hit by a stolen vehicle on Canberra Avenue 12 months ago. (ABC News)

Scott Oppelaar, his partner Samantha Ford and their four-month-old son Brody were killed instantly when their car was hit by a stolen car on Canberra Avenue in Narrabundah on March 20, 2010.

The driver of that car, Justin Williams, also died from injuries sustained in the collision.

Police had been pursuing the stolen car from Queanbeyan south-east of the capital before the accident.

The driver of the police car in the pursuit, Constable Michael Hannaford, today took the stand in the ACT Coroner's Court.

He told the court, on the night of the pursuit he had observed a vehicle speeding through a roundabout in Queanbeyan.

He initiated his warning lights when they caught up to the car, and began a pursuit when it sped away.

He confirmed to the court he was travelling around 150 kilometres per hour during the pursuit.

Constable Hannaford told the court that during the pursuit he had hoped the driver would do a 'dump and run', and the officers might then be able to pursue on foot.

He said he had begun to lose ground on the car and was slowing down when he deemed the stolen car wouldn't stop and was endangering public safety.

He said seconds later he saw a plume of smoke and sparks.

Constable Hannaford said there had been no objection to the pursuit from his partner.

Japan reactors' power lines connected

Japan reactors' power lines connected

Significant step taken in getting control of overheated reactors and storage pools

The central control room for the No. 3 reactor at the Tokyo Electric Power's Fukushima Daiichi power plant in September 2010. Workers were able to connect power to reactors at the site Tuesday. (Tokyo Electric Power/Reuters)

Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the quake-damaged nuclear plant at Fukushima in northern Japan, says power lines have been hooked up to all six reactor units, though more work is needed before electricity can be turned on to help cooling the units.

Reconnecting the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex to the electrical grid is a significant step in getting control of the overheated reactors and storage pools for spent fuels.

The company announced the hookup Tuesday. Still, it is likely to be days before the cooling systems can be powered up, since damaged equipment needs to be replaced and any volatile gas must be vented to avoid an explosion, reports say.

Earlier Tuesday, a pool for storing spent fuel in the tsunami-damaged plant in northern Japan was found to be heating up, with temperatures rising to the boiling point. Those temeratures now appear to be under control, reports indicate.

Nuclear safety agency official Hidehiko Nishiyama told reporters Tuesday that the high temperatures in the spent fuel pool are believed to have been the cause of steam that has wafted from Fukushima Daiichi's Unit 2 since Monday.

The hot storage pool is another complication in bringing the plant under control and ending a nuclear crisis that followed the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated the country's northeast coast.

To date, more than 9,000 people are known to have been killed by the earthquake and tsunami, Japanese police said Tuesday.

The overall number of bodies collected so far is 9,079, police said. Another 13,500 people are missing. Officials expect the death toll will eventually top 18,000, with as many as 15,000 people estimated to have died in the hard-hit Miyagi prefecture alone. The disasters have displaced another 452,000, who are in shelters.

The updated figures came as the country grappled with the effects of the damage caused to the Fukushima nuclear plant. Efforts to stabilize the plant continued, while officials banned the sale of food that came from areas around Fukushima.

Fears about radioactivity have already cleared the area of residents and led to bans on the sale of some produce and milk from the region.

Now, seawater near the tsunami-crippled plant is showing elevated levels of radioactive iodine and cesium.

In response, the government is testing seafood.

Extreme science in the Arctic Circle

Extreme science in the Arctic Circle

Refuelling at Arctic Bay. Photo: Darren Bull/CNN

An elite group of scientists is heading to one of the coldest places on Earth to carry out vital research on global warming. Joining them for part of the journey is a three-person team from CNN, led by special correspondent and environmentalist Philippe Cousteau. Check for updates and images from the trip right here over the next two weeks. Learn more about the journey here.

(CNN) -- Day 1: Resolute Bay

There is always a sense of anxious anticipation in the weeks leading up to an expedition; a combination of nervous energy and excitement, but as the lights of Resolute Bay began to peer through the dusk there was a sense of relief.

We had finally made it after days of travel to this remote outpost in the northern Canadian Arctic. This was not the final destination of our journey but would serve as a way station for a day's worth of training before continuing on to Ice Base another 400 miles to the northwest. Finally, the expedition had begun.

Our small crew had gathered in Ottawa only the day before: Darren Bull, an Australian cameraman now living in London; CNN producer Matt Vigil based out of Atlanta; our arctic guide John Huston from Chicago; and myself from Washington DC.

Our destination is the Catlin Arctic Survey Ice Base to join scientists in their third year of spending 7 weeks each spring living and working on the ice conducting critical research to monitor and understand the changing face of this inhospitable environment.

Sleeping in unheated tents on the ice and working in temperatures that are regularly -40 degrees Centigrade (-40 Fahrenheit) -- this is truly extreme science.

Each spring the scientists come to explore the changing balance of the Arctic ecosystem because while the Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceanic divisions it is arguably the most important.

While the word Arctic often brings images of highly visible iconic animals such as the polar bear to mind (Arctic comes from the ancient Greek word arktikos, meaning country of the great bear), it is the largely invisible systems at work both above and beneath the ice that should matter to every human being on earth.

The Arctic, in essence, is the air conditioning unit of the planet and fulfills this function in two primary ways. Due to the high reflectivity of the snow and ice along with long periods of little or no sunlight, the Arctic causes a net loss of heat into space.

