Hate speech case: MIM MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi sent to 14- day judicial custody

HYDERABAD: Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, facing multiple cases for his alleged " hate speech", was today remanded to 14-day judicial custody by a magistrate in Nirmal town of Adilabad district.

Akbaruddin was reportedly questioned and produced before the magistrate at 5:30am, after which he was sent to judicial custody.

The Magistrate also asked the police to produce the MLA before the court later today at 10:30 am.

Owaisi has been taken to the Nirmal town police station, and his petition is expected to be listed at the Andhra Pradesh high court today.

Owaisi was arrested yesterday, a day after he returned from London and was admitted to a hospital for a medical check up, before being taken into custody.

Following the arrest of the MIM leader, the state government has imposed a prohibitory orders in the town to maintain law and order.

Additional security forces have been deployed in Hyderabad and Adilabad as a precautionary measure.

Owaisi, the floor leader of his party in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly, is facing a case against him in Adilabad for alleged provocative speeches regarding the disputed Bhagyalakshmi shrine in the Charminar area.

Complaints have been filed against him in regard to the same speeches in various police stations in Hyderabad and other parts of the state.

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Report: Death rates from cancer still inching down


WASHINGTON (AP) — Death rates from cancer are continuing to inch down, researchers reported Monday.


Now the question is how to hold onto those gains, and do even better, even as the population gets older and fatter, both risks for developing cancer.


"There has been clear progress," said Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, which compiled the annual cancer report with government and cancer advocacy groups.


But bad diets, lack of physical activity and obesity together wield "incredible forces against this decline in mortality," Brawley said. He warned that over the next decade, that trio could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer in the U.S.


Overall, deaths from cancer began slowly dropping in the 1990s, and Monday's report shows the trend holding. Among men, cancer death rates dropped by 1.8 percent a year between 2000 and 2009, and by 1.4 percent a year among women. The drops are thanks mostly to gains against some of the leading types — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancers — because of treatment advances and better screening.


The news isn't all good. Deaths still are rising for certain cancer types including liver, pancreatic and, among men, melanoma, the most serious kind of skin cancer.


Preventing cancer is better than treating it, but when it comes to new cases of cancer, the picture is more complicated.


Cancer incidence is dropping slightly among men, by just over half a percent a year, said the report published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Prostate, lung and colorectal cancers all saw declines.


But for women, earlier drops have leveled off, the report found. That may be due in part to breast cancer. There were decreases in new breast cancer cases about a decade ago, as many women quit using hormone therapy after menopause. Since then, overall breast cancer incidence has plateaued, and rates have increased among black women.


Another problem area: Oral and anal cancers caused by HPV, the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus, are on the rise among both genders. HPV is better known for causing cervical cancer, and a protective vaccine is available. Government figures show just 32 percent of teen girls have received all three doses, fewer than in Canada, Britain and Australia. The vaccine was recommended for U.S. boys about a year ago.


Among children, overall cancer death rates are dropping by 1.8 percent a year, but incidence is continuing to increase by just over half a percent a year. Brawley said it's not clear why.


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Holmes Played Childish Games After Aurora Carnage













As police confronted the movie theater carnage and a massive booby trap left behind by accused Aurora gunman James Holmes, the suspect loopily played with hand puppets, tried to stick a metal staple in an electrical socket and clamly flipped a styrofoam cup, according to court testimony today.


Holmes, 25, displayed the bizarre behavior once he was in custody and taken to Aurora police headquarters after the shooting that left 12 people dead and dozens injured, the lead investigator in the case testified today.


While being cross examined by Colorado public defender Daniel King, Police Detective Craig Appel was asked about the observations of two Aurora officers assigned to watch over Holmes in an interrogation room.


Appel said that to preserve possible gunshot residue, police had placed paper bags over Holmes' hands. One officer, King said, noted in a report that Holmes began moving his hands "in a talking puppet motion."


Click here for full coverage of the Aurora movie theater shooting.


King asked if Appel was also aware that the officer "observed Holmes take a staple out of the table and tried to stick it in an electrical socket?" Appel confirmed Holmes' actions.








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The officers also noted that they watched as Holmes began playing with an empty styrofoam cup, trying to "flip it" on the table.


While Holmes was carrying out his childish antics, police were puzzling over a complex booby trap Holmes had left behind in his apartment, according to testimony.


