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Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Vitamin E may slow functional decline in Alzheimer's patients: study
Vitamin E may slow functional decline in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and decrease caregiver burden, a U.S. study said Tuesday.
Previous research has found that alpha tocopherol, a fat- soluble vitamin E and antioxidant, slowed disease progression in patients with moderately severe Alzheimer's disease.
Researchers from Minneapolis VA Health Care System and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai examined the effectiveness and safety of vitamin E, the drug called memantine, and the combination for treatment of functional decline in patients with mild to moderate AD. These patients were also taking anti-dementia drugs known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.
The trial included 613 patients at 14 Veterans Affairs medical centers. Participants received either a daily 2,000 IUs of vitamin E (2g), a daily 20 mg of memantine, the combination, or placebo.
The researchers found that vitamin E delays progression of functional decline by 19 percent per year, which translates into 6. 2-month benefit over placebo. Neither memantine nor the combination of vitamin E and memantine showed clinical benefit in this trial.
In addition, caregiver time was reduced by about 2 hours per day in the vitamin E group.
The researchers found no significant increase in mortality with vitamin E. The annual mortality rate was 7.3 percent in the alpha tocopherol group compared with 9.4 percent for the placebo group.
The findings are valuable because vitamin E is easy to purchase at local drugstores and it is also inexpensive, said the researchers, while recommending it as a treatment strategy, based on the randomized controlled trial.
"This study is the first to show an added benefit for vitamin E in mild-to-moderate disease," Professor Kenneth Davis, chief executive officer and President of the Mount Sinai Health System, said in a statement. "Now that we have a strong clinical trial showing that vitamin E slows functional decline and reduces the burdens on caregivers, vitamin E should be offered to patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease."
The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Putin Discusses Public Security in Blast-Hit Volgograd
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed public security and anti-terrorism measures early on Wednesday in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, which is reeling from two suicide bombings within 24 hours.
Two separate suicide bombings ripped through the city’s railway terminal on Sunday and a trolleybus on Monday, killing a total of 34 people. Another attack by a female suicide bomber on a commuter bus in Volgograd in October killed six people and injured 37.
Putin arrived in the city on Wednesday morning, hours after delivering a New Year’s speech in which he called the attacks “inhumane” and vowed that his country would continue to battle terrorists until all are eliminated.
Shortly after arriving to Volgograd, the president met with senior regional and federal officials to discuss “what is being done here and all across the country to maintain public security.”
The meeting was attended by FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Health Minister c, Volgograd Region Governor Sergei Bozhenov and other officials.
After the meeting, Putin laid flowers to the site of the Monday attack and visited victims who are being treated in one of the city’s hospitals.
Pakistan: Two killed, several injured as blast hits pilgrims' bus in Quetta
http://dunyanews.tv/At least two people were killed and several others injured when a bus carrying pilgrims was hit by a roadside blast in Akhtarabad town in Quetta, Dunya News reported. The bus, carrying at least 50 Shia pilgrims, was travelling from Iran to the city of Quetta in Balochistan when the attack happened near Qambrani Road.


Pakistan against total US pullout from Afghanistan
US tries to block Afghanistan from releasing 'dangerous' prisoners
The United States wants Afghanistan to halt the release of 88 prisoners from an Afghan jail because they pose a serious threat to security, U.S. officials said on Wednesday, adding to strains between the two sides. The United States only recently transferred the prison at Bagram to Afghan control after it had become a serious source of tension with the government in Afghanistan which is fighting a Taliban-led insurgency. Relations with Afghanistan have grown particularly strained over President Hamid Karzai's refusal to sign a bilateral security deal that would keep around 8,000 U.S. troops in the country after 2014, when most foreign forces are due to leave.A U.S. army official said the release of the 88 contravened a presidential decree to complete investigations at the prison and prosecute individuals when required. "The Afghan Review Board has exceeded its mandate and ordered the release of a number of dangerous individuals who are legitimate threats and for whom there is strong evidence supporting prosecution or further investigation," said Colonel Dave Lapan, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The United States long resisted handing over the facility - because it feared individuals it considered dangerous would be released - but ultimately reached a deal with the Afghan government in early 2013. About 40 percent of the prisoners were directly responsible for wounding or killing 57 Afghan civilians and security forces, and 30 percent had participated in direct attacks that killed or wounded 60 U.S. and coalition troops, a U.S. official said. The head of the Afghan commission charged with reviewing the cases denied that the 88 posed a threat. "In many cases, detainees were wrongly linked to certain incidents they were not involved in," said Abdul Shakor Dadras. The planned release will however alarm many senior Afghan security sources, who often see released prisoners return to the battlefield. The bilateral security deal has to be signed for the United States and its allies to provide billions more dollars in aid. Without a deal, the United States could pull all of its troops out, the so-called zero option, leaving Afghan forces to battle the Taliban on their own. Karzai however has said the deal can wait until after presidential elections, scheduled for April, and that the "zero option" is an empty threat.
