Alcohol drinking limits cut on health grounds

Safe drinking limits are reduced by the UK's chief medical officers, with a stark warning that any amount of alcohol can damage health.

FRIDAY 08 JANUARY 2016

Previous guidelines from 1995 said men should not drink more than 21 units of alcohol a week, with women limited to 14 units.

But new guidelines say men and women should drink no more than 14 units a week, equivalent to six pints of beer or seven glasses of wine, while pregnant women should avoid alcohol completely.

The guidelines are influenced by new evidence that drinking alcohol can cause various cancers, as well as liver disease.

'Health risk'

England's Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, said: "Drinking any level of alcohol regularly carries a health risk for anyone, but if men and women limit their intake to no more than 14 units a week it keeps the risk of illness like cancer and liver disease low.

"I want pregnant women to be very clear that they should avoid alcohol as a precaution. Although the risk of harm to the baby is low if they have drunk small amounts of alcohol before becoming aware of the pregnancy, there is no 'safe' level of alcohol to drink when you are pregnant."

The advice says drinkers should have several alcohol-free days every week, but should not "save up" their maximum 14 units for a binge.

It also says evidence that alcohol, such as red wine, is good for health "is considered less strong than it was", with only women over 55 benefiting from the protective effect of drinking on the heart.

Cancer

A report that has influenced the guidelines says the risk of getting cancer "starts from any level of regular drinking and rises with the amount being drunk" and that low-level drinking is linked to cancers of the lip, oral cavity, pharynx, oesophagus and breast, while high-level drinking is associated with increased risk of bowel and liver cancer.

The chief medical officers have reached the conclusion that 14 units should be the limit because above this level, drinking results in a 1 per cent risk of dying from an alcohol-related illness.

Taking risks

Sir David Spiegelhalter, professor of the public understanding of risk at the University of Cambridge, said: "These guidelines define 'low-risk' drinking as giving you less than a 1 per cent chance of dying from an alcohol-related condition.

"So should we feel okay about risks of this level? An hour of TV watching a day, or a bacon sandwich a couple of times a week, is more dangerous to your long-term health.

"In contrast, an average driver faces much less than this lifetime risk from a car accident. It all seems to come down to what pleasure you get from moderate drinking."

The Department of Health says drinking 28 units a week, double the recommended maximum, carries a 5 per cent risk of dying from an alcohol-related disease if you are a man, and 8 per cent if you are a woman.

The new advice was welcomed by health charities, while Matt Field, professor of addiction at the University of Liverpool, said that "one of the most important changes is that there is no 'safe' level of alcohol consumption: any amount of drinking is associated with increased risk of a number of diseases".

Dr John Holmes, senior research fellow from the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group, said there were "only very minor differences in alcohol-related health risk between the sexes at this level of consumption (ie up to 14 units per week)", but that women were at greater risk than men if they exceeded this limit.

'Surprising'

A statement from the Portman Group, which represents the drinks industry, said: "What is surprising is that the UK is breaking with established international precedent by recommending the same guidelines for men and women.

"It also means that UK men are being advised to drink significantly less than their European counterparts."

HIV Breakthrough: Spain Finds Functional Cure For HIV (Confirmed): Additional Trials Underway After Successful Cure Of One Patient

Saturday, January 02, 2016 - 9:09:00 AM

In what could be among the most sensational discoveries in modern day medicine, Doctors in Barcelona, Spain announced that believe they have found a massive breakthrough that could lead to a possible cure to HIV – {the AIDS-causing virus that affects the lives of more than 34 million people worldwide, according to WHO.}

HIV Breakthrough Spain Finds Functional Cure for HIV (Confirmed) Additional Trials Underway After Successfu... by Thavam Ratna

Dating apps to blame for 'HIV epidemic' among teens in Asia, says UN

ONLINE DATING APPS HAVE BEEN BLAMED FOR A RISE IN HIV IN ASIA-PACIFIC REGIONS (POSED BY MODELS) CREDIT: EPA

Telegraph Reporters-30 NOVEMBER 2015 • 11:41AM

The use of smartphone dating apps has led to a rise in cases of HIV among teens in south-east Asia, according to the United Nations.

The results of a two-year study by the UN, revealed a spike in infections among 10 to 19-year-olds in Asia and the Pacific region, where more than half the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents live. The official estimate of those living with HIV is around 220,000 – though the real number is thought to be much higher.

Fewer than half of those infected are undergoing treatment, and deaths from the virus have increased every year for the last decade. Teens are more likely to die of Aids-related conditions, as they are often reluctant to seek treatment – fearing the stigma of having to reveal their sexuality, say Unicef and UNAIDS.