A gasoline-soaked carpet, loud music and a remote control car were part of Holmes' plan to trick someone into triggering a blast that would destroy his apartment and lure police to the explosion while he shot up a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., according to court testimony.


FBI agent Garrett Gumbinner told the court that he interviewed Holmes on July 20, hours after he killed 12 and wounded 58 during the midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."


"He said he rigged the apartment to explode to get law enforcement to send resources to his apartment instead of the theater," Gumbinner said.


His plan failed to prompt someone into triggering the bombs.


Gumbinner said Holmes had created two traps that would have set off the blast.


The apartment was rigged with a tripwire at the front door connected to a mixture of chemicals that would create heat, sparks and flame. Holmes had soaked the carpet with a gasoline mixture that was designed to be ignited by the tripwire, Gumbinner said.


"It would have caused fire and sparks," the agent said, and "would have made the entire apartment explode or catch fire."


Holmes had set his computer to play 25 minutes of silence followed by loud music that he hoped would cause a disturbance loud enough that someone would call police, who would then respond and set off the explosion by entering the apartment.


Gumbinner said Holmes also told him he rigged a fuse between three glass jars that would explode. He filled the jars with a deadly homemade chemical mixture that would burn so hot it could not be extinguished with water.






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Ex-governor in North Korea with Google chief; seeks American's release


SEOUL (Reuters) - Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt began a controversial private mission to North Korea on Monday that will include an effort to secure the release of an imprisoned American.


The trip comes after North Korea carried out a long-range rocket test last month and as, according to satellite imagery, the reclusive state continues work on its nuclear testing facilities, potentially paving the way for a third nuclear bomb test.


Footage from North Korean state television showed Richardson and Schmidt at the Pyongyang airport on Monday evening.


"We are going to ask about the American who's been detained. A humanitarian private visit." Richardson said.


Richardson's efforts to seek the release of Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American tour guide who was detained last year will mark the latest in a series of high-profile visits over the years to free Americans detained by Pyongyang.


The delegation comprised Schmidt, his daughter, Richardson and Google executive Jared Cohen, according to South Korean news media and it arrived in Pyongyang on a flight from the Chinese capital, Beijing.


The mission has been criticized by the United States due to the sensitivity of the timing. The United States does not have diplomatic relations with North Korea and the isolated and impoverished state remains technically at war with U.S. ally South Korea.


"We continue to think the trip is ill-advised," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington. Last week she said the main U.S. objection was that the trip came so soon after North Korea's much-criticized December 12 rocket launch.


South Korea is in the midst of a transition to a new president who will take office in February, while Japan, another major U.S. ally in the region, has a new prime minister.


A U.S. official said the trip's timing was particularly bad from the Obama administration's point of view because it comes as the U.N. Security Council ponders how to respond to the North Korean missile launch.


"We are in kind of a classical provocation period with North Korea. Usually, their missile launches are followed by nuclear tests," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.


"During these periods, it's very important that the international community come together, certainly at the level of the U.N. Security Council, to demonstrate to North Korea that they pay a price for not living up to their obligations."


Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations, has made numerous trips to North Korea in the past that have included efforts to free detained Americans. The reasons for Schmidt's involvement in the trip are not clear, though Google characterized it as "personal" travel.


Schmidt did not respond to requests for comment.


Richardson told CBS television last Friday that he had been contacted by Bae's family and that he would raise the issue while in North Korea.


Pyongyang's most notable success was securing a visit from former President Bill Clinton in 2009 to win the release of two American journalists.


Last year, Jared and Schmidt met defectors from North Korea, a state that ranks bottom in an annual survey of Internet and press freedom by Reporters Without Borders.


Media reports and think tanks say that officials from the North Korean government went to Google's headquarters in 2011, something the U.S. technology giant declined to comment on.


(Additional reporting by Cho Meeyoung and WASHINGTON Bureau; Editing by Michael Perry, Ron Popeski and David Brunnstrom)



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Obama to host Afghan president Friday at White House






WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will host Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the White House on Friday for talks centered on the long-term security compact between the two countries.

Obama looks forward to "discussing our continued transition in Afghanistan, and our shared vision of an enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan," a White House statement said.

The Afghan leader has expressed support for keeping US troops in Afghanistan, but sensitive details -- including immunity for American soldiers and the transfer of detainees into Afghan custody -- are still under negotiation.