Pakistan's Shia Under attack: ''Inertia abounds''
Pakistan: Redefining civil liberties? : ‘New Year eve ruined amid bans, gridlocks’
Pakistan: Civil-military equation
IT could be the last throw of the dice by a desperate man. Indeed, there is little reason to believe him. But former president-cum-army chief Pervez Musharraf’s claim that he has the support of the army as he tries to fight off an imminent trial for treason has raised a number of awkward questions for that most awkward of equations: the civil-military imbalance. Thus far, the army has not taken Mr Musharraf’s bait, refusing to either distance itself from or comment on the former dictator’s claims about the institution he led for nearly a decade. Silence, as is the wont here, can be interpreted either way: it could be yet another manifestation of the post-Musharraf army leadership’s decision to steer clear of overt politics or it could be that Mr Musharraf has once again spoken brashly and revealed behind-the-scenes pressure and bargaining. Whatever the truth — and the truth is rarely, if ever, known to the public when it comes to the doings of the army leadership — this is a certainly a delicate moment for the new military leadership.
As ever, the problem is that the perpetrator is also a victim of sorts and the victims, perpetrators of sorts. Mr Musharraf is clearly and unquestionably guilty of overthrowing the Constitution and illegally installing himself in power in 1999. That coup was facilitated by many, endorsed later by some and finally indemnified by parliament. It was never a single individual’s decision or doing. But the former dictator is not even facing trial for 1999; he has only been charged with the imposition of emergency in 2007. And while everyone — including then-prime minister Shaukat Aziz — has tried to distance themselves from the November 2007 emergency, there is little doubt that there were many supporters of that move too. So if Mr Musharraf is puzzled or bewildered, as his flurry of recent interviews seems to indicate, why he alone faces trial, he does have a point. But the civilian leadership is quiet on that matter, preferring to cast Mr Musharraf as the only villain in the piece.
Elsewhere too the civilian leadership is silent: there is no movement at all on the Supreme Court judgement in the Asghar Khan case which set the stage for the trial of another former army chief and a director of the ISI. Presumably, that is because of the awkward issue of the principal beneficiaries of the rigged 1990 elections being back in power today. Nevertheless, while the civilians continue to fail on some fronts, the onus really ought to be on the army. No more protected class; Mr Musharraf’s fate should be decided by the civilians and the courts.
Lawyers claim fraud as Pakistan's Musharraf goes on trial for treason
Lawyers argued Wednesday that former Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf could not receive a fair trial on treason charges, a case that could test the relationship between an increasingly assertive civilian government and the army.
Musharraf, 70, faces the death penalty over his suspension of the constitution and imposition of emergency rule in 2007, when he was trying to extend his rule as president in the face of growing opposition.
Musharraf, who did not appear in court, says the trial is a politically motivated vendetta.
His lawyers say Musharraf cannot get a fair trial in Pakistan because of his history of disputes with the judiciary and the involvement of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif whom he once overthrew in a coup.
"I would go beyond (the accusation of) bias. This is a fraud on the law," said defense lawyer Anwar Mansoor Khan.
Musharraf ousted Sharif in a coup in 1999. Sharif was jailed for a period and then forced into exile. He returned eight years later and won a landslide victory in a general election in May.
Musharraf himself stepped down in 2008 to avoid impeachment charges after judges and lawyers led street protests over his attempt to fire the then-chief justice.
The trial opened on December 24 but was immediately suspended after Musharraf did not appear because a bag of explosives was found on his route to the court. Another bag of explosives was found near his house on Wednesday.
Police told the judge they had deployed more than 1,000 officers to secure his route, but "yet again there was a bomb scare", judge Faisal Arab said.
Khan said the defense had "zero confidence" in the police and said a mysterious unmarked car had tried to force him off the road.
ARMY SUPPORT
Musharraf returned to Pakistan last year, hoping to contest elections that marked the first democratic transfer of power from one civilian government to another in coup-prone Pakistan's history.
Instead, he was barred from standing and enmeshed in a web of legal cases, repeatedly charged and bailed.
In recent days, Musharraf has said in media interviews that the whole army supported him and was upset about his treatment. He also acknowledged that before his return to Pakistan, the army sent a top envoy to try to dissuade him from coming back.
The military is Pakistan's most powerful institution and it has ruled the country for more than half its history since independence in 1947.
But in recent years the civilian government and judiciary have both become more assertive. Top military officers have been questioned although not convicted in human rights and corruption cases.
The military leadership has given no indication it intends to intervene in the trial of Musharraf who was likely to be overstating the army's support for him to help with his legal troubles, said retired general Talat Masood.
"He's trying to twist facts in order to suit his case, to get sympathy and support," he said. "These are tactics to protect and shield himself from the legal process."
Masood said if the case was handled fairly, it could even strengthen relations between the government and military.
"This is a test of civil-military relations," he said. "It is just one instance of the civil government trying to assert itself."
Revelers usher in 2014 with fireworks and fruit mist
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