Archive for month: September, 2014

Libyan Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni and his cabinet have been sworn in to office, days after lawmakers approved of his cabinet line-up.

The premier took the oath during a brief ceremony on Sunday in the eastern city of Tobruk.

The ceremony comes a week after the Libyan parliament approved the prime minister’s 13-member cabinet after rejecting his previous line-up.

Thinni, who has been Libya’s acting prime minister since March, stepped down after the June elections and the new parliament reappointed him at the beginning of September.

His administration has not yet managed to restore law and order in the North African country, which is still grappling with insecurity nearly three years after the fall of former dictator Muammar Gaddafi in a popular uprising.

Al-Thinni is struggling with a rival administration in Tripoli, which is backed by militia groups from Misrata.

Since the country’s revolution and the killing of its former ruler, Libya has been witnessing numerous clashes between government forces and rival militant groups that refuse to lay down arms.

The armed militant groups are currently fighting among themselves in an attempt to dominate politics and the country’s vast oil resources.

SZH/NN/HRB

A new neurological study indicates that regular physical exercise changes the brain in ways that protect it against stress-induced depression.

Study conducted by the researchers at Karolinska Institute in Sweden pinpointed the benefits of physical activity on the brain.

The recent investigation reveals that exercise training acts such anti-depressants in the brain.

“Physical activity induces alteration in skeletal muscle that can remove the blood of a substance that accumulates during stress, and is harmful to the brain.”

A type of protein known as PGC-1a1 increases in skeletal muscle with exercise, and mediates the beneficial muscle conditioning in connection with exercise training.

The study researchers used a genetically modified mouse with high levels of PGC-1a1 in skeletal muscle that shows many characteristics of well-trained muscles, thereafter, this group along with normal control mice was exposed to a stressful environment.

After five weeks, the results uncovered that normal mice had developed depressive behavior, whereas no depressive symptoms had appeared in the genetically modified group. 

“Our initial research hypothesis was that trained muscle would produce a substance with beneficial effects on the brain,” said the principal investigator at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, Jorge Ruas.

“We actually found the opposite: well-trained muscle produces an enzyme that purges the body of harmful substances. So in this context the muscle’s function is reminiscent of that of the kidney or the liver,” Ruas also explained.

Depression is a common psychiatric disorder worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 350 million people are currently affected.

Scientists had earlier found that various forms of exercise training in twenties could preserve brain and protect memory skill in middle age.

FGP/FGP

Ukrainian nationalists backed by officials have reportedly brought down a huge statue of Lenin in the center of the country’s second largest city of Kharkiv.

As the statue, viewed as a symbol of the country’s communist past, was being brought down by ultra-nationalists in the city center, the event was reportedly being broadcast via live internet stream by some TV networks.

Nearly 3,000 activists responded to the call “Kharkiv – it’s Ukraine” and showed up Sunday evening to express support for Ukrainian government officials in Kiev.

Following the main protest event, a group of activists carrying blue and yellow Ukrainian flags and nationalist red-black banners crowded around at the site of the Lenin monument and began taking it down as the crowd cheered them on.

The development came as governor of Kharkiv region Ihor Baluta signed an order on Sunday night to dismantle the statue.

While Ukrainian media outlets reported that law enforcement authorities had launched an investigation into what they described as “vandalism,” Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov posted a statement on his social media site saying that he had issued orders to police forces to only ensure the safety of people and “not the idol.”

“Lenin? Let him fall…,” he reportedly wrote. “As long as people don’t get hurt. As long as this bloody communist idol does not take more victims with it when it goes.”

Back in February, when the country’s former President Viktor Yanukovych was ousted, Pro-Russian demonstrators in the mostly Russian-speaking city defended the Lenin statue.

MFB/HJL/HRB

Japanese rescue workers have been forced to suspend rescue operations amid toxic gases and ash from a still-erupting volcano at Mount Ontake.

The suspension of the rescue efforts came on Monday as rescuers retrieved eight more bodies from the ash-covered peak by helicopter.

More than 200 soldiers and firefighters were deployed near the peak of Mount Ontake as part of the search and rescue mission.

The number of the people reported killed as a result of the volcanic activity stands at 31.

The rescuers had earlier returned to 3,067-meter Mt. Ontake in a bid to recover the remaining 27 bodies.

A number of the rescue workers have reportedly retreated to lower areas of the mountain to wait out the persisting volcanic activity.

They have so far managed to fly down 12 bodies from the ash-blanketed peak.

It remains unclear, however, how the victims have died, with possible factors cited as toxic gases, suffocating ash, and falling rocks, among other possible causes.

Japanese authorities state that the victims died due to either heart or lung failure.

Meanwhile, the family members of the victims have been taken to a nearby elementary school to wait for news about the fate of their loved ones.

Mount Ontake erupted around noon on Sunday while at least 250 hikers were reportedly enjoying a fall season hiking venture.

MFB/HJL/HRB

Israeli forces have carried out fresh raids on homes in the occupied West Bank, abducting at least 10 Palestinians there.

They stormed a number of Palestinian homes in the cities of Bethlehem, Husan and al-Khalil (Hebron) in the early hours of Sunday.

Local residents say the Palestinians were taken to an unknown location.

Israeli forces have been carrying out similar raids in the occupied territories on an almost daily basis. The raids have intensified since the deadly war on the Gaza Strip in July.

Rights organization Palestine Prisoners’ Club says 560 people have been detained so far this month, as the regime holds more than 7,000 Palestinians in its prisons.

According to another Palestinian human rights organization, Israel is also holding 540 Palestinians without trial. The Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies said on September 26 that the number of Palestinians in Israeli administrative detention is the highest since 2008. According to the group, Israeli authorities have extended the detention of 70 prisoners in the past three weeks and transferred dozens more to administrative detention.

It said Israel has used the administrative detention policy for scores of Palestinians arrested since June, following the disappearance and death of three Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Administrative detention is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods of time.

Human rights groups often criticize Israeli prison authorities for rampant rights abuses in jails and reports of mysterious deaths of inmates in custody.

DB/HJL/HRB