'Good Evidence' on Massacre Motive













Police are investigating reports that Connecticut gunman Adam Lanza had an altercation at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in the days before he carried out a massacre the school's students and staff, sources told ABC News.


Authorities indicated today that they have "some very good evidence" about the motive behind Lanza's shooting spree at the school in Newtown, Conn., and said that the sole person to survive being shot by Lanza will be "instrumental" in the probe.


The grim task of identifying all of Lanza's 27 victims, which included 20 children, was completed today. Families, who already feared the worst, were informed that their loved ones were dead early today.


All of the bodies have now been removed from the school and medical examiners are expected to provide a full list of victims later today.


With the tally of Lanza's carnage complete, authorities and the grieving people of Newtown, Conn., are left to wonder why he turned the elementary school in this quaint New England town into a slaughter house.


CLICK HERE for full coverage of the tragedy at the elementary school.






Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images











Newtown Teacher Kept 1st Graders Calm During Massacre Watch Video











Newtown School Shooting: What to Tell Your Kids Watch Video





Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance, who had compared the investigation to "peeling back the layers of an onion," said the investigation "did produce some very good evidence" about motive, but he would not go into further detail.


He indicated the evidence came from the shooting scene at the school as well as at the home where Lanza's mother, Nancy, was slain.


Also key will be the lone person shot by Lanza who wasn't killed. The female teacher has not been publicly identified.


"She is doing fine," Vance said at a news conference today. "She has been treated and she'll be instrumental in this investigation."


In addition, sources told ABC News authorities are investigating reports that Lanza had an altercation at the school just days before the attack.


Vance said that Lanza forced his way into the school, but did not say how.


Evidence emerged today that Lanza's rampage began in the office of school principal Dawn Hochsprung while the school intercom was on. It's not clear whether it was turned on to alert the school or whether it was on for morning announcements, but the principal's screams and the cries of children heard throughout the school gave teachers time to take precautions to protect their children.


Hochsprung was among those killed in the Friday morning killing spree.


READ: Connecticut Shooter Adam Lanza: 'Obviously Not Well'


Authorities have fanned out to New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts to interview Lanza's relatives, ABC News has learned.


According to sources, Lanza shot his mother in the face, then left his house armed with at least two semi-automatic handguns, a Glock and a Sig Sauer, and a semi-automatic rifle. He was also wearing a bulletproof vest.






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U.S., rebels urge gloomy Moscow to help oust Assad


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's rebel leadership and the United States seized on Russian pessimism over President Bashar al-Assad's future to urge Moscow to help push its ally into ceding power and end the battles closing in around his capital.


"We want to commend the Russian government for finally waking up to the reality and acknowledging that the regime's days are numbered," the U.S. State Department spokeswoman said after a senior Kremlin envoy conceded publicly on Thursday that Assad's opponents could win the 20-month-old civil war.


"The question now is, will the Russian government join those of us in the international community who are working with the opposition to try to have a smooth democratic transition?" U.S. spokeswoman Victoria Nuland added in Washington.


In Marrakech, where his new coalition won recognition from other international powers as the legitimate leadership of Syria, rebel political leader Mouaz al-Khatib said he believed Russia, ally and arms supplier to the Assad dynasty since Soviet times, was looking for ways out of its support for a lost cause.


"I believe that the Russians have woken up and are sensing that they have implicated themselves with this regime, but they don't know how to get out," al-Khatib told Reuters. He held them "particularly responsible" for helping Assad with arms but said Moscow need not "lose everything" in Syria if it changed tack.


Under President Vladimir Putin, wary since last year's Libyan war of what Russia sees as a Western drive to use the United Nations to overthrow national leaders it dislikes, Russia has blocked U.N. efforts to squeeze Assad, who has also had strong support from his long-time sponsor Iran.


But Mikhail Bogdanov, a deputy foreign minister and the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, was quoted as saying in Moscow: "One must look the facts in the face."


"Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out." The Syrian government, he said, was "losing control of more and more territory" and Moscow was preparing to evacuate Russian citizens if necessary.


Nuland said Bogdanov's comments demonstrated that Moscow now "sees the writing on the wall" on Syria and said Russia should now rally behind U.N. efforts to prevent a wider bloodbath.


