'Most heart events avoidable'

TNN

PUNE: Every year 17.1 million lives are claimed across the world by cardiovascular diseases, with 82 per cent of deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries. Majority of these deaths could be prevented through steps such as eating a healthy diet, regular physical activity and avoiding tobacco, cardiologist Shireesh Sathe, director of cardiology department at Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital (DMH), said at a press conference here on Friday.
"However, not all heart events are preventable. If one suspects a family member of having a heart attack (myocardial infraction) or stroke, medical help should be sought immediately. Over 70 per cent of all cardiac and breathing emergencies occur at home when a family member is available to help a victim. There are treatments available through which the lives of our loved ones can be saved," said Sathe. He was speaking ahead of the World Heart Day that falls on September 29. 'One World, One Home and One Heart' is this year's theme.

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African Markets - Factors to watch on Sept 19 POLITICAL EVETS

NAIROBI, Sept 19 (Reuters) - The following company announcements, scheduled economic
indicators, debt and currency market moves and political events may affect African markets on
Monday. 

- - - - - 
 EVENTS
 NAIROBI - Kenya hosts commodities conference with 
 officials from World Bank, EU, FAO among others 
 present. Focus on climate and agricultural 
 insurance.
 
 GLOBAL MARKETS
 Asian stocks fell and the euro dropped 1 percent 
 on Monday as investors fretted about European 
 policymakers' fumbling attempts to solve their 
 crippling sovereign debt crisis.   
 
 
 WORLD OIL PRICES
 Brent crude slipped below $112 on Monday on 
 concerns of weakening demand as investors fear 
 policymakers may not be doing enough to stop 
 Greece's sovereign debt problem from turning into 
 a full-blown banking crisis. 
 
 LIBYA WAR    
 Libya's interim leaders failed to agree a new 
 cabinet on Sunday and the forces that forced 
 Muammar Gaddafi from power remained bogged down in 
 fighting with troops loyal to the former ruler. 
  
 
 
 EMERGING MARKETS
 For the top emerging markets news, double click on 
 
 
 AFRICA STOCKS
 For the latest news on African stocks, click on 
 
 
 AFRICA FIXED INCOME
 For news on African fixed income, click on 
 
 
 AFRICA MONEY   
  Africa's Christmas sales appear to be starting 
 early this year.  

In the final quarter of the calendar, some of 
 its frontier currencies tend to come under 
 pressure as shops stock up on the pricey imported 
 goods that will appear beneath the Christmas trees 
 of the continent's expanding bourgeoisie. 
 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA MARKETS
 South Africa's rand ended the week on a bearish 
 note on Friday, but bonds recovered somewhat after 
 a sharp sell-off seen as overdone earlier in the 
 week.  

Domestic stocks inched to their highest close 
 in two weeks, rising 0.13 percent as gains in 
 Harmony Gold and other miners offset a 
 downturn in banks.  
 
 NIGERIA MARKETS
 * Seven of the 13 analysts polled expect the CBN 
 Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to raise interest 
 rates by 25-50 basis points, with the remaining 
 forecasters predicting rates will be unchanged at 
 8.75 percent. 
 
 NIGERIA ECONOMY
 Nigeria will target strong economic growth and 
 single-digit price rises in 2012, and Africa's 
 largest oil exporter aims to increase its capital 
 spending over the next few years, Finance Minister 
 Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said on Friday. 
 
 * Nigeria's government showed its intent to get 
 its 2012 budget ready on time by agreeing on some 
 early outlines on Friday, but the figures show few 
 signs of a promised fiscal overhaul. 
  
 
 KENYA MARKETS
 * The Kenyan shilling lost some ground 
 against the dollar on Fridya despite market 
 expectation of a firmer local unit after the 
 central bank raised its key interest rate earlier 
 in the week, while stocks gained the most in more 
 than two weeks. 
 * Yields on Kenya's two-year Treasury bond and a 
 12-year infrastructure bond are expected to climb 
 in line with rising rates on short-term paper as 
 investors demand greater returns in a 
 high-inflation environment. 
 
 KENYA PRICES
 Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki has signed into law 
 a bill that allows the region's biggest economy to 
 return to price controls of any essential 
 commodity, after the practice was abandoned in the 
 1990s in favour of economic 
 liberalisation. 
 
 GHANA DEBT
 The Bank of Ghana said on Sunday that the yield on 
 its 91-day bill rose to 9.37 percent at a Sept. 16 
 auction from 9.36 percent at the last auction.   

The Bank said 159.99 million cedis ($103 
 million) worth of bids for the 91-day paper were 
 accepted at the auction out of a total 200 million 
 cedis of bids tendered.  
 