Karzai's relationship with Washington has been troubled in recent years and fears remain that attention for Afghanistan, heavily dependent on international aid, could plummet after 2014, plunging it back into political turmoil.

The Afghan president's scheduled trip to the United States was formally confirmed on the same day as Obama revealed his nominations to head up the CIA and the Pentagon during his second White House term.

Obama, who last visited Kabul in May, named Chuck Hagel to lead the Pentagon and tapped John Brennan to replace scandal-tainted David Petraeus as CIA chief.

The US president last year signed a pact on future relations and declared that the "time of war" was ending in Afghanistan.

But the Defense Department reportedly has prepared plans to leave roughly 3,000, 6,000 or 9,000 America troops in the war-wracked state.

General John Allen, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, had earlier suggested leaving 6,000 to 20,000 American troops, US media reports have said.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the force would focus on preventing Al-Qaeda, which was sheltered by the 1996-2001 Taliban government, from regaining a firm foothold in Afghanistan.

The number of foreign troops battling the Taliban-led insurgency has already fallen to 100,000 from about 150,000. There are currently 66,000 US troops.

The conflict has become increasingly unpopular in the United States, but some lawmakers in Washington have accused Obama of pushing for a hasty exit.

Karzai, who left Kabul on Monday, is expected to kick off his US trip by visiting his wounded spy chief, Asadullah Khalid, at an American hospital on Tuesday.

-AFP/ac



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Inept forensic labs delaying probes

NEW DELHI: Forensic labs play a vital role in nailing culprits of heinous crimes, be they rapes, murders or terror attacks. Often, between crime and punishment, guilt and innocence they are the crucial bits of scientific evidence that connect victim to victimizer. These are the places where samples are matched, medical reports prepared and clinching proof dished out to nail criminals.

But across India, its forensic labs are so inept that they seldom help the cause of fair probe. Take rape trials, for instance. Experts say these should not take more than 15-20 days. However, what happens usually is that just to collate the victims' medical reports it takes months, if not years. For, every such lab in India — whether in Chennai or Chandigarh, Kolkata or Delhi — is hamstrung by a lack of resources, trained staff and technical knowledge.

Just for the record, India has four central forensic labs (Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh and Delhi) and some 25 state ones. The story, though, is the same in each one of these. Mumbai is a case in point. The state, grappling with rising crime and a poor conviction rate, has between its six state-run labs, roughly 30,000 pending cases. More than 3,840 cases pertain to sexual assault on women.

Vacancy continues to be a huge problem. Kolkata, with a staggering backlog of 9,000 cases, has nearly 30% empty seats to fill up. More than 2,336 rape cases are pending, some for 26 months. In Chandigarh, at its Central Forensic Science Laboratory, the figure is 55%. Lab director S K Shukla says he needs around 80 personnel immediately. Down south, the Chennai lab has more than 600 pending cases. Natural, considering that out of the sanctioned strength of 130, only 90 are available.

Compounding the problem is a chronic absence of infrastructure. "We can't even handle 50 cases daily," admits an official. Coupled with this is the lack of knowledge about how to handle these samples. In some rape cases, hospitals need to dry the samples at room temperature so that they can be preserved for weeks. But liquid samples are sent, leading to contamination, says the official.

All is not lost, though. Ahmedabad's DFS (Directorate of Forensic Sciences) stands out in this sea of ineptitude. Besides handling some 3.5 lakh cases annually, it also helps out in nearly 900 cases from other states and central agencies, and earned Rs 1.38 crore in 2012 in this fashion. It has, after all, an integrated ballistics indentification system, suspect detection system and cyber and wildlife forensics and was instrumental in solving the Nithari murders, Telgi scam and Gir lion poaching cases.

JM Vyas, director general of the Ahmedabad lab, says, "We have no pending cases above one month. Cases such as rape, assault and murder are given priority. However, viscera samples take two to three months due to chemical process."

Though appointment at senior levels has not been done in a decade, the establishment of Gujarat Forensic Sciences University is expected to infuse fresh blood to fill 15% vacancies.

Other states should take a leaf out of Ahmedabad's book. The lives of countless rape victims depend on it.