"They can withdraw any residual support for the Assad regime, whether it is material support (or) financial support," she said. "They can also help us to identify people who might be willing, inside of Syria, to work on a transitional structure."


DIPLOMACY


International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, who has met Russian and U.S. officials twice in the past week, is seeking a solution based on an agreement reached in Geneva in June that called for the creation of a transitional government in Syria.


But Russia has repeated warnings that recognition of al-Khatib's coalition, notably by the United States, is undermining diplomacy, and rejected U.S. contentions that the Geneva agreement sent a clear message that Assad should step down.


Nuland said the Brahimi meetings could lay the framework for a political structure to follow Assad:


"We've said all along to the Russians that we are concerned that the longer that this goes on, and the longer it takes us to get to an alternative political path for Syria, the only path is going to be the military one and that is just going to bring more violence.


"We all ought to be working together."


Bogdanov, whose government has suggested that Assad himself should be allowed to see through a transition he has promised, suggested the rebels and their allies were set on a military solution and he gave little hint of detente with Washington.


"The fighting will become even more intense and (Syria) will lose tens of thousands and, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of civilians," Bogdanov was quoted as saying. "If such a price for the removal of the president seems acceptable to you, what can we do? We, of course, consider it absolutely unacceptable."


The head of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said elsewhere: "I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse."


A U.S. official said: "Assad probably still believes that Syria is his and illusions can die hard. But Assad and those closest to him have got to be feeling the psychological strain of fighting a long war that is not going their way."


DAMASCUS BATTLES


But Al-Khatib, who played down Western concerns of sectarian Sunni Islamists in rebel ranks, warned that the fighting was far from over, even as it has begun to rattle the heart of Assad's power in Damascus. On Wednesday, a car bomb killed at least 16 people in a nearby town which is home to many military families.


"The noose is tightening around the regime," al-Khatib said.


"(But) the regime still has power. People think that the regime is finished, but it still has power left, but it is demoralized and however long it lasted its end is clear."


Day and night, Damascenes can hear the thunderous sound of bombardment aimed at rebel-held and contested neighborhoods.


The city's streets have now turned into a labyrinth of checkpoints and road blocks, with several major roads permanently closed off to traffic by concrete barriers.


"We escape from one place and trouble follows," said one grandmother, Um Hassan, as she described to Reuters her family's flight from one neighborhood to another as fighting seeps into the capital. "I don't know where we can keep running to."


Nonetheless, al-Khatib played down demands for their allies to provide heavier weaponry - a request long resisted by governments wary of anti-aircraft missiles and other hardware reaching Islamist rebels who might turn them against the West.


"The Syrian people ... no longer need international forces to protect them," he said, not specifying whether he meant a no-fly zone, arms supplies or other military support.


The opposition chief said he was willing to listen to proposals for Assad to escape with his life - "The best thing is that he steps down and stops drinking the blood of the Syrian people" - and outlined three scenarios for a change of power:


Al-Khatib ruled out the Russian proposal suggesting Assad hand over power to a transitional government while remaining president, saying it was "disgraceful for a slaughtered nation to accept to have a killer and criminal at its head".


The British-based Syrian Observatory said war planes bombed rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and artillery was hitting Daraya and Moadamiyeh, southwestern areas near the centre where rebels have been fighting for a foothold.


Syria has relied on war planes and helicopters to bombard rebel districts but Damascus denied accusations by U.S. and NATO officials that it had fired Scud missiles in recent days. The foreign ministry said the long-range missiles were not used against "terrorist groups," a term it uses for the rebels.


At least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with street protests which were met with gunfire by Assad's security forces, and which spiraled into the most enduring and destructive of the Arab revolts.


(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Michael Roddy) For an interactive look at the uprising in Syria, please click on http://link.reuters.com/rut37s



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US concerned by China plane in Japan airspace






WASHINGTON: The United States Friday voiced concern after a Chinese state-owned plane breached Japanese airspace for the first time to overfly islands at the heart of a bitter row between the two nations.

