In Brief

Never too late NEW YORK – Even after age 60, people can significantly reduce their risk of heart disease and diabetes by adopting healthier habits, a new study from the UK shows.

“The present findings emphasise the benefits of lifestyle modification, including losing weight, increasing physical activity, stopping smoking, and avoiding a high-carbohydrate diet, in reducing the risk of the metabolic syndrome in older men,” report Dr S Goya Wannamethee of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London and colleagues. People with the metabolic syndrome have a constellation of risk factors including high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, impaired blood glucose metabolism, and high cholesterol.The syndrome, which is more common among older people, increases the likelihood that a person will go on to develop heart disease and diabetes.* Reverse racism JOHANNESBURG – White students were being overlooked in favour of poorly achieving black students in the awarding of bursaries, Solidarity Youth said yesterday.Universities were also discriminating against white students, refusing them entry although they performed better than their black counterparts, spokesperson Ernst Roets said.”We have in our possession proof of instances in which white students with excellent results were refused entry in favour of black students with greatly inferior marks,” he said.”Special arrangements are made to accommodate black students from Woodhill and Sandton, while white students from poor areas are passed over because they are regarded as ‘advantaged’.”Roets named the University of Pretoria as one of the universities “discriminating against white students”.* 30 missing after mine disaster TSHIKAPA – A diamond mine collapse claimed 13 miners’ lives as 30 were missing in the Kasai-Occidental region in central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local officials said on Saturday.A ravine 15m below ground, which had been transformed into a mine, was covered during a mudslide in Tshikapa on Friday, 260km south-east of the regional Kasai-Occidental capital Kananga, said Tshikapa mayor Albert Mutombo.Heavy rainfall in recent days and a large number of underground galleries dug with little regard for safety led to the collapse, he said.Mutombo said that, for some time, miners had been digging in the ravine without authorisation.An investigation into the exact causes of the disaster was under way, he said.* Warsaw archbishop quits WARSAW’s new archbishop has resigned in a scandal over his involvement with the communist-era secret police, Poland’s Roman Catholic church said yesterday.Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, who took the office on Friday and was to have been formally installed in a ceremony yesterday, “has submitted his resignation from the office of archbishop of Warsaw,” Poland’s Episcopate said in a statement released only half an hour before the Mass was to begin.Revelations that Wielgus had contacts with the hated secret police of the communist regime, which ended in 1989, have shaken the deeply Catholic homeland of the late Pope John Paul II, where many view the church as a moral authority that bravely opposed the regime.* ‘Spouse’ murder PIETERMARITZBURG – A 43-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly shot and killed his wife during an argument, KwaZulu-Natal police said yesterday.Superintendent Joshua Gwala said the incident happened at the couple’s home at Sinathing in Plessislaer near Pietermaritzburg on Saturday night.It is believed that the two began to argue when the man came home from work and found his daughter and wife, 36, sitting outside.”He allegedly asked them why they were sitting outside.The man and his wife then began to quarrel,” said Gwala.”The wife went inside and started preparing food for her husband.The two continued to argue in the kitchen.”Nampa-Reuters-AFP-AP-SapaPeople with the metabolic syndrome have a constellation of risk factors including high blood pressure, abdominal obesity, impaired blood glucose metabolism, and high cholesterol.The syndrome, which is more common among older people, increases the likelihood that a person will go on to develop heart disease and diabetes.* Reverse racism JOHANNESBURG – White students were being overlooked in favour of poorly achieving black students in the awarding of bursaries, Solidarity Youth said yesterday.Universities were also discriminating against white students, refusing them entry although they performed better than their black counterparts, spokesperson Ernst Roets said.”We have in our possession proof of instances in which white students with excellent results were refused entry in favour of black students with greatly inferior marks,” he said.”Special arrangements are made to accommodate black students from Woodhill and Sandton, while white students from poor areas are passed over because they are regarded as ‘advantaged’.”Roets named the University of Pretoria as one of the universities “discriminating against white students”.* 30 missing after mine disaster TSHIKAPA – A diamond mine collapse claimed 13 miners’ lives as 30 were missing in the Kasai-Occidental region in central Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local officials said on Saturday.A ravine 15m below ground, which had been transformed into a mine, was covered during a mudslide in Tshikapa on Friday, 260km south-east of the regional Kasai-Occidental capital Kananga, said Tshikapa mayor Albert Mutombo.Heavy rainfall in recent days and a large number of underground galleries dug with little regard for safety led to the collapse, he said.Mutombo said that, for some time, miners had been digging in the ravine without authorisation.An investigation into the exact causes of the disaster was under way, he said.* Warsaw archbishop quits WARSAW’s new archbishop has resigned in a scandal over his involvement with the communist-era secret police, Poland’s Roman Catholic church said yesterday.Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, who took the office on Friday and was to have been formally installed in a ceremony yesterday, “has submitted his resignation from the office of archbishop of Warsaw,” Poland’s Episcopate said in a statement released only half an hour before the Mass was to begin.Revelations that Wielgus had contacts with the hated secret police of the communist regime, which ended in 1989, have shaken the deeply Catholic homeland of the late Pope John Paul II, where many view the church as a moral authority that bravely opposed the regime.* ‘Spouse’ murder PIETERMARITZBURG – A 43-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly shot and killed his wife during an argument, KwaZulu-Natal police said yesterday.Superintendent Joshua Gwala said the incident happened at the couple’s home at Sinathing in Plessislaer near Pietermaritzburg on Saturday night.It is believed that the two began to argue when the man came home from work and found his daughter and wife, 36, sitting outside.”He allegedly asked them why they were sitting outside.The man and his wife then began to quarrel,” said Gwala.”The wife went inside and started preparing food for her husband.The two continued to argue in the kitchen.”Nampa-Reuters-AFP-AP-Sapa