Persoanele nefumătoare căsătorite cu fumători prezintă un mare risc de accident cardiovascular, potrivit unui studiu american, publicat, marţi, în American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Persoanele nefumătoare care au parteneri fumători prezintă cu 42% mai multe riscuri de a suferi un accident cardiovascular, în comparaţie cu cele căsătorite cu persoane care nu au fumat niciodată, potrivit specialiştilor.

Riscurile cresc la 72% pentru foştii fumători care au o relaţie cu o persoană fumătoare, spun autorii acestui studiu, cercetătorii de la la Harvard School of Public Health din Boston şi Universitatea Columbia din New York.

Foştii fumători care au fost căsătoriţi cu persoane care fumau prezintă un procentaj de risc similar cu cel al fumătorilor.

“RenunÅ£area la fumat este benefică pentru sănătatea ta ÅŸi a celor din jurul tău”, a declarat Maria Glymour, coordonator al acestui studiu.

Studiul, care a durat nouă ani, a fost realizat pe 16.225 de persoane în vârstă de minim 50 de ani, care nu au suferit niciodată vreun atac cardiovascular.

Cercetările anterioare au scos la iveală influenţa fumatului asupra riscului de producere a accidentelor cardiovasculare, însă Glymour este de părere că specialiştii au studiat mai mult cazul fumătorilor decât cel al nefumătorilor.

Specialiştii spun că fumatul pasiv creşte riscul de apariţie a cancerului pulmonar, nazal, a infecţiilor căilor respiratorii şi a bolilor de inimă.

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Ministerul Locuinţei desfăşoară cinci programe de construcţii de locuinţe prin care aplicanţii pot beneficia de ajutor de la stat. Aceste programe presupun apartamente cu chirie, precum şi subvenţii de 20% pentru casă nouă.

Tinerii fără o locuinţă pot să beneficieze de ajutorul statului fie pentru construirea unei case, fie pentru o locuinţă cu chirie. Pentru a aplica pentru indiferent care program, solicitanţii trebuie să se prezinte la primăria de care aparţin întrucât locuinţele sociale sunt investiţii ale Consiliilor Locale, promovate de către acestea şi finanţate din bugetele locale.
Cuantumul ajutorului diferă în funcţie de programul la care se aplică. Primul este programul de finanţare a construcţiilor de locuinţe sociale pentru chiriaşi. ,,Locuinţele sociale sunt locuinţe cu chirie care se atribuie unor categorii de persoane defavorizate prevăzute de lege, aparţin domeniului public şi nu se vând’’, informează Ministerul Dezvoltării, Lucrărilor Publice şi Locuinţelor (MDLPL).

Au acces la locuinţă socială, în vederea închirierii, familiile sau persoanele cu un venit mediu net lunar pe persoană, realizat în ultimele 12 luni, sub nivelul câştigului salarial mediu net lunar pe economie, comunicat de Institutul Naţional de Statistică în ultimul Buletin statistic anterior lunii în care se analizează cererea, precum şi anterior lunii în care se repartizează locuinţa.

“Metrul pătrat la închirierea de locuinţe sociale este de aproximativ 80 de bani”, ne-a spus Horia Irimia, secretar de stat în cadrul MDLPL. O garsonieră se închiriază cu aproximativ 60 de lei pe lună, un apartament cu două camere, cu 70 de lei, iar pentru unul cu trei camere se plătesc aproximativ 85 de lei.

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(CNN) — When I told friends that my husband and I were going to visit Uruguay, the first question was usually, “Why?” I had been to Uruguay before so the answer came easy: “The people, the food and the beaches.”

People who know anything about this small country across the Rio de la Plata from Argentina usually know of a few major spots: the capital, Montevideo, the historic town of Colonia and the ritzy beach town of Punta del Este. I had been to the top three, but this trip I wanted to find out what was along the coast. What we found was spectacular.