"It's important to avoid actions that raise tensions and to prevent miscalculations that could undermine peace, security and economic growth in the region," State Department Acting Deputy Spokesman Patrick Ventrell said.

Washington had raised its concerns with Beijing, he said, adding that the United States made clear that its "policy and commitments regarding the Senkaku Islands are long-standing and have not changed."

US officials had also talked to the Japanese government, he added.

Japan scrambled eight F-15 fighter jets Thursday after the first incursion by a Chinese state aircraft into Japanese airspace anywhere since Tokyo's military began monitoring in 1958, the Japanese defence ministry said.

Observers suggest the Chinese move was part of a Chinese campaign to create a "new normal" -- where its forces come and go as they please around islands that Beijing calls the Diaoyus, but Tokyo controls as the Senkakus.

The incident appeared to have passed off without any direct confrontation, and in Beijing, China's foreign ministry said the flight had been routine.

"China's maritime surveillance plane flying over the Diaoyu islands is completely normal," said spokesman Hong Lei.

"China requires the Japanese side to stop illegal activities in the waters and airspace of the Diaoyu islands," Hong said, adding they were "China's inherent territory since ancient times."

- AFP/jc



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NDA MPs give a miss to discussion on supplementary grants

NEW DELHI: If a vigilant opposition is essential to a sprightly democracy, it was absent during the discussion on supplementary grants in the Lok Sabha on Friday afternoon.

From 2 pm to 3pm, there were barely a couple of MPs from the BJP and its allies in the House while the attendance on the treasury benches, although not exactly bursting at the seams, was much healthier.

BJP chief whip Ramesh Bais hung around for a while before leaving after a brief chat with minister of state in the PMO V Narayanasamy. Shiromani Akali Dal's Rattan Singh Ajnala was the sole NDA MP in the House for long.

Finance minister P Chidambaram faced rows of empty benches as MPs spoke on the demand raised by the government.

The job of playing opposition was left to Congress's Lal Singh, MP from Udhampur, who urged Chidambaram to visit villages in his remote constituency to see how money allocated for central schemes did not reach beneficiaries.

"You make schemes, but do you ask for an account of what happens to the money? There are schools were teachers are catering to classes two to five all at the same time. No roads anywhere... I am waiting for the day when I can travel by car," Lal Singh said.

Egged on by a receptive audience, Singh said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was a failure in his constituency.

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APNewsBreak: Texas cancer probe draws NCI scrutiny


AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The National Cancer Institute confirmed Friday that federal officials are taking a closer look at a troubled $3 billion cancer-fighting effort in Texas that is under a criminal investigation over a lucrative taxpayer-funded grant awarded by the state agency.


The Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas has coveted status as an NCI-approved funding entity — an exclusive group headlined by the nation's most prominent cancer organizations. The list is fewer than two dozen and includes the American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and federal entities like the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.


The designation is a federal seal-of-approval that signals high peer review standards and conflict of interest policies. Yearlong turmoil within the Texas institute, or CPRIT, reached a new peak this week when the agency's beleaguered chief executive asked to resign and prosecutors opened cases following an $11 million grant to a private company that was revealed to have bypassed an independent review.


NCI spokeswoman Aleea Farrakh Khan told The Associated Press that officials are "evaluating recent events" at CPRIT. She said officials have not made decisions or contacted the agency directly.


Members of CPRIT's governing board did not immediately return an email seeking comment.


NCI designation is not required for CPRIT to continue running the nation's second-largest pot of cancer research dollars, Khan said. But jeopardizing that status — and especially losing it — would be a severe blow to CPRIT's reputation, which already has been battered by sweeping resignations, internal accusations of politics trumping science and now a criminal investigation.


A recent internal audit at CPRIT discovered an $11 million funding request from Dallas-based Peloton Therapeutics was approved without the agency ever scrutinizing the proposal's merits. The revelation came only months after two Nobel laureates and other top scientists left the agency in protest over a $20 million grant some accused of being rushed to approval without a proper peer review.


While CPRIT is funded by taxpayers, donors to cancer nonprofits might look to an NCI designation for assurance that their money is in good hands.


"It says, 'If I'm donating money to this agency, if NCI is approving them, that means NCI says it's handling its money well,'" Khan said.