Many south-east Asian countries require under 18s must get parental consent before being allowed to take an HIV test in the first place.

"In the Thai capital Bangkok, gay teens have a one in three chance of contracting the HIV virus".

The  results of the study were announced just hours beforeWorld Aids Day 2015.

UN researchers found that the increasing popularity of apps that offer casual sex based on proximity, with young gay men was a significant factor in the ‘HIV epidemic’.

In the Philippines, new HIV infections among teens have doubled since 2011. While in the Thai capital Bangkok, gay teens have a one in three chance of contracting the virus.

In 18 countries across the Asia-Pacific region, same-sex relationships are against the law, meaning gay men tend to avoid using potentially live-saving HIV services.

The HIV virus is on the rise in south-east Asia

Unicef HIV adviser Wing-Sie Cheng told the Guardian: ““Young gay men themselves have consistently told us that they are now using mobile dating apps to meet up for sex, and are having more casual sex with more people as a result. We know that this kind of risky behaviour increases the spread of HIV.

She added that the global strategy to tackle HIV urgently needs to take into account the rise in mobile dating apps.

“We are therefore convinced that there is a link, and that we need to work better with mobile app providers to share information about HIV and protect the health of adolescents.”

"Globally, the number of HIV infections is falling, although Aids remains the second biggest cause of deaths among teens worldwide."

 

 

The UN study recommends that dating apps become vital sources of HIV messaging. It points to a 2014 World Aids Day campaign by Chinese gay dating app Blued, where users had a red ribbon added to their profile pictures and linked to details of HIV testing centres.

Apps such as Grindr and Online Buddies have responded, saying they already offer sexual health advice and resources to users. But critics claim such features don’t work and are often played down as they tend to put people off online dating in the first place.

Apps have embraced the red ribbon symbol of World Aids Day

Globally, the number of HIV infections is falling, although Aids remains the second biggest cause of deaths among teens worldwide – tripling over the past 15 years, mostly due to transmission from mother to child. It is the leading cause of death among adolescents in Africa.

The new research is a significant setback for the UN, which has pledged to end the worldwide Aids crisis by 2030. Public health officials are warning that the Asia-Pacific epidemic could now occur elsewhere.

Sri Lanka accused of allowing continuing human rights abuses

Campaigners note 27 individual cases of serious abuses, a year after President Mathripala Sirisena promised reforms

Jason Burke in Delhi-Wednesday 6 January 2016

Sri Lankan authorities have been accused of allowing continuing human rights abuses, including torture and illegal detention, exactly one year after Maithripala Sirisena took power on a reforming ticket in a surprise election win.

International campaigners say they have documented 27 individual cases of serious human rights abuses occurring in the last 12 months.

Freedom from Torture, a UK-based organisation offering medical aid to survivors of torture, said it had been involved with eight cases. The victim in each was from Sri Lanka’s largely Hindu Tamil minority and the alleged perpetrators were members of the country’s intelligence services or military, which are dominated by the island nation’s largely Buddhist Sinhala majority.

Sri Lanka suffered a crippling 26-year civil war pitting government forces against violent Tamil separatists of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which ended in a series of bloody battles in 2009. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was president during the final years of the war, was defeated after calling a snap poll.

On his election, Sirisena pledged widespread reform and reconciliation between Sri Lankan communities. The veteran politician specifically promised an end to abductions in his maiden speech.

Sonya Sceats, director of policy and advocacy for Freedom from Torture, said Sirisena’s repeated recognition that reconciliation in his nation required accountability for serious human rights abuses was a welcome change. “But having set a new tone, the president must match his rhetoric with a clear blueprint for rooting out torture from Sri Lanka’s security sector and putting perpetrators on trial, no matter how powerful they may be,” she said.

The NGO says it has medical evidence of torture by the Sri Lankan military and intelligence services since Sirisena came to power which, it said, suggested that “an abusive ‘deep state’ is still terrorising communities and impeding Sri Lanka’s post-war revival”. Military authorities and the police have always denied any wrongdoings and human rights abuses.

Two of the survivors referred to by Freedom from Torture identified a well-known military camp in the northern town of Vavuniya as the site of their detention and torture. Others reported abuse at a makeshift jungle camp. Many have scars of branding with heated metal rods and have reported sexual abuse, the NGO said.

A second group has also revealed new evidence suggesting ongoing torture and sexual violence by the Sri Lankan security forces and police, including alleged abductions by unidentified men driving white vans as recently as last month. These “disappearances” became notorious under the repressive rule of Rajapaksa.