 MAURITIUS DEBT
 The weighted yield on Mauritian 91-day Treasury 
 bills fell to 4.18 percent on Friday from 4.23 
 percent at the previous auction, the central bank 
 said.     
 

For the latest precious metals report click on 
 

For the latest base metals report click on 
 

For the latest crude oil report click on 
 
   
   

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/19/africa-factors-idUSL5E7KJ05320110919

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Turkey -- at the center of the world

Last week I travelled to Latvia to take part in the Riga Conference. The Riga conference takes place every year and looks at key events and challenges facing the world.

This year was no different. With Turkey’s increasingly visible role on the international stage, there was also a panel focused on the role Turkey can play as a bridge between Europe and Eurasia and more broadly on Turkey’s doomed EU membership talks. The speakers included a former Turkish foreign minister, a German Christian Democrat politician and the foreign minister‘s of Georgia and Latvia. Former French President Jacques Chirac once famously said, “If the EU simply wants to be a Free Trade Area we can do it without Turkey, to be a global player with global responsibilities we need Turkey on board.” This was very much the sentiment of all the speakers who praised the role Turkey is playing in its region. In fact one of the speakers even suggested that Turkey’s geographical position put it “at the center of the world.” While the membership negotiation process is to all intents and purposes frozen, at the same time, there are increasing calls for Turkey to be involved to a far greater extent in EU foreign policy decisions given that Turkey is a crucial partner and a flank country of the EU. Speakers also suggested that the EU should spend more time listening to Turkey rather than preaching to it, something the EU is very good at. There was also a lot of praise for Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s zero problems with neighbors policy with speakers concluding that while the policy is still very much a work in progress, nobody can accuse Davutoğlu of not being sincere. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent tour of Arab spring countries also received a lot of praise -- encouraging the various leaderships to move towards the Turkish model is viewed extremely positively and many hope it will dampen the influence of Iran. Not surprisingly, events in the eastern Mediterranean also arose and the topic of Cyprus was hotly discussed. There is increasing concern over Turkey’s continuing threats to EU member Cyprus over exploratory gas and oil drilling in its Exclusive Economic Zone. Earlier this week the EU, once again requested Turkey to stop this behavior following Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız’s warning on Monday that Turkey would start oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean next week if the Greek Cypriots press ahead with their drilling plans. Turkey cites the drilling as both not conductive to the on-going peace negotiations and unfair by excluding Turkish Cypriots. Turkey, which is not a member of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), states it has a right to involve itself because it considers itself a littoral state, something that the Greek Cypriots reject and are ready to go to the European Court of Justice over. Cyprus is really a thorn in the side of Turkey, which considers the EU’s policy dishonest. In Turkey there is widespread belief that the resolution of the Cyprus issue has nothing to do with Turkey’s EU accession process. After all, if a divided island was not a hurdle in the Greek Cypriots’ entry to the EU in 2004, why is it an obstacle for Turkey? Furthermore, Turks believe that if the EU had sufficient political opportunities to settle the Cyprus problem, they could easily twist the arms of the Greek Cypriots. However, as one if the Turkish speakers put it “even if Turkey gives Cyprus away free of charge” the political problems will remain because of political opposition from a number of member states, going on to say that if the present round of Cyprus peace talks fails then Turkey would move to solve the problem “within its own parameters.” On my return to Brussels, I met with a senior Greek Cypriot official. To say he was angry with the behavior of Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean would be an understatement. However, he admitted that the chances of a solution look very slim, even with the intensified talks, some lasting all day. No breakthroughs are surfacing. The Greek Cypriots remain adamant that they are not the ones to blame for the failure of the talks; they are fed up with hearing about the Annan Plan -- after all there were many plans before it that they claim to have backed and which Turkey scoffed at. They also consider that in the ongoing negotiations they that have made the concessions and not Turkish Cypriots. They see the acceptance of 50,000 settlers and a rotating Presidency as proof of this. The Turkish Cypriots and Turkey, they claim, have not lifted a finger to make concessions on any issues of importance to Greek Cypriots. However, he thought that even with all Turkey’s bellicose statements over the oil exploration, Ankara would not send its ships into the zone of drilling. Even for Turkey this would be a step too far.

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Events continue for World Green Building Week

By : Architecture & Design

The 6-Star Green Star Office Design rated Darling Quarter in Sydney.