Khan added that CPRIT's inclusion on the list does not mean all of its funding mechanisms are NCI-approved.


An entire page of CPRIT's website is devoted to boasting its NCI designation. The agency says the status is important because it means cancer centers in Texas seeking its own NCI designation — so as to reassure patients or bolster recruitment — can include CPRIT research dollars in their calculations to maintain levels needed to be NCI approved.


"This enhances Texas' ability to leverage additional federal funding for cancer research and raises Texas' profile as a center for cancer research," according to the website.


Executive Director Bill Gimson submitted his resignation letter Tuesday but offered to stay on through January. He has described Peloton's improper funding as an honest mistake and said no one associated with CPRIT stood to personally profit from the company's award.


Prosecutors have not made any specific criminal allegations. Launching separate investigations into CPRIT are the Texas attorney general's office and the Travis County district attorney's public integrity unit, which investigates criminal misconduct within state government.


___


Follow Paul J. Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pauljweber


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At Least 27, Mostly Kids, Killed at Grade School













A heavily armed man invaded a Newtown, Conn., elementary school today, killing his mother and 26 others, mostly children, federal and state sources tell ABC News.


The gunman, identified as Ryan Lanza, 24, of New Jersey, was killed inside of the school.


In addition to the casualties at the school, a dead body was also found in his home, officials said. Sources said Lanza was armed with four weapons and wearing a bullet-proof vest when he opened fire in the elementary school.


Among the dead was the gunman's mother, found in the school, sources told ABC News.


"The shooter is deceased inside the building," Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt. Paul Vance said at a news conference. "The public is not in danger."


LIVE UPDATES: Newtown, Conn., School Shooting


Authorities initially believed that there were two gunmen and were searching cars around the school.


First grade teacher Kaitlin Roig, 29, locked her 14 students in a classroom bathroom and listened to "tons of shooting" until police came to help.


"It was horrific," Roig said. "I thought we were going to die."


She said that the terrified kids were saying, "I just want Christmas…I don't want to die. I just want to have Christmas."


The massacre prompted the town of Newtown to lock down all its schools and draw SWAT teams to the school, authorities said today.


President Obama was briefed on the shooting by FBI Director Robert Mueller.


It's unclear how many people have been shot, but 27 people, mostly children, are dead, multiple federal and state sources tell ABC News. That number could rise, officials said.






Shannon Hicks/The Newtown Bee











Connecticut School Shooting: White House Response Watch Video









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CLICK HERE for more photos from the scene.


It is the second worst mass shooting in U.S. history, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 when 32 were killed before the shooter turned the gun on himself. Today's carnage exceeds the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in which 13 died and 24 were injured.


The Newtown shooting comes three days after masked gunman Jacob Roberts opened fire in a busy Oregon mall, killing two before turning the gun on himself.


Today's shooting occurred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School, which includes 450 students in grades K-4. The town is located about 12 miles east of Danbury.


State Police received the first 911 call at 9:41 a.m. and immediately began sending emergency units from the western part of the state. Initial 911 calls stated that multiple students were trapped in a classroom, possibly with a gunman, according to a Connecticut State Police source.


Vance said that on-duty and off-duty officers swarmed to the school and quickly checked "every door, every crack, every crevice" in the building looking for the gunman and evacuating children.


A photo from the scene shows a line of distressed children being led out of the school.


Three patients have been taken to Danbury Hospital, which is also on lockdown, according to the hospital's Facebook page.


"Out of abundance of caution and not because of any direct threat Danbury Hospital is under lockdown," the statement said. "This allows us simply to focus on the important work at hand."


Newtown Public School District secretary of superintendent Kathy June said in a statement that the district's schools were locked down because of the report of a shooting. "The district is taking preventive measures by putting all schools in lockdown until we ensure the safety of all students and staff," she said.


State police sent SWAT team units to Newtown.


All public and private schools in the town were on lockdown.


"We have increased our police presence at all Danbury Public Schools due to the events in Newtown. Pray for the victims," Newtown Mayor Boughton tweeted.


State emergency management officials said ambulances and other units were also en route and staging near the school.


A message on the school district website says that all afternoon kindergarten is cancelled today and there will be no midday bus runs.