We decided to reserve a car, buy a map and see where we ended up. Upon arrival in Montevideo we went to the tourist office. Most of their information was in Spanish, but we did find a couple good maps: one showing the coastal route, the other suggesting surf sights. After consulting the maps we planned to make a run to the farthest place we wanted to see then work our way back to Montevideo. Although we stopped at just about every beach town during our drive — and one was just as breathtaking as the next — the following places have at least the basic amenities a typical tourist would need.

Destination uno was Punta del Diablo. The road was well-paved, clearly marked and empty. Taking us less time than we anticipated, we were in Punta del Diablo three and a half hours later. We were surprised at how isolated this former fishing village felt after the relatively short drive. The beaches were practically empty, extremely beautiful and stretched on for miles. As we would come to excitedly learn, this is the norm for coastal Uruguay. Here there are no typical hotels or large buildings monopolizing the sea view. Wooden cabins and dirt roads populate this village. Punta del Diablo is postcard perfect.

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GENEVA (AP) — After coming tantalizingly close to a historic trade deal, World Trade Organization talks collapsed Tuesday in a dismaying blow to seven years of efforts to open up the global economy.

Once promised as a recipe for lifting millions of people out of poverty, the end to nine days of high-level talks left no new trade openings for farmers and manufacturers, no global economic boost and no grand deal for Third World development.

“This is a very painful failure and a real setback for the global economy when we really needed some good news,” said Peter Mandelson, the European Union’s trade commissioner.

His disappointment was shared by top negotiators from the United States, Brazil and India, who have played leading roles since the World Trade Organization launched its current trade round in the Qatari capital of Doha in 2001.

While the talks have struggled before, this failure was perhaps the most devastating.

Faced with global unrest from rising food prices, credit problems from shaky financial markets and the threat of economic downturn, negotiators hoped that a deal this week to open farm and industrial markets would go some way to alleviating these problems.

It was all the more disappointing because the talks made greater progress than they had in years on issues such as farm subsidies and manufacturing tariffs — which were responsible for scuttling previous high-level trade efforts.

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LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) – Iraq will be allowed to participate in the Beijing games after the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday rescinded its suspension of the country’s Olympic association.

The decision came after last-minute talks during which an Iraqi government delegation pledged to hold free elections for its national Olympic committee under international observation.

The deadline to submit competitors’ names for athletics events expires Wednesday.

Iraq is expected to send two athletes to Beijing. Five others lost their chance to go when the final date to select competitors for archery, judo, rowing and weightlifting passed last week.

“The National Olympic Committee will have fair elections before the end of November,” said Pere Miro, head of the IOC’s department for relations with national Olympic committees.

Until then, Iraq’s Olympic organization will be run by an interim committee proposed by its national sports federations and approved by the IOC, he said.

“We want to forget all the past,” Iraq’s government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said after signing the agreement in front of journalists. “We want to have real representation for the Iraqi teams and the Iraqi supporters.”

The IOC suspended Iraq in May citing political interference in the country’s national Olympic committee, which the government had dissolved over allegations of corruption.

Basil Abdul Mahdi, an adviser to the Ministry of Youth and Sport, said last week there would be “no retreat” in Baghdad’s decision to replace the disbanded Olympic committee. The hardline stance prompted concern that Iraq would not be represented in Beijing.

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CHICAGO - For the first time, an experimental drug shows promise for halting the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by taking a new approach: breaking up the protein tangles that clog victims’ brains.

The encouraging results from the drug called Rember, reported Tuesday at a medical conference in Chicago, electrified a field battered by recent setbacks. The drug was developed by Singapore-based TauRx Therapeutics.

Even if bigger, more rigorous studies show it works, Rember is still several years away from being available, and experts warned against overexuberance. But they were excited.

“These are the first very positive results I’ve seen” for stopping mental decline, said Marcelle Morrison-Bogorad, director of Alzheimer’s research at the National Institute on Aging. “It’s just fantastic.”

The federal agency funded early research into the tangles, which are made of a protein called tau and develop inside nerve cells.

For decades, scientists have focused on a different protein — beta-amyloid, which forms sticky clumps outside of the cells — but have yet to get a workable treatment.