 

 

Photo: myrecycledwater.com.au

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) hosted a ‘green leaders’ reception in Sydney to celebrate the  World Green Building Week.
A launch event was held on Monday with Lend Lease at its newly built Commonwealth Bank Place, part of the new $500m Darling Quarter precinct in Sydney, the plan to begin to examine the green building movement in Australia.
The property and construction industries from 89 nations representing more than 30,000 organisations unite this week for World Green Building Week.
World Green Building Week aims to highlight the role that buildings play in decreasing the global carbon footprint and saving money, while also creating jobs, reducing poverty and improving lives.
According to the Chairman of the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and World Green Building Council (WorldGBC), Tony Arnel, the case for green building has never been stronger.
“As the world’s nations transition from ‘business as usual’ to new ‘green’ economies, low carbon, sustainable buildings and communities can save money, support job growth and improve the health, wellbeing and general living conditions of millions of people,” Arnel says.
The GBCA will be hosting a number of events, including a ‘green leaders’ reception at the 6 Star Green Star-rated Darling Quarter in Sydney. GBCA members will be hosting site tours of their Green Star-rated buildings, running workshops and launching sustainability reports. See full list overleaf.
Chief Executive of the GBCA, Romilly Madew, says: “Australia can be very proud of its achievements in sustainable building. We have more than 4.2 million square metres of Green Star-certified space around Australia, our GBC is the second largest out of 89 around the world and we’ve trained 21,000 people in the industry on sustainable building practices.
“The Dow Jones Sustainability Index is overrun with Australian companies, with seven out of 21 being Australian.
“As Australia moves towards a price on pollution, we can expect green buildings to assume a central role in our new green economy, and in doing so deliver on the triple bottom line of people, profit, planet,” Madew adds.
Buildings consume a third of the world’s resources during the construction process, generate around 40 per cent of global energy use and up to 30 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Buildings also represent the single largest opportunity to mitigate climate change. The United Nations Development Program has stated that “no other sector has such a high potential for drastic emission reductions”, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said that buildings offer some of the most cost-effective and expedient ways to reduce greenhouse emissions.
“Until now we have failed to unlock this potential of our sector – the low hanging fruit is just out of reach,” says Chief Executive of the WorldGBC, Jane Henley.
“Governments are beginning to see that their national energy security, urban development and job creation priorities can all be achieved through green building. As governments face economic challenges and shrinking budgets, green building offers a way both to save money through efficiencies and to create jobs,” Ms Henley concludes.
Head of Development for Lend Lease, David Rolls, said the need to deliver sustainable precincts that achieve success on a social, environmental and economic scale, are setting the global agenda for urban redevelopment.
“We are seeing rapid change in the industry to deliver precincts that consider all the elements which make up a sustainable community, a move that is taking us well beyond individual green buildings,” said Rolls.
“New innovation in green technologies and creative design has helped us to deliver projects which we never thought possible however, to achieve even greater sustainability outcomes we need to believe that it is possible to combine strong economic performance with enhanced environmental outcomes and progressive social inclusion and community well being. We don’t need to trade one off for the other.”
Rolls referenced the new Darling Quarter precinct in Sydney as an example of this concept.
“Delivering sustainable outcomes socially, economically and environmentally was a key consideration in the planning and design of Darling Quarter and was the result of a highly collaborative process between all parties involved in the development,” he said.
Social sustainability outcomes have been adressed through the creation of valuable public amenity, including one of Sydney’s largest family playgrounds, a ‘not for profit’ youth theater, community green and dining precinct. Establishing vital new pedestrian links from Darling Harbour to the city will also deliver important social outcomes.
Environmentally, the Commonwealth Bank Place commercial component achieves a 6 Star Green Star –v2 Office Design certified rating with the Green Building Council of Australia. Passive and active design features incorporated in the development will save 2,500 tonnes of carbon emissions per year and reduce main water consumption by 92 per cent.
Events and activities being held around Australia include:

• Australand: ‘Turn waste into art’ competition
• Australian Sychroton: Green building forum
• BlueScope Steel: Presentations and panel discussion
• City of Gosnells: Tours of Civic Centre Redevelopment Project, Perth
• City of Vincent: Green roofs workshop and public lecture
• Colliers International: Site tours, workshops and an online quiz
• Good Environment Choice Australia: Open day at Sydney offices to showcase green fitout
• equipment
• GPT Group: Site tour of MLC Centre, 19 Martin Place, Sydney
• Green Building Council of Australia: Green Leaders in the New Green Economy cocktail party,
• Sydney
• Green Building Council of Australia: Site tour and member evening at 100 Hutt St, Adelaide
• Green Building Council of Australia: Site tour of Holmesglen TAFE Building 12, Melbourne
• Green Building Council of Australia: Site tour of the Energex Building, Brisbane
• Hansen Yuncken: Site tour of Metcash Industrial Distribution Centre, Sydney
• NAWIC WA Branch: Presentation on ‘green is the new black’
• Stockland: Sustainability Report Launch
• Yarra City and Moreland City Councils: Free green building advice to residents.

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