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Russia says Syrian rebels might win


MOSCOW/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia's Middle East envoy said on Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad in 20 months of conflict.


"One must look the facts in the face," Russia's state-run RIA quoted Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. "Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out."


Bogdanov, a deputy foreign minister and the Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, said the Syrian government was "losing control of more and more territory" and Moscow was preparing to evacuate Russian citizens if necessary.


Syria has relied on war planes and helicopters to bombard rebel districts but Damascus denied accusations by U.S. and NATO officials that it had fired Scud missiles in recent days.


The foreign ministry said the long-range missiles were not used against "terrorist groups," a term it uses for the rebels, who now hold an almost continuous arc of territory from the east to the southwest of Damascus.


The head of NATO said he thought Assad's government was nearing collapse and the new leader of Syria's opposition told Reuters the people of Syria no longer needed international forces to protect them.


"The horrific conditions which the Syrian people endured prompted them to call on the international community for military intervention at various times," said Mouaz al-Khatib, a preacher who heads Syria's National Coalition.


"Now the Syrian people have nothing to lose. They handled their problems by themselves. They no longer need international forces to protect them," he added in the interview on Wednesday night, accusing the international community of slumbering while Syrians were killed.


He did not specify whether by intervention he meant a no-fly zone that rebels have been demanding for month, a ground invasion - which the opposition has warned against - or arms.


He said the opposition would consider any proposal from Assad to surrender power and leave the country, but would not give any assurances until it saw a firm proposal.


In the latest blow to the government, a car bomb killed at least 16 men, women and children in Qatana, a town about 25 km (15 miles) southwest of Damascus where many soldiers live, activists and state media said.


The explosion occurred in a residential area for soldiers in Qatana, which is near several army bases, said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.


He put the death toll as 17, including seven children and two women. State news agency SANA said 16 people had died.


State television showed soldiers walking by a partly collapsed building, with rubble and twisted metal on the road.


The pro-government Al-Ikhbariya TV said a second car bomb in the Damascus suburb of al-Jadideh killed eight, most of them women and children.


Apart from gaining territory in the outskirts of Damascus in recent weeks, rebels have also made hit-and-run attacks or set off bombs within the capital, often targeting state security buildings or areas seen as loyal to Assad, such as Jaramana, where twin bombs killed 34 people in November.


The Pakistani Foreign Office said security concerns had prompted it to withdraw the ambassador and all Pakistani staff from the embassy in the central suburb of East Mezzeh, a couple miles from the Interior Ministry.


BACK TO THE WALL


With his back to the wall, Assad was reported to be turning ever deadlier weapons on his adversaries.


"I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse," NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Thursday.


Human Rights Watch said some populated areas had been hit by incendiary bombs, containing flammable materials such as napalm, thermite or white phosphorous, which can set fire to buildings or cause severe burns and respiratory damage.


The British-based Syrian Observatory said war planes were bombing rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and artillery was hitting Daraya and Moadamiyeh, southwestern areas near the centre where rebels have been fighting for a foothold.


At least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with street protests which were met with gunfire by Assad's security forces, and which spiraled into the most enduring and destructive of the Arab revolts.


The United States, European powers and Arab states bestowed their official blessing on Syria's newly-formed opposition coalition on Wednesday, despite increasing signs of Western unease at the rise of militant Islamists in the rebel ranks.


Western nations at "Friends of Syria" talks in Marrakech, Morocco rallied around a new opposition National Coalition formed last month under moderate Islamist cleric al-khatib.


Russia, which along with China has blocked any U.N. Security Council measures against Assad, criticized Washington's decision to grant the coalition formal recognition, saying it appeared to have abandoned any effort to reach a political solution.


Bogdanov's remarks were the clearest sign yet that Russia is preparing for the possible defeat of Assad's government.


"We are dealing with issues of preparations for an evacuation. We have mobilization plans and are clarifying where our citizens are located," Bogdanov said.


A British Foreign Office spokesperson said the Russian position remained largely unchanged but the situation on the ground gave Moscow an interest in finding an agreed solution, even if the chances of such a solution remained slim.