Reports by Sumitra Deb Roy in Mumbai; Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay in Kolkata; A Selvaraj in Chennai; Umesh Isalkar in Pune, and Parth Shastri in Ahmedabad

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Activists wary as India rushes to justice after gang rape


NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It's no surprise the Indian street wants faster, harsher justice for sexual crimes after a horrific gang rape that rocked the nation, but some activists worry the government will trample fundamental rights in its rush to be in tune with popular rage.


Last month's rape of a physiotherapy student on a moving bus and her death on December 28 in hospital triggered a national debate about how to better protect women in India, where official data shows one rape is reported on average every 20 minutes.


Many women's rights groups are cautiously hopeful the protests and outrage that followed the crime can be channeled into real change - fast-track courts for sexual offences and a plan to hire 2,500 new women police in Delhi are measures already in the works.


But legal experts and some feminists are worried that calls to make rape punishable with death and other draconian penalties will cramp civil liberties and are unconstitutional. They say India needs better policing and prosecutions, not new laws.


"If there are not enough convictions, it is not because of an insufficiency of law, but it is the insufficiency of material to base the conviction on," said retired Delhi High Court judge R.S. Sodhi.


Five men have been charged with the student's rape and murder and will appear before a New Delhi court later on Monday. They are due to be tried in a newly formed fast-track court in the next few weeks. A teenager also accused will likely be tried in a juvenile court.


Ahead of Monday's court appearance the five still had no defense lawyers - despite extensive interrogations by the police, who have said they have recorded confessions - after members of the bar association in the South Delhi district where the case is being heard vowed not to represent them.


GROUNDS FOR APPEAL


The men will be assigned lawyers by the court before the trial begins, but their lack of representation so far could give grounds for appeal later should they be found guilty - similar cases have resulted in acquittals years after convictions.


"The accused has a right to a lawyer from point of arrest - the investigations are going on, statements being taken, it is totally illegal," said Colin Gonsalves, a senior Supreme Court advocate and director of Delhi's Human Rights Law Network.


Senior leaders of most states on Friday came out in support of a plan to lower to 16 the age that minors can be tried as adults - in response to fury that the maximum penalty the accused youth could face is three years detention.


A government panel is considering suggestions to make the death penalty mandatory for rape and introducing forms of chemical castration for the guilty. It is due to make its recommendations by January 23.


"The more you strengthen the powers of the state against the people, the more the possibility you create a draconian regime," said Sehjo Singh, Programme and Policy Director with ActionAid in India and an expert on Indian women's social movements.


"We want to raise the bar of human rights in India, we want to raise the standards, not lower them."


The Indian Express newspaper warned against "knee-jerk" reaction and said any change to the juvenile law "must come after rigorous and considered debate. It cannot be a reaction to a fraught moment".


Courts are swamped with a backlog of cases in the country of 1.2 billion people and trials often take more than five years to complete, so the launch by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir of six fast-track courts in the capital to deal with sexual offences was widely greeted as a welcome move.


Several other states including Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra are now looking at following Delhi's example.


But Gonsalves says while the courts are a good idea on paper, similar tribunals in the past delivered dubious verdicts and put financial pressure on the rest of the justice system.


FAST TRACK COURTS


India set up 1,700 fast-track courts in 2004, but stopped funding them last year because they turned out to be costly. The courts typically work six days a week and try to reduce adjournments that lead to long delays in cases.


"The record of the fast-track courts is mixed," Gonsalves said. Conviction rates rose, he said, but due process was sometimes rushed, leading to convictions being overturned.


"Fast-track courts were in many ways were fast-track injustice," he said.


The real problem lie with bad policing and a shortage of judges, Gonsalves said. India has about a fifth of the number of judges per capita that the United States has.


Indian police are often poorly trained and underpaid, and have sometimes been implicated in organized crime. Rights groups complain the mostly male officers are insensitive to victims of sexual crimes.


Resources for, and expertise in, forensic science is limited in most of the country's police forces and confessions are often extracted under duress. The judiciary complains it is hard to convict offenders because of faulty evidence.


Human Rights Watch said reforms to laws and procedures covering rape and other sexual crimes should focus on protection of witnesses and modernizing support for victims at police stations and hospitals.


The rights organization has documented the continued use of archaic practices such as the "finger test" used by some doctors on rape victims to allegedly determine if they had regular sex.


"Reforms in the rape laws - these are needed. But not in terms of enhancing punishment," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director of Human Rights Watch.