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OSHKOSH, Wis. - This isn’t how a jet pack is supposed to look, is it? Hollywood has envisioned jet packs as upside-down fire extinguishers strapped to people’s backs. But Glenn Martin’s invention is far more unwieldy — a 250-pound piano-sized contraption that people settle into rather than strap on.

As thousands looked on Tuesday, the inventor’s 16-year-old son donned a helmet, fastened himself to a prototype Martin jet pack and revved the engine, which sounded like a motorcycle. Harrison Martin eased about three feet off the ground, the engine roaring with a whine so loud that some kids covered their ears.

With two spotters preventing the jet pack from drifting in a mild wind, the pilot hovered for 45 seconds and then set the device down as the audience applauded.

The Martin jet pack can — in theory — fly an average-sized pilot about 30 miles in 30 minutes on a full 5-gallon tank of gas. The apparatus was unveiled Tuesday at AirVenture Oshkosh 2008, the annual aviation convention of the Experimental Aircraft Association in east-central Wisconsin.

“Wow, that went better than expected,” Glenn Martin said afterward, his accent revealing his New Zealand roots. “People will look back on this as a moment in history.”

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WASHINGTON - After upsetting some conservatives by signaling an openness to higher payroll taxes for Social Security, Republican John McCain gave the simplest of answers Tuesday when asked if he would raise taxes as president.

“No,” McCain said sternly when the question was put to him by a young girl at a meeting in Sparks, Nev.

Despite previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind, McCain had caught some Republicans by surprise by suggesting the opposite.

Speaking with reporters on his campaign bus on July 9, he cited a need to shore up Social Security. “I cannot tell you what I would do, except to put everything on the table,” he said.

He went a step farther Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” in response to a question about payroll tax increases.

“There is nothing that’s off the table. I have my positions, and I’ll articulate them. But nothing’s off the table,” McCain said. “I don’t want tax increases. But that doesn’t mean that anything is off the table.”

That comment drew a strong response from the Club for Growth, a Washington anti-tax group. McCain’s comments, the group said in a letter to the Arizona senator, are “shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances.”

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NEW YORK - Video game publisher Electronic Arts Inc. posted a smaller net loss for its fiscal first quarter Tuesday and more than doubled its revenue thanks to soaring sales of games such as “Rock Band” — even as it spent more on marketing and development.

Both the earnings and revenue figures fell short of analysts’ estimates, however, and EA shares slipped in extended trading.

EA said Tuesday its loss for the quarter ended June 30 totaled $95 million, or 30 cents per share, compared with a loss of $132 million, or 42 cents a share, a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, the company lost 42 cents per share this quarter, short of the 33 cents per share that analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting.

A loss in the slower spring and summer season is typical for video game companies, which make most of their money during the holidays. The profit and sales outlook EA issued Tuesday for the full fiscal year fell within the range of analysts’ expectations.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company’s sales for the quarter jumped to $804 million from $395 million in the year-ago period. But they were boosted by the recognition of deferred revenue for certain online games. Without this benefit, sales totaled $609 million, short of Wall Street’s expectations of $640 million.

“We basically came in pretty much in line with own internal expectations,” Chief Financial Officer Eric Brown said in an interview. Adjusted earnings came in above and sales slightly below the company’s internal expectations.

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BELGRADE, Serbia - Authorities were extraditing ex-Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to the U.N. war crimes tribunal to face genocide charges early Wednesday, an official with the Serb prosecutor’s office said.

Karadzic is accused by the U.N. court in The Hague, Netherlands, of masterminding the 1995 slaughter of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica, Europe’s worst massacre since World War II. He is also charged with spearheading the three-year siege of Sarajevo that left 10,000 people dead.

Karadzic spent nearly 13 years on the run before being arrested last week in Belgrade, where he lived under the assumed identity of a health guru — sporting a long white beard and hair, and large glasses.

The Serbian government said in a statement issued early Wednesday that its justice ministry had issued a decree that allowed his handover.

Three jeeps with masked drivers and tinted windows were seen speeding away at about 3:45 a.m. Wednesday from the downtown Belgrade war crimes court where Karadzic was being held since his arrest July 21.

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