“Sadly, it’s very much business as usual,” said Yasmin Sooka, of the International Truth and Justice Project. The ITJP’s report, based on the testimony of 20 survivors of torture who are now outside Sri Lanka, also names the main military camp in Vavuniya as a site of torture. One case was investigated by both groups.

Almost all the survivors interviewed by the ITJP were members of the LTTE, though almost all were forcibly conscripted as footsoldiers. Several were under 18 at the time of their recruitment into the organisation and, having spent only weeks within it, did not declare themselves to authorities as former combatants at the war’s end. Several were involved in political activities such as election campaigning as volunteers or campaigning for the disappeared before their abduction. Five of them are women.

Several described torture chambers equipped with cables, rods and batons for beating victims, water barrels and a pulley system for hoisting them upside down. There were repeated and detailed accounts of severe sexual abuse of both male and female detainees. Many were accused by their interrogators of wanting to restart the LTTE – destroyed as an organisation by the end of the war.

The ITJP said medical reports by court-recognised experts in scarring corroborate accounts of injuries, while the cross-referencing of details common to witness statements supported descriptions of individual locations of alleged torture. “Almost all the statements are taken by lawyers with deep expertise and experience in assessing a survivor’s credibility and if anything was doubtful it would be excluded,” said Frances Harrison, spokesperson for the organisation.

Sirisena is already under pressure on human rights. In September the United Nations said it had found evidence strongly indicating that war crimes were committed in Sri Lanka in the closing phases of its civil war, and called for the establishment of a special “hybrid” international court to investigate individuals responsible for the worst atrocities.

Unveiling a 220-page, two-volume report in Geneva, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said it described horrific abuses including torture, executions, forced disappearances and sexual abuse by security forces, as well as suicide attacks, assassinations and recruitment of child soldiers by the LTTE. The report found that both sides “most likely” committed war crimes.

Pressure for an international investigation grew when it became clear that domestic inquiries set up by the then government of Sri Lanka were partisan and ineffectual. The recommendations of a “lessons learned and reconciliation committee” went largely unimplemented.

Silence in the Courts, Silence in Society and Women at Peril

Featured image courtesy The Justice Project – South Asia 

by Lalith Gunaratne 

- on 01/07/2016

As I watched “Silence in the Courts“, a documentary movie by award-winning Sri Lankan filmmaker Prasanna Vithanage aired at the  University of Ottawa Human Rights Film Festival on 3rd December 2015, the narrative was all too familiar – the powerful man and the powerless woman – showing man’s unchecked reptilian indulgence for power, pleasure and to procreate, being played out.  In this case, if not for a couple of more enlightened men who believed the woman’s story enough to share it with the world, this too would have gone unnoticed like many other violations and crimes that some men in power commit with impunity.

Silence in the Courts, Silence in Society and Women at Peril by Thavam Ratna

Sri Lanka – Time For Review

By Brian Senewiratne –January 7, 2016

Dr. Brian Senewiratne

On January 8, 2015, what everyone thought was impossible occurred. Mahinda Rajapaksa who intended to be there for the foreseeable future, was tossed out of office at a Presidential election – a ‘political coup’ if ever there was one.

Maithripala Sirisena was elected President. He has now had a year in office and it is possible to see what changes he has done and will do in the future.

Of particular concern is the plight of the Tamil people in the North and East who have suffered the most serious violation of human rights at the hands of the (Sinhalese) Armed Forces who run the area and behave as an Army of Occupation and treat the people in the area as the ‘Spoils of War’ to be used and abused.

Will any of this change? The information to date, a year later (January 2016), is that it will not change. Sirisena has been emphatic that the Sri Lankan Armed Forces will remain in the North and East. Since the members of the Armed Forces are primarily responsible for most of the violation of human rights it is simply not possible to believe that anything will improve.

A premature Presidential election

With signs of dwindling political support in the country (as shown by a major setback in the recent provincial council elections), the then President Rajapaksa decided to have a snap Presidential election in January 2015, two years before it was due. In the Uva Province and Western Province elections in 2014, his party got a hiding. In Uva, votes for his party slumped from 72% in 2009, to 52% in 2014; in the Western Province, from 63% to 52%.

With the confidence of a dictator, he claimed that he will be the only candidate, implying that no one would (or dare to) contest him. The Opposition, and even his own party, had other ideas. In the scramble for a ‘common candidate’ to oppose him, several people were approached –including Chandrika Kumaratunga (the former Head of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) to which Rajapaksa belongs and who was sacked by him) and Ranil Wickremesinghe, (leader of the main Opposition Party – the United National Party – UNP). There was no decision.

