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Elderly people may not benefit from drugs to prevent heart disease

Use of medicines to prevent disease may not prolong or improve life in elderly people, say doctors.

Drugs such as statins, prescribed to combat heart disease, may simply switch the cause of death to cancer or dementia in older people, they warn.

Writing in the British Medical Journal they said fear of discrimination meant doctors were offering preventive treatment regardless of age.

Experts agreed more evidence on such treatments in the elderly was needed.

Statins are the mainstay of the government’s goal to cut rates of heart disease by 40% by 2010.

Children should receive a cholesterol test, say experts

Children should receive a cholesterol test alongside their routine vaccinations at the age of 15 months, experts say.

The tests would identify those with an inherited cholesterol disorder which increases the risk of heart disease.

Parents of affected children would also be tested and treated, the British Medical Journal article states.

Various screening options, including DNA testing, are being considered by the government’s health watchdog.

Familial hypercholesterolaemia is an inherited condition which affects about one in 500 people in which the body does not get rid of cholesterol in the usual way and it accumulates.

Japan hosts many US troops but is pulling out of the Afghanistan naval mission

Japan’s government has pledged $5bn (£3bn) in new aid to Afghanistan over the next five years.

The decision comes days before US President Barack Obama visits Tokyo.

Japan’s centre-left government has said it will end a naval refuelling mission in support of US-led efforts in Afghanistan.

Since coming to power in September the government also said it was working on a plan to offer more civilian aid instead.

Japan’s government has been working on a plan to offer more aid to Afghanistan since announcing it would end a mission by the Maritime Self Defence Force to supply fuel to assist US-led operations in the country.

Now there is a figure – $5bn (£3bn) over the next five years.

It is likely to be used for job training, helping former Taliban fighters to reintegrate with society, and for agriculture and infrastructure development.

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama is expected to discuss details of the scheme with President Obama when he visits Japan on Friday.

Mr Hatoyama took power in September after winning a landslide in a general election which ended more than half a century of almost unbroken power for the conservative Liberal Democratic Party.

His Democratic Party of Japan wants a more equal relationship with the United States.

The alliance, half a century old next year, is critical to Japan’s security and a cornerstone of American policy in Asia. One source of tension is the planned relocation of an American military base on the southern island of Okinawa.

The US is resisting Japan’s attempts to reopen negotiations, saying it would undermine a broader agreement to a reorganise the nearly 50,000 strong American force in the country.

They told the BBC he appeared to have shot and killed a mother polar bear in self-defence, orphaning her two cubs.

The teenager is being treated for mild hypothermia and frostbite in the small town of Coral Harbour, on Hudson Bay.

Jean Pierre Sharp of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ontario, told the BBC the teenager had been on a hunting expedition with an older man in the remote area, when one of their snowmobiles broke down.

The teenager set off alone to find help but became stranded when the ice floe broke away and drifted loose, said Mr Sharp, leaving him trapped overnight as temperatures fell to -20C.

A rescue mission was launched when the men were reported missing. The older man was found not far from the snowmobiles and received treatment for hypothermia.

The younger man was spotted from the air but rescuers lost sight of him as night fell.

He was spotted again on Monday morning about 7km (four miles) off shore – by that time, the floe had drifted at least 45km (30 miles) in the Arctic Ocean.

Paratroopers jumped onto the ice from a Hercules transport plane to rescue him.

“This young man had quite a journey,” said Cpt Michael Young, of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at a Canadian army base in Ontario.

“It was cold and dark, and there was apparently a couple of polar bears on the ice floe with him too,” Cpt Young told the AFP news agency.

Ortega, a long-time friend of Jackson, is director of the film This Is It which is released on 28 October.

The movie is based on more than 100 hours of footage from rehearsals for the 50 London shows Jackson had planned to perform. Jackson died in June aged 50.

“Daily, Michael and I would be creative jousting and wrestling down ideas,” recalls Ortega.

“I think Michael wanted the world on stage, and he wanted the wonders of the world represented on stage.

“We had choirs and children and dancers and singers and musicians and effects and movies and the world’s largest 3-D hi-definition screen.

“What Michael wanted was the Victoria Falls in 3-D pouring over the stage – with him in front of it, singing!”

Energetic sequence

Ortega is speaking after a press screening of 12 minutes of unseen footage from the This Is It movie.

Jackson is seen working out dance moves to Human Nature, with his backing band in Los Angeles.

The star is also seen performing The Way You Make Me Feel with a solo girl dancer, followed by an energetic sequence with some male dancers dressed as construction workers.

At one point Jackson drops to the ground in a press-up pose and leaps back up. He appears to be in good health, and his singing voice is strong.

The building site set – with its silhouetted dancers scaling upwards – looks impressive on the big screen.

The fans say they gave letters to Jackson on the night before he died

A group of Michael Jackson fans are planning to protest about a new film showing his final weeks, claiming it covers up his declining health.

Some are planning to hand out leaflets later at simultaneous global premieres of This Is It, a movie made by piecing together concert rehearsal footage.

A small circle of loyal followers say they saw his health go downhill.

Talin Shajanian, from Los Angeles, said: “A couple of weeks before he passed, we saw him change drastically.”

Ms Shajanian was one of a number who waited outside the venues where he was rehearsing in the city while preparing for his gigs at London’s O2 Arena.

She had been following Jackson since 2003 and gained his trust, along with other devotees, speaking to him on a regular basis, she said.

The krona has stabilised since interest rates were raised last year

Iceland’s central bank has cut interest rates to 11% from 12%, as hopes build that the country is starting to stabilise after the financial crisis.

Interest rates have now fallen significantly since March, when they stood at a record high of 18%.

Iceland had held rates high in order to defend its currency, which came under threat as a result of the collapse of the country’s banking system last year.

The krona has now stabilised, which means the central bank can lower rates.

Iceland’s financial system collapsed last October under the weight of debt, leading to a currency crisis, rising unemployment and public protests.

As a result, it was forced to agree a $10bn (£6.1bn) aid package with the International Monetary Fund.

“There has been a huge turnaround in the current account, from deficits of 20% of GDP. Now it’s positive,” said Kent Baek Iversen at Jyske Bank.

The reason, he said, was the weak krona, which has made Icelandic exports more competitive.

Interest rates are at their lowest in the ECB’s 10-year history

The European Central Bank (ECB) has kept interest rates on hold at a record low of 1% for the sixth month in a row.

Earlier on Thursday figures showed that retail sales in the 16 countries that use the euro fell by 0.7% in September.

The drop came as rising unemployment and financial uncertainty continue to drag on consumer confidence.

Data this week showed unemployment levels across the 16 states that use the euro rose to 9.7% in September, the highest rate since January 1999.

Decision ‘a given’

The ECB began cutting rates in October 2008, taking them from 4.25% to their current record low in May.

It has also provided unlimited loans to commercial banks in a bid to boost credit.

“Rates on hold was a given,” said Unicredit economist Marco Valli.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve kept US interest rates on hold at between 0% and 0.25%.

The Bank of England also kept UK interest rates on hold at 0.5% earlier on Thursday.

‘High uncertainty’

After the rates announcement was made the president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, predicted the eurozone economy would recover gradually in 2010.

“The latest information continues to signal an improvement in economic activity in the second half of this year,” he said.

“The [bank] Governing Council expects the euro economy in 2010 to recover at a gradual pace, recognising that the outlook remains subject to high uncertainty.”

Next week, the release of third quarter eurozone economic growth figures are expected to show the bloc exited recession, growing by around 0.5% from the second quarter.

And he said in the coming months, annual inflation rates – which are currently negative in the eurozone area – are projected to turn positive again.