"If Russia's position on Syria had been a brick wall, it is now a brick wall with a crack in it," the spokesperson said.



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Exasperated US lawmakers push for fiscal cliff deal






WASHINGTON: Exasperated US lawmakers warned Thursday they were no closer to a deal with the White House to avert severe tax hikes and austerity measures, as talks threatened their Christmas break.

With the US economy lurching toward the so-called "fiscal cliff," House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican negotiator, again blamed President Barack Obama for the impasse and demanded concessions on spending.

"It's clear that the president is just not serious about cutting spending. But spending is the problem," Boehner told reporters, insisting that tax increases alone will not resolve the US fiscal crisis.

"The president wants to pretend that spending isn't the problem -- that's why we don't have an agreement."

Boehner resorted to visual props to hammer home his point, with a graph chart showing the supposed trajectory of public spending in coming decades if no further cuts are made.

"Here we are at the 11th hour, and the president still isn't serious about dealing with this issue right here," he said, tapping at the chart. "If the president will step up... I think we can do some real good in the days ahead."

Obama has lowered to $1.4 trillion his opening gambit of seeking to raise $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue over 10 years.

Boehner has offered only $800 billion in new tax revenue, but by closing loopholes and ending some deductions, not by hiking actual tax rates.

The White House insists there will be no deal without a rise in tax rates on the wealthiest two percent of Americans.

Boehner conceded that Obama has offered hundreds of billions in spending cuts. "Unfortunately the new stimulus spending they want almost outstrips all of the spending cuts that they've outlined," he said.

Republicans seek deeper debt reductions including cuts to Social Security, but Democrats insist such action should be considered as part of broader reform in the coming year, not as part of a fiscal cliff fix in the coming weeks.

With just 18 days before the year-end deadline, Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said time was "the most precious of all commodities" and that both sides need to buckle down in Washington and thrash out a deal.

"We could engineer a path forward to say what can we do in that amount of time," she said. But she accused Boehner of irresponsibly allowing the House to adjourn Thursday just when she felt they should stick around.

"Why are we going home instead of working very hard to forge an agreement to avoid that fiscal cliff?" she asked.

"We really have to come to an agreement in the next couple of days, or the very beginning of next week for us to have engineered our way to a solution."

Meanwhile, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor told members to prepare "retain flexibility in their travel schedules through the end of the year."

"The House will not adjourn the 112th Congress until action has been taken to avert the fiscal cliff," he said.

-AFP/ac



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Indians now live longer, but in poor health in old age: Study

NEW DELHI: First the good news: Indians are living much longer than they did 40 years ago.

The life expectancy (LE) at birth of an average Indian male has gone up by 15 years between 1970 and 2010, while that of an Indian woman by 18 years.

An average Indian man can expect to live for as long as 63 years, while an Indian woman can live 4.5 years longer than her male counterpart.

However, the number of years they stay healthy is much lesser.

An Indian male can claim to be in good health till he reaches the age of 54.6 years, and is expected to spend the last nine years of his life suffering from various ailments.

On the other hand, when it comes to an average Indian woman, though she is expected to live till 67.5 years, she will remain healthy till 57.1 years - spending over a decade, or 10.4 years in poor health.


The Global Burden of Disease Study, 2010 — the largest ever study to describe the global distribution and causes of a wide array of major diseases, injuries and health risk factors — has found that even though there is reason to cheer over an Indian's increasing lifespan, it is still much shorter than an average Chinese or an American.

An average Chinese male is living 10 years longer than an Indian male, while a Chinese woman is living 11.5 years longer than her Indian counterpart. An average American lives nearly 13 years longer than an Indian.

Published in the most prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, the study was conducted over five years by 486 authors from over 300 institutes in 50 countries, including India.

A common practice in Indian households - mainly in rural settings of burning wood, coal and animal dung as fuel in chulhas — has proved to be the greatest enemy for Indians.

While globally, high blood pressure was the single biggest causative agent of disease, it was indoor air pollution (IAP) for Indians.

The WHO had earlier said that burning solid fuels to prepare their meals emit carbon monoxide, benzene and formaldehyde which can result in pneumonia, asthma, blindness, lung cancer, tuberculosis and low birth weight.