On 21 November 2014, in one of the most amazing ‘political coups’ the country has ever seen, President Rajapaksa’s close friend, Cabinet Minister Maithripala Sirisena, Minister of Health and General Secretary of the SLFP, said he would contest President Rajapaksa as the ‘common opposition candidate’. President Rajapaksa promptly sacked Minister Sirisena, but that was not the end of the story – rather, the beginning.

At a media conference, flanked by Chandrika Kumaratunga and several SLFP heavyweights, he said:

“Thuggery, embezzlement, crime, drug mafia, nepotism and corruption have institutionalized under the Executive Presidency but alas President Rajapaksa or his government has done little to arrest this horrible and dangerous situation”. He said that the incumbent regime was “engulfed in nepotism, corruption and the abuse of the rule of law”.                                                                      Read More

First independent ambulance service of North

Jan 07, 2016

The health ministry of northern provincial council has started an ambulance service from 6th yesterday.

The northern provincial council health minister Dr. P. Sathyalingam said this was the first state ambulance service started in the health sector of Sri Lanka.

This ambulance service is stared centralizing the Northern Province Kilinochchi hospital and all patients can call the emergency numbers and obtain the service free of charge.

Any ambulance closer to the nearest hospital would reach the patient.

The hospital which dispatches the ambulance would be covered by the closest hospital in the area.

The Northern Province health minister said the ambulance service which was started using the ambulances in the government hospitals in the Northern Province would expand this service in the future.

When offering a free service, accidents and pregnancy issues would be given more priority and patients residing in remote areas would also be given the first priority.

Dr. P. Sathyalingam said at a time when there is no single doctor in 29 state hospitals in the Northern province starting a service like this would be a great service for the people in the north.

The Domestic Mechanisms Process will Start Next Week

07/01/2016 

(Statement to the Media by Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, Minister of Foreign Affairs after the Official Talks with Hon. Børge Brende, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway)

Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen,

It has been an honour and a privilege to welcome the Norwegian Foreign Minister, the Hon. Børge Brende to Sri Lanka, this morning. An official visit by a Norwegian Foreign Minister takes place after nearly 11 years. I hope that the very productive meeting we have just concluded will set the tone for this new chapter in our relations. Your visit Minister Brende, comes at a very propitious moment, as Sri Lankans are preparing to celebrate the first anniversary of the Sirisena Presidency and the new political trajectory that Sri Lanka undrtook one year ago. As Sri Lanka embarks on this new path, we are encouraged that we have been able to gain the support and confidence of the international community after years of censure and isolation.

You are coming to Sri Lanka at a time when Sri Lanka is trying to come to terms with its past and to forge ahead. The domestic mechanisms through which we are trying to address this past, are in the process of being developed and the consultation process to design these mechanisms, will begin next week. Also on Saturday a special session of Parliament will form a constitutional council, a committee consisting of the whole Parliament, which will begin the serious business of consulting the people and drafting a new constitution for Sri Lanka that reflects the aspirations of all Sri Lankans.

Economic and Social Development are key priorities of this Government. Minister Brende and I discussed expanding Norwegian development assistance, especially technical assistance for the fisheries sector and solar power generation.  In addition, we explored the possibility of expanding Norwegian investment in Sri Lanka, both through portfolio and foreign direct investment.

I am confident that regular high level interaction at all levels will pave the way for a stronger relationship between Norway and Sri Lanka, which in turn will benefit our countries and our people.

Later today, Minister Brende will call on President Maithripala Sirisena and hold discussions with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

I wish Minister Brende and his delegation a very pleasant stay in Sri Lanka.

Thank you.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Colombo
7th January 2016

Journalists should agitate to ban press briefings of racists who say Ekneliyagoda is tiger and journalists be punished- Range Bandara

(Lanka-e-News -07.jan.2016, 10.15AM)  Some members who claim to be in the united opposition and  engaged in national politics have begun reviving the bogus ‘chantra manthra’  that the country is going to be divided, State minister Palitha Range Bandara revealed. Some of these individuals by putting forward the army officers who are responsible for the disappearance of journalist Ekneliyagoda as a shield ,are seeking in vain to create racial discord and hatred, the minister added. The minister made these comments when he addressed a function at Puttalam yesterday (06).

The extreme teeny weeny group of racists  who called Ekneliyagoda a ‘Tiger’ have to be reminded of the rights and freedom of journalists . Is  punishment and causing disappearances the answer to journalists who have the democratic right to express their contradictory views ? The media Institutions and media personnel must take a decision to agitate to ban the media conferences of racists who unrelentingly adhere to the view that journalists who express opposing views shall be punished and liquidated, the minister exhorted.  