"Why they are not investigated, why there are not enough convictions, those are the things that need to be addressed."


(Additional reporting by Satarupa Bhattacharjya, Shashank Chouhan and Annie Banerji; Editing by Alex Richardson)



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Lenovo makes computer play a family affair






SAN FRANCISCO: Lenovo on Sunday unveiled a home tabletop touch-screen computer aimed at turning typically solitary online activities into family affairs.

The Chinese computer colossus proclaimed the arrival of the "interpersonal PC" with the debut of the IdeaCentre Horizon Table in Las Vegas, where the Consumer Electronics Show gadget gala is set to start.

"It's definitely a new category; the world's first home table personal computer," Lenovo director of global marketing Dee Kumar said while giving AFP an early glimpse at the creation in San Francisco.

"This can be a full-power 27-inch PC, but at the same time we want families using this device," she said.

The "multi-user, multi-touch, multi-mode" table computer with a starting price of $1,699 can be used by several people simultaneously for communal activities such as games or for individual endeavours such as updating Facebook.

"We want to take social to the next level," Kumar added. "Smartphones and tablets provide one-to-one interaction, but it is great for a family to come back home and use this device to consume content."

Lenovo worked with videogame industry stalwarts including Ubisoft and Electronic Arts to tailor titles for group play on Horizon table computers.

"These games are simple mechanics-wise but really fun to play in a social space," Pixel, a member of an Ubisoft-backed group of girl gamers known as the Frag Dolls, said as she killed virtual zombies and raced cars on Horizon.

Lenovo promised to showcase a slew of Horizon games and applications at CES, which begins Tuesday.

Horizon is powered by Microsoft Windows 8 software designed with touch-screen controls in mind and recognizes commands from as many as 10 fingers at a time.

"Windows 8 definitely opened the doors to social with 10-finger touch," Kumar said. "You are seeing touch interfaces on bigger devices, and this is kind of the next extension."

Horizon weighs about 18 pounds and is built with a hinged stand in the back so it can be propped upright to serve as a television or desktop computer screen.

Wheeled stands and joysticks are among accessories sold separately. Lenovo said that Horizon table computers would hit the market by the middle of this year.

"Horizon makes personal computing interpersonal computing with shared, collaborative experiences among several people," said Lenovo product group president Peter Hortensius.

Lenovo has been striving to become the world's top computer maker and has made strides with a "protect and attack" strategy when it comes to market share.

Analysts have described Lenovo as a success story due to its tactic of fielding a diverse line-up of products in a global computer industry being roiled by the rise of tablets and smartphones.

Gartner Research in October released preliminary figures indicating Lenovo may have taken Hewlett-Packard's crown as top computer maker in the third quarter of last year.

IDC figures, however, showed that HP retained a tenuous hold on the throne.

Still, "our protect-and-attack strategy is clearly working," Kumar said, "We go after high growth areas and protect core business."

-AFP/fl



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Tourists throng Himachal for warm sunbath

MANALI: Battered by fog, cold and humidity, people from plains have started thronging tourist resorts across Himachal to enjoy some sunny days. Though the nights in hills are chilling, lack of humidity is offering warm days perfect for winter sunbaths.

In Manali, tourists can be spotted basking under the sun all the day. There are no signs of fog in the hill state except for lower regions like Solan, Sundernagar, Una and parts of Kangra, where night temperature is plunging below 0 degree Celsius. Tourists from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and UP are rushing to Himachal, especially Manali and Shimla, to regale under the warmth of bright shining sun.

"I do not feel like leaving the bench on the Mall Road basking under the sun," said Anjum Solanki, a tourist from Delhi. According to him, he has enjoyed the real warmth of sun after a long time as fog has made life miserable in Delhi.

For Sunil Rajpoot, another tourist from Chandigarh, Manali is warmer than Chandigarh during daytime. "Though nights are chilling cold here, days are unusually pleasant. We were unnecessarily scared of making a winter tour to Himachal," he added.

Lower regions of Himachal, where fog is preventing sunrays from reaching the ground, are also colder than the high altitude tourist towns. While minimum temperature of Shimla, at an altitude of 7,234 feet, was 0.9 degree Celsius, lower regions like Sundernagar (2,825ft), Bhuntar (3,573ft) and Solan (5,180ft) recorded minimum temperature of -0.6, -1 and -3.5 degrees celsius respectively.

