Source: Reuters

More babies born via cesarean section grow up to be heavy kids and teens than those delivered vaginally, according to a new study of more than 10,000 UK infants.

Eleven-year-olds delivered by C-section, for example, were 83 percent more likely to be overweight or obese than their vaginally-born peers once other related factors - such as their mother's weight and how long they were breastfed - were taken into account.

The findings are in line with a recent review of nine earlier studies that also found a link between C-sections and childhood obesity (see Reuters Health story of December 12, 2012 here: http://reut.rs/TV6GwC ).

With C-sections, "there may be long-term consequences to children that we don't know about," said Dr. Jan Blustein, who led the new study at the New York University School of Medicine.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/24/us-c-sections-tied-to-child-obesity-idUSBRE94N0NS20130524

Source: New York Times

The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, bluntly told a North Korean envoy Friday that his country should return to diplomatic talks designed to rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons, according to a state-run Chinese news agency.

“The denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and lasting peace on the peninsula is what the people want and also the trend of the times,” Mr. Xi said in a meeting at the Great Hall of the People with Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, a personal envoy of the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, the China News Service reported.

Vice Marshal Choe, who has been in Beijing for three days on a mission to repair the prickly relationship between North Korea and China, handed Mr. Xi a letter from Mr. Kim. The contents were not disclosed.

In telling the North it should return to the negotiating table, Mr. Xi appeared to strike a stern tone, saying, “The Chinese position is very clear: no matter how the situation changes, relevant parties should all adhere to the goal of denuclearization of the peninsula, persist in safeguarding its peace and stability, and stick to solving problems through dialogue and consultation.”

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Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/world/asia/china-tells-north-korea-to-return-to-nuclear-talks.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Source: Bloomberg

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party is changing its strategy for rewriting the country’s pacifist constitution ahead of parliamentary elections in July, a party executive said.

The LDP will omit from its platform Abe’s pledge to first make it easier to overhaul the constitution by lowering the bar for enacting amendments, party policy chief Sanae Takaichi said today in Tokyo. Abe has repeatedly called for changing Article 96 of the charter to allow parliament to pass amendments by a simple majority rather than the current two-thirds.

“This isn’t about what may or may not come of Article 96, but about constitutional reform, which is firmly written into the platform,” Takaichi told reporters.

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The prime minister advocates revising the constitution for the first time as part of plans to strengthen the military as Japan confronts a territorial conflict with China and threats from North Korea’s nuclear program. The U.S.-drafted document was imposed on Japan after World War II and the LDP has advocated changing it since the party was founded in 1955.

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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-24/ldp-alters-abe-s-constitutional-pledge-in-japan-election-plans.html

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Warmongers.

Source: Bloomberg

Bigelow Aerospace LLC, a maker of inflatable space habitats, will study the possible return of men to the moon as part of an agreement with NASA that may lead to more public-private partnerships for exploration.

The company said it will identify options for government and private investments to advance human space exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, or more than 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) from Earth’s surface. Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace won’t be paid for work that is scheduled to be completed this year.

A lunar base will be part of the study announced today by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, though the space agency isn’t planning to fund a moon mission. NASA instead intends to focus on landing humans on an asteroid by 2021.

The deal “signals that NASA is open to working with the private sector on lunar activities even if the agency itself does not want to lead such an effort,” Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, said in a phone interview.

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Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-23/bigelow-aerospace-to-study-moon-base-in-deal-with-nasa.html

Source: Medical News Today

Suicide can be contagious, especially among teenagers, according to a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ).

The research suggests that one person's suicide can influence another person's suicidal thoughts or behavior, and this is particularly seen among younger adolescents.

Additionally, the teens do not have to be personally associated with the suicide victim to start thinking about suicide or to attempt suicide themselves, the investigators discovered.

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According to the results, 12-to-13 year olds who had been exposed to suicide had a five times higher risk of contemplating suicide themselves or to say that they had attempted suicide.

After factoring in the adolescent's personal knowledge of the person who died, the scientists were surprised to see that there was nearly no difference in these statistics.

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Read more: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/260836.php

Source: Charlotte Business Journal

Neither Duke Energy Progress nor the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can explain how operators at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant missed signs of a small vessel-head crack during testing a year ago.

But both intend to find out how that happened.

The federal agency will send a special inspection team to the plant this week to look for answers. And a Duke Energy Corp. executive says the company has commissioned three independent industry groups to review what occurred and determine what can be done differently to make sure such data is properly reviewed in the future.

