IPT IO N SC R SU B
SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 2013
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Firebrand Shiite cleric Sadr visits Baghdad church
150 Fils
SAFAR 23, 1434 AH
In ‘rape capital’ Delhi, women turn to self-defense
No: 15679
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Australia rue run outs despite taking lead
Egypt seizes US-made arms bound for Gaza Uprising leaves Libya awash in weapons
EL-ARISH: Egyptian authorities seized six US-made missiles in the Sinai Peninsula yesterday that security officials said were likely smuggled from Libya and bound for the Gaza Strip. Libya’s 2011 uprising and subsequent civil war left the country awash in weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and other munitions. Since the end of the country’s eight-month conflict, smugglers have transferred some of the weapons to Islamic militants in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which has faced a security vacuum since the country’s own uprising, and from there onward in underground tunnels to neighboring Gaza. Security officials said that police working on a tip from local Bedouin discovered the six US made missiles hidden in a hole in the desert outside the northern Sinai city of El-Arish before dawn yesterday. They said the anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles have a range of up to two kilometers. The officials, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to media, did not specify the make of the weapons. Over the past year, Egypt’s Interior Ministry has confiscated hundreds of weapons smuggled from Libya, often near the Egyptian city of Marsa Matrouh, which is located along the Mediterranean coastal highway some 430 kilometers northwest of Cairo. Last month, security officials seized 17 French-made missiles near El-Arish, some 750 kilometers east of Marsa Matrouh along the coast, before they could be smuggled through tunnels to the Gaza Strip. Gaza has been under an IsraeliEgyptian blockade since the militant Hamas group took over in 2007 following an election win two years earlier. Egyptian security often turn a blind eye to the smuggling of goods to Gaza, which ranges from cars to diapers to food, but have come down harder on weapons smuggling. Meanwhile, the US State Department has provided funding to US Customs and Border Protection to conduct training for officials from the Libyan Ministry of Defense and the Customs Authority with the aim of reducing the illicit transfers of weapons across borders. - AP
GAZA: Palestinians wave yellow Fatah flags during celebrations marking the 48th anniversary of the Fatah movement in Gaza City yesterday. — AP (See Page 7)
Walking ‘linked’ to fewer strokes NEW YORK: Women who walk at least three hours every week are less likely to suffer a stroke than women who walk less or not at all, according to research from Spain that looked at thousands of people. While the current study, which appeared in the journal Stroke, cannot prove that regular walking caused the fewer strokes, it contributes to a small body of evidence for potential relationships between specific kinds of exercise and risk for specific diseases. Past studies have also linked physical activity to fewer strokes, which can be caused by built-up plaque in arteries or ruptured blood vessels in the brain. “The message for the general population remains similar: regularly engaging in moderate recreational activity is good for your health,” lead author Jose Maria Huerta of the Murcia Regional Health Authority in Spain told Reuters Health.
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Women who walked briskly for 210 minutes or more per week had a lower stroke risk than inactive women but also lower than those who cycled and did other higher-intensity workouts for a shorter amount of time. In all, nearly 33,000 men and women answered a physical activity questionnaire given once in the mid1990s as part of a larger European cancer project. For their study, Huerta and his team divided participants by gender, exercise type and total time spent exercising each week. The authors checked in with participants periodically to record any strokes. During the 12year follow-up period, a total of 442 strokes occurred among the men and women. The results for women who were regular walkers translated to a 43 percent reduction in stroke risk compared to the inactive group, Huerta said. There was no reduction seen for men based on exercise type or frequency. — Reuters
‘Fake’ photo of Delhi rape victim goes viral THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The father of a student in south India has complained to police after Internet users circulated a photo of his daughter on social media claiming it was the Delhi gang-rape victim, officers said yesterday. A picture tribute to the dead Delhi woman, who was repeatedly raped on a moving bus on December 16 and thrown out of the vehicle in a crime that appalled the nation, has gone viral on Facebook. Her name and identity have been withheld by police and the media in line with a law that entitles victims of sex crime and their families to anonymity to protect them from social stigma. Vinayakumar, an assistant commissioner in the cyber crime unit of Kerala police in south India, said that the
photo used in the Facebook tribute was a fake and had caused distress. “We have received a complaint from the father stating that the photograph uploaded on Facebook as the Delhi rape victim picture was fake,” the officer, who goes by one name said. “The picture used was his daughter’s photograph uploaded with her Facebook profile. We have directed Facebook officials to delete the photograph and help us to track the culprits,” he added. The brutal gang-rape of the 23-yearold medical student in New Delhi on December 16 has led to a bout of national soul-searching over the treatment of women in Indian society and provoked daily protests. — AFP