In addition, the Arctic plays a vital role in regulating the circulation of the Earth's atmosphere and oceans by distributing heat from the tropics to the poles, making the Earth overall a much more habitable place. As sea ice melts, causing less reflectivity and disrupting oceanic currents, this crucial function may change with potentially dire global consequences.

As earth's population passes the 7 billion mark and rapidly heads towards 9 billion by the middle of the century, dwindling natural resources are of increasing concern; thus any volatility in the world's climate is of global significance.

Over the next two weeks our team will join the adventure to document the extreme science being conducted by the Catlin Arctic Survey. In the words of the famous Arctic explorer Ernest Shackleton, "Men go out into the void spaces of the world for various reasons. Some are actuated by love of adventure, some have the keen thirst for scientific knowledge, and others again are drawn away from the trodden path by the lure of little voices, the mysterious fascination of the unknown."

This expedition is a little bit of all three, adventure, science and mystery colliding together in an effort to explore a world about which very little is known but which is crucial to the survival of life as we know it.

Japanese officials will test food, seawater to determine health risks

Japanese officials will test food, seawater to determine health risks

People line up for radiation screening at Koryama in Fukushima prefecture on Monday.

Tokyo (CNN) -- Japanese officials' concerns over food contamination expanded beyond the country's borders Tuesday as tests detected radiation in ocean water offshore.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said that high levels of radioactive substances were found in seawater near the plant, but said that the results did not represent a threat to human health.

"There should be no immediate health impact. If this situation continues for a long period of time, some impact can occur," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters.

The impact such radiation could have on marine life was unclear. Japanese authorities were scheduled to measure radioactivity in waters around the plant on Tuesday and Wednesday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said.

Earlier seawater radiation monitoring detected levels of iodine-131 that were 126.7 times higher than government-set standards, the electric company said on its website. Its monitors detected cesium-134, which has a half-life of about two years, about 24.8 times higher than the government standards. Cesium-137 was found to be 16.5 times higher than the standard.

The electric company detected these levels in seawater 100 meters (328 feet) south of the nuclear power plant Monday afternoon. Radioactive particles disperse in the ocean, and the farther away from the shore a sample is taken, the less concentrated the contamination should be.

Because of the huge amount of dilution that happens in the ocean, there's not much chance of deep-water fish being tainted, said Murray McBride, a professor at Cornell University who studies soil and water contamination.

"I think the ocean can handle that a lot better than the physical environment and population centers," said Jim Walsh, an international security expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a CNN consultant. "We don't want any of this to happen, but better it go out to sea than stay in Japan."

Winds have largely blown radioactive material emitted by the plant offshore since an earthquake and tsunami crippled cooling systems at the plant March 11.

But tests have detected contamination of food grown near the plant.

The Japanese government has banned the sale of raw milk from Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is located, and prohibited the sale of spinach from neighboring Ibaraki Prefecture after finding levels of radioactive iodine and cesium higher than government standards, the country's health ministry reported.

And officials in Fukushima halted the distribution of locally grown vegetables outside the prefecture.

The government has also banned sales of spinach and milk from parts of Gunma and Tochigi Prefectures, according to the prime minister's office.

On Tuesday Edano said contamination had not been detected in other agricultural products.

"The products which are being grown in these areas are being monitored and the monitoring will continue," he said.

He urged consumers to "try not to panic," noting that the government had stopped shipments of any farm products they believed could be contaminated.

Edano has stressed that officials believe the levels of radiation in food -- while above the legal standards -- do not pose any immediate health risk, saying they were mostly dangerous only if consumed repeatedly over one's lifetime.

On Monday a spokesman for the World Health Organization said short-term exposure to food contaminated by radiation from Japan's damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant poses no immediate health risk.

Tests have also detected radiation in tap water.

On Monday, authorities in the village of Iitake urged residents to avoid drinking tap water that tests showed contained more than three times the maximum standard of radioactive iodine.

Water in other jurisdictions showed lesser signs of contamination, although far below levels of concern under Japanese law, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency website. The U.N. agency said it had received reports from Japan's government that six out of 46 samples tested positive for the iodine-131 radioactive isotope.

Iodine and cesium isotopes are byproducts of nuclear fission in reactors such as the ones damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Honshu, Japan's main island. Although iodine-131 has a radioactive half-life of eight days, cesium-137's half-life is about 30 years.

The decision to prohibit produce sales is another potentially devastating blow to a part of northeast Japan hit by the earthquake, tsunami and other potential fallout from the Fukushima plant.

Edano has said farmers will be compensated for revenue lost by the restrictions.

"Primarily this is due to the nuclear reactor accident, so we assume (Tokyo Electric Power Company) will be held responsible for compensation. The government might take some supplementary action," he said.

Fukushima ranks among Japan's top producer of fruits, vegetables and rice. Ibaraki, south of Fukushima, supplies Tokyo with a significant amount of fruits and vegetables and is Japan's third-largest pork producer.

For radiation to be an issue for rice, the contamination would have to be more severe and prolonged that what has been seen so far, said McBride, the Cornell University professor.

Soil contamination was a huge issue around Chernobyl, but the radiation emitted from the Fukushima Daiichi plant isn't anywhere near that level, he said.

"We're not at that stage; that's the scenario you have to consider if contamination gets severe enough," McBride said.