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Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/duke-energy-nrc-probe-missed-crack-at.html

Source: Tampa Bay Times

A St. Petersburg lawmaker wants the Florida Public Service Commission to study the cost of the proposed Levy County nuclear plant compared to a natural gas facility.

Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg, said in a news release and letter to the commission this week that a Tampa Bay Times analysis that showed Levy would cost more than a natural gas facility over 60 years warrants a comprehensive review by the state.

The Times analysis also showed that Duke Energy would make $4 billion from the Levy nuclear project compared to $369 million for an equivalent natural gas facility, according to the Times analysis.

"The main argument in favor of nuclear is that it is less expensive in the long run," Dudley stated in the letter. "If the Times findings are accurate – that a comparable natural gas facility would be around $3 billion cheaper over 60 years – then I would consider this notion to be thoroughly debunked."

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Read more: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/st-petersburg-lawmaker-calls-for-study-of-levy-nuclear-plant-costs/2122136

Source: Associated Press

Hundreds of people living just outside Japan's Fukushima prefecture say they have been denied adequate compensation after the country's 2011 nuclear disaster despite suffering elevated radiation levels.

Nearly 700 residents from Hippo district in Miyagi prefecture, just northeast of Fukushima, filed a claim Tuesday with a government arbitration office demanding that they be given the same compensation as residents of Fukushima.

The government's basic compensation scheme only covers Fukushima residents, which critics say is an attempt to minimize costs.

The Hippo residents said some radiation levels in their area exceeded those in Fukushima towns. Hippo district is about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northwest of the crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

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Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/rest-of-world/Hundreds-seek-compensation-in-Japan-nuclear-crisis/articleshow/20177997.cms

Source: Medical Xpress

Ten years after the Iraq war of 2003 a team of scientists based in Mosul, northern Iraq, have detected high levels of uranium contamination in soil samples at three sites in the province of Nineveh which, coupled with dramatically increasing rates of childhood cancers and birth defects at local hospitals, highlight the ongoing legacy of modern warfare to civilians in conflict zones.

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Their report "Environmental pollution by depleted uranium in Iraq with special reference to Mosul and possible effects on cancer and birth defect rates" begins with a literature review that collates health-related data from a range of sources, including a report by the WHO (in 2003), which states that childhood cancers – particularly leukaemia – are ten times higher in Iraq than in other industrialised countries.

Although there is already significant evidence of cancers and related illnesses in adults (particularly war veterans), the authors emphasise that it is the dramatic rise in the incidence of cancer and birth defects in children under 15 years of age since the second Gulf War that points to the terrible legacy of DU weaponry. Childhood cancers are now some five times higher than before the two Gulf Wars (currently around 22 children per 100,000, compared with approximately 4 children per 100,000 in 1990).

The focal point of their scientific study was three sites near Mosul: Adayah, a landfill for radioactive waste; Rihanyah, a former research centre for nuclear munitions (disused since 1991); and Damerchy, a small village on the Tigris River (about 10km north of Mosel), which was a scene of fighting in the 2003 conflict. Particularly high levels of uranium were found at Rihanyah where storage ponds of liquid and solid waste from uranium processing are still a source of radioactive pollution. The accumulation of uranium in wild plants (principally the shrub Lagonychium farctum) was noted in Damerchy, where it is thought to have entered the food chain and is linked to the death of numerous head of cattle.

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Read more: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-cancer-birth-defects-iraq-nuclear.html

Source: Kyodo

The United Nations is considering excluding measures to prevent a nuclear accident caused by earthquake and tsunami from a new framework on disaster risk reduction expected to be adopted at the next world conference in 2015, U.N. sources said Tuesday.

A Japanese government official involved in drafting the new framework, which will be discussed at the U.N.-sponsored World Conference on Disaster Reduction in March 2015 in Sendai, northeastern Japan, said manmade disasters should be treated separately from natural calamities.

But a member of nongovernmental organization criticized such a move, saying the world body is avoiding the issue of nuclear disasters out of concern that antinuclear activists could exploit the discussion.

The international conference to be held in the Japanese city devastated by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which triggered the Fukushima nuclear crisis, will focus on the new action plan, which will replace the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015.

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Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/kyodo-news-international/130521/un-mulls-excluding-nuclear-accidents-disaster-preventi