The State  minister for skills development and vocational training went on to comment as follows :

''Some bankrupt discarded politicians are chanting their same old ‘ Manthara’ that the government through the new constitution is seeking to divide the country. Now , people cannot be duped as before by these manthra chanthras. The country was freed from the biggest grip of racist jokers  on January 8 th 2015.

Now a few small  sprats are holding media discussions desperately to avert several big sharks from imminent imprisonment .  The law is no respector of rank and status of the wrongdoer. Whether the criminal is a member of the forces or any other is irrelevant. If  a member of the forces have caused abductions and liquidations of unarmed civilians to serve political motives and agendas , that member has to be meted out punishment.These  sprats are shedding crocodile tears not out of love for the forces , but to rescue their ‘ boss’ who under the cover of the forces gave ruthless orders to the murder squads .''

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by     (2016-01-07 05:04:55)

Police file action against the human rights commission

Jan 07, 2016
Sri Lanka police have filed a fundamental rights petition against the human rights commission for the recommendation given by the commission for the police attack against the protest staged by the students of the higher national accounting diploma students.

 Last October 29th the police attacked the higher national diploma students who were on a protest march in front of the university grants commission demanding solution for their rights. The students who got assaulted by the police filed a complaint to the human rights commission. The human rights commission gave its recommendations accusing the police officers guilty for the crime.

The police in return have submitted a petition to the Supreme Court against the human rights commission to void the said recommendations.

DIG police headquarters Pradeep Namaldeniya has submitted this petition citing the chairman of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission Dr. Deepika Udugama and members of the commission as respondents.

Stringent action needed against corrupt bigwigs

2016-01-08

Yahapalanaya has more challenges to face in creating national reconciliation

“What the hell is going on ha..?”
- “With What?”
“With this government, what else..?”
- “Why? What is the issue?”

“They are not putting anyone (Of the former regime) behind bars no… They are not delivering what they said.”

This was a conversation that I had earlier this week with a person whom I knew from a Western Embassy. She (A Sri Lankan) had been a strong supporter of this Yahapalana regime.

Stringent Action Needed Against Corrupt Bigwigs by Thavam Ratna

One Year After the January 8th Victory: Winners And Losers

Photo via Bloomberg

• by Dayapala Thiranagama 
• - on 01/08/2016 

“That was both the opportunity and the problem. Suddenly, subjects were told they had become Citizens; an aggregate of subjects held in place by injustice and intimidation had become a Nation. From this new thing, this Nation of Citizens, justice, freedom and plenty could not only be expected but required”(Simon Schama, Citizens, A Chronicles of the French Revolution, 1989).

A year ago, a great electoral victory was set in motion with the coming together of the joint opposition and the common candidate, President Maithripala Sirisena. This was not the first time a common candidacy had been attempted in order to challenge the Rajapaksa regime. In the previous Presidential election in 2010, the common candidate Sarath Fonseka was defeated electorally and jailed. This was the indelible image that served as a warning to any future challengers. The idea of running a common candidate again was therefore fraught with great personal and political risks. The resounding electoral defeat handed to Rajapaksa last January seemed a very remote possibility even a few months prior to the election. Despite this danger, there were still brave groups of citizens and individuals who refused to be intimidated. The remarkable political judgement of the joint opposition, the personal bravery of President Sirisena and the millions of voters who were ready to call time on the Rajapaksa regime set the stage for a historic election victory.

One Year After the January 8th Victory Winners and Losers by Thavam Ratna

Who Ordered To “Chase the Bugger” in Eknaligoda Abduction?

Two Suspects Drop Bombshell

( January 7, 2015, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Two suspects who are currently in remand in connection with the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Ekneligoda have revealed the name of the ‘authority’ which gave orders to abduct the journalist, authoritative police sources said.

“With this,” they said, “the investigation has reached a major breakthrough.” Police sources added that the two suspects had hinted at the name of a top-notch member of the former government over the incident. They further added that in addition to a statement recorded from the suspects, the CID also gathered scientific evidence to unravel the mystery behind the disappearance of the journalist who was abducted in Colombo two days before the Presidential election in 2010.

The CID had arrested 11 members of the military intelligence wing in connection with the investigation. Among them are several members who were previously affiliated with the Karuna faction, led by former Deputy Minister Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman.

The investigation teams found evidence to suggest that the journalist had been taken to the Girithale army camp, after his abduction in Colombo. The CID also took some suspects to the Army camp to identify places where the journalist had allegedly been detained. According to Police sources, the investigation teams had received information that the journalist had been detained at the army camp for several days and the intelligence wing members had questioned him over a booklet titled ‘family tree’ and his alleged connections with former Army Commander Sarath Fonseka.