WHO estimates that pollution levels in rural Indian kitchens are 30 times higher than recommended levels and six times higher than air pollution levels found in the national Capital.

The other threats to normal Indians include diet low in fruits, high blood glucose levels, alcohol use, iron deficiency, sub optimal breast feeding, low physical activity and occupational injuries.

Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoke, caused nearly 6.3 million deaths across the globe. With India being one of the world's major tobacco users, most of these deaths may have happened here.

Lower back pain — a common phenomenon among Indians — has been found to be the leading cause of years lived with disability (YLD) globally. Pain in the neck along with depressive disorders and iron deficiency anemia made up the top four leading causes of YLD.

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Study: People worldwide living longer, but sicker


LONDON (AP) — Nearly everywhere around the world, people are living longer and fewer children are dying. But increasingly, people are grappling with the diseases and disabilities of modern life, according to the most expansive global look so far at life expectancy and the biggest health threats.


The last comprehensive study was in 1990 and the top health problem then was the death of children under 5 — more than 10 million each year. Since then, campaigns to vaccinate kids against diseases like polio and measles have reduced the number of children dying to about 7 million.


Malnutrition was once the main health threat for children. Now, everywhere except Africa, they are much more likely to overeat than to starve.


With more children surviving, chronic illnesses and disabilities that strike later in life are taking a bigger toll, the research said. High blood pressure has become the leading health risk worldwide, followed by smoking and alcohol.


"The biggest contributor to the global health burden isn't premature (deaths), but chronic diseases, injuries, mental health conditions and all the bone and joint diseases," said one of the study leaders, Christopher Murray, director of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.


In developed countries, such conditions now account for more than half of the health problems, fueled by an aging population. While life expectancy is climbing nearly everywhere, so too are the number of years people will live with things like vision or hearing loss and mental health issues like depression.


The research appears in seven papers published online Thursday by the journal Lancet. More than 480 researchers in 50 countries gathered data up to 2010 from surveys, censuses and past studies. They used statistical modeling to fill in the gaps for countries with little information. The series was mainly paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.


As in 1990, Japan topped the life expectancy list in 2010, with 79 for men and 86 for women. In the U.S. that year, life expectancy for men was 76 and for women, 81.


The research found wide variations in what's killing people around the world. Some of the most striking findings highlighted by the researchers: — Homicide is the No. 3 killer of men in Latin America; it ranks 20th worldwide. In the U.S., it is the 21st cause of death in men, and in Western Europe, 57th.


— While suicide ranks globally as the 21st leading killer, it is as high as the ninth top cause of death in women across Asia's "suicide belt," from India to China. Suicide ranks 14th in North America and 15th in Western Europe.


— In people aged 15-49, diabetes is a bigger killer in Africa than in Western Europe (8.8 deaths versus 1 death per 100,000).


— Central and Southeast Asia have the highest rates of fatal stroke in young adults at about 15 cases per 100,000 deaths. In North America, the rate is about 3 per 100,000.


Globally, heart disease and stroke remain the top killers. Reflecting an older population, lung cancer moved to the 5th cause of death globally, while other cancers including those of the liver, stomach and colon are also in the top 20. AIDS jumped from the 35th cause of death in 1990 to the sixth leading cause two decades later.


While chronic diseases are killing more people nearly everywhere, the overall trend is the opposite in Africa, where illnesses like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are still major threats. And experts warn again shifting too much of the focus away from those ailments.


"It's the nature of infectious disease epidemics that if you turn away from them, they will crop right back up," said Jennifer Cohn, a medical coordinator at Doctors Without Borders.


Still, she acknowledged the need to address the surge of other health problems across Africa. Cohn said the agency was considering ways to treat things like heart disease and diabetes. "The way we treat HIV could be a good model for chronic care," she said.


Others said more concrete information is needed before making any big changes to public health policies.


"We have to take this data with some grains of salt," said Sandy Cairncross, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.


He said the information in some of the Lancet research was too thin and didn't fully consider all the relevant health risk factors.


"We're getting a better picture, but it's still incomplete," he said.


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Online:


www.lancet.com


http://healthmetricsandevaluation.org


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