The day temperature of both Shimla and Manali is hovering around 11 degrees Celsius and dry weather with nominal humidity has increased the joy of basking under the sun. Meanwhile, cold waves are continued to sweep Lahaul valley where icy winds have confined the maximum temperature to 2.9 degrees Celsius. Here, the minimum temperature has again plunged to -10.4 degrees Celsius.

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Your medical chart could include exercise minutes


CHICAGO (AP) — Roll up a sleeve for the blood pressure cuff. Stick out a wrist for the pulse-taking. Lift your tongue for the thermometer. Report how many minutes you are active or getting exercise.


Wait, what?


If the last item isn't part of the usual drill at your doctor's office, a movement is afoot to change that. One recent national survey indicated only a third of Americans said their doctors asked about or prescribed physical activity.


Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health insurance plans, made a big push a few years ago to get its southern California doctors to ask patients about exercise. Since then, Kaiser has expanded the program across California and to several other states. Now almost 9 million patients are asked at every visit, and some other medical systems are doing it, too.


Here's how it works: During any routine check of vital signs, a nurse or medical assistant asks how many days a week the patient exercises and for how long. The number of minutes per week is posted along with other vitals at the top the medical chart. So it's among the first things the doctor sees.


"All we ask our physicians to do is to make a comment on it, like, 'Hey, good job,' or 'I noticed today that your blood pressure is too high and you're not doing any exercise. There's a connection there. We really need to start you walking 30 minutes a day,'" said Dr. Robert Sallis, a Kaiser family doctor. He hatched the vital sign idea as part of a larger initiative by doctors groups.


He said Kaiser doctors generally prescribe exercise first, instead of medication, and for many patients who follow through that's often all it takes.


It's a challenge to make progress. A study looking at the first year of Kaiser's effort showed more than a third of patients said they never exercise.


Sallis said some patients may not be aware that research shows physical inactivity is riskier than high blood pressure, obesity and other health risks people know they should avoid. As recently as November a government-led study concluded that people who routinely exercise live longer than others, even if they're overweight.


Zendi Solano, who works for Kaiser as a research assistant in Pasadena, Calif., says she always knew exercise was a good thing. But until about a year ago, when her Kaiser doctor started routinely measuring it, she "really didn't take it seriously."


She was obese, and in a family of diabetics, had elevated blood sugar. She sometimes did push-ups and other strength training but not anything very sustained or strenuous.


Solano, 34, decided to take up running and after a couple of months she was doing three miles. Then she began training for a half marathon — and ran that 13-mile race in May in less than three hours. She formed a running club with co-workers and now runs several miles a week. She also started eating smaller portions and buying more fruits and vegetables.


She is still overweight but has lost 30 pounds and her blood sugar is normal.


Her doctor praised the improvement at her last physical in June and Solano says the routine exercise checks are "a great reminder."


Kaiser began the program about three years ago after 2008 government guidelines recommended at least 2 1/2 hours of moderately vigorous exercise each week. That includes brisk walking, cycling, lawn-mowing — anything that gets you breathing a little harder than normal for at least 10 minutes at a time.


A recently published study of nearly 2 million people in Kaiser's southern California network found that less than a third met physical activity guidelines during the program's first year ending in March 2011. That's worse than results from national studies. But promoters of the vital signs effort think Kaiser's numbers are more realistic because people are more likely to tell their own doctors the truth.


Dr. Elizabeth Joy of Salt Lake City has created a nearly identical program and she expects 300 physicians in her Intermountain Healthcare network to be involved early this year.


"There are some real opportunities there to kind of shift patients' expectations about the value of physical activity on health," Joy said.


NorthShore University HealthSystem in Chicago's northern suburbs plans to start an exercise vital sign program this month, eventually involving about 200 primary care doctors.


Dr. Carrie Jaworski, a NorthShore family and sports medicine specialist, already asks patients about exercise. She said some of her diabetic patients have been able to cut back on their medicines after getting active.


Dr. William Dietz, an obesity expert who retired last year from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said measuring a patient's exercise regardless of method is essential, but that "naming it as a vital sign kind of elevates it."


Figuring out how to get people to be more active is the important next step, he said, and could have a big effect in reducing medical costs.


___


Online:


Exercise: http://1.usa.gov/b6AkMa


___


AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner


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