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United Nations — More than 7,500 children have been killed or wounded in Yemen in the last 5 1/2 years as a result of airstrikes, shelling, fighting, suicide attacks, mines and other unexploded ordnance, according to a new United Nations report.
The report, which was released Friday by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the killings and injuries were among 11,779 grave violations against children during the period between April 1, 2013 and Dec. 31, 2018. It said the figures are likely to be worse because monitoring Yemen has become increasingly difficult.The conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country began with the 2014 takeover of Yemen’s capital Sanaa by Iranian-backed Houthi Shiite rebels, who toppled the government of Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. A Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s internationally recognized government has been fighting the Houthis since 2015.
Saudi-led airstrikes have hit schools, hospitals and wedding parties. The Houthis have used drones and missiles to attack Saudi Arabia and have targeted vessels in the Red Sea.Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, which has killed thousands of people, created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, and brought Yemen to the brink of famine. According to the U.N., 400,000 children are expected to suffer from severe acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of extreme hunger this year, an increase of 15,000 over 2017.Virginia Gamba, the U.N. special representative for children in conflict, said that while some positive measures have been adopted by the warring parties, “the suffering of children in Yemen has worsened during the reporting period, becoming simply appalling.””The children of Yemen had nothing to do with the start of this conflict,” she said. “They should now be given the opportunity to exit from it and be assisted to fully recover.”Gamba called on all parties to the conflict and those who can influence them to “prioritize peace and actively engage in the ongoing peace negotiations.”According to the report, the largest number of violations against children in the 5 1/2 years were the 7,508 youngsters who were verified to have been killed or maimed. The recruitment and use of 3,034 children by the warring parties — including 1,940 by the Houthis and 274 by the government — was the second largest violation, it said.The report also said 340 boys were verified to have been detained for their actual or alleged association with the warring parties.
It said only 11 incidents of rape and sexual violence were verified, explaining that the number remains under-reported “mainly for fear of stigmatization and lack of appropriate response services.” The verification of abductions of children was also limited during the reporting period, with just 17 verified incidents, it said.The report said the number of children denied access to humanitarian assistance sharply increased over the 5 1/2 years, “with catastrophic consequences.” It said the U.N. verified 828 incidents where aid was denied.The secretary-general’s second report on children in Yemen’s conflict also noted that attacks on schools and hospitals remained high, with 345 of the 381 that were verified causing the partial or total destruction of the building.Of “great concern,” the report said, is the verified military use of 258 schools, which is higher than the 244 schools that were attacked. The result is that thousands of boys and girls were prevented “safe access to education,” it said.
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The International Triathlon Union (ITU) have announced that the elite races at the 2016 Kitzbuehel ITU Triathlon World Cup have been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. However, the junior races will continue as planned, and will be organised with the time-trial format that was scheduled to debut at the elite races.
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“Despite our best efforts to identify a solution, in the end we were unsuccessful. Therefore, we believe that it is in the best interest of all to cancel this year’s World Cup race as soon as possible to allow for Federations and athletes to change their race and travel plans. We do apologize for any inconvenience this causes, and hope to return as a host of ITU races in the future,” said Event Director Herwig Grabner.
“We are disappointed we will not be able to contest the World Cup race in Kitzbuehel this year, a city that has a storied history of hosting successful of ITU events. However, we remain committed to debuting new formats and will therefore introduce the time-trial format in the junior race so that we can explore how this format could be incorporated in future events,” said ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado.
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To date, the Kitzbuehel World Cup will not be replaced on the 2016 schedule.
A new holding facility for unaccompanied migrant children previously used as a private dormitory “man camp” for oil field workers could stay open through January 2020, at a cost of $300 million, according to an announcement Monday in the Federal Register.
The site in Carrizo Springs, Texas opened Monday and has a capacity of 1,300 children. Two hundred reside there after day one, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) told CBS News.The population at the facility will grow “over a graduated timeframe,” according to the notice posted by HHS in the Federal Register, the official journal of the U.S. government. HHS oversees the nation’s network of 170 holding facilities — described as shelters by the government.
The new facility in Carrizo Springs has the third largest capacity in the HHS system, and is one of just two described by the agency as “temporary influx shelters.” The other, in Homestead, Florida, is by far the largest facility for unaccompanied migrant children in the country, currently holding about 2,300 kids, with a capacity of 3,200.”I have spent a lot of time crying”: Migrant children describe life at Homestead shelterA third “temporary” facility will be the only HHS facility operating on a military base: the Fort Sill Army post in Oklahoma. That facility, on the site of a World War II internment camp where Japanese-Americans were forcibly detained, will have a capacity of 1,400.Though the Carrizo Springs and Homestead facilities are described as “temporary,” federal contracts depict plans for potential long-term use of the sites. BCFS, the nonprofit that is running the Carrizo Springs location, is due $50 million for the first 60 days of operation, with as much as $250 million total to be paid if the location remains open through Jan. 31.The Homestead “temporary” facility has run continuously since April 2018. Federal contract records show Comprehensive Health Services, the company that operates it, is on pace to receive more than half a billion in payments by November. That facility has tripled in size since late 2018.The “temporary influx shelters” have come under widespread, withering criticism from advocates and politicians. Last week, nearly ever Democratic candidate who participated in presidential debates in Miami, traveled the roughly 30 miles south to the Homestead location. They stood on ladders provided by protesters and peered over the tall green walls that surround the facility, yelling messages of support to the children inside.Meanwhile, as BCFS and HHS rushed to prepare the Carrizo Springs facility for use, employees of the online retailer Wayfair caught wind of a contract between their company and BCFS. The employees staged a walkout to protest the company’s involvement with the facility.Unaccompanied migrant children in the HHS system are currently held for an average of 45 days while awaiting placement with relatives in the U.S. Some children labeled “unaccompanied” cross the border alone, but many actually arrive with relatives such as aunts, uncles and even older siblings, but are separated by Border Patrol from those adults and placed in facilities for unaccompanied minors. Children are only considered “accompanied” if they cross the border with parents.
In an interview with CBS News inside the Homestead facility Friday, HHS Secretary Alex Azar defended the program and the “temporary influx shelters.””We’re trying to take care of these kids and place them out as quickly as possible to family members,” Azar said.Azar was also asked about allegations by lawyers that children are subject to “prison-like” rules and wrongly told that minor violations — taking too long a shower, hugging a sibling despite a “no touching” policy — could harm their immigration cases.Azar said after the allegations were made, staff were warned not to do that.”Well, let me be really clear. That would be completely improper. That would be completely improper. And the staff here have been instructed after that allegation was made that any such behaviors or statements would be wrong and subject to discipline,” Azar said.
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The International Triathlon Union (ITU) have announced that the elite races at the 2016 Kitzbuehel ITU Triathlon World Cup have been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances. However, the junior races will continue as planned, and will be organised with the time-trial format that was scheduled to debut at the elite races.
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“Despite our best efforts to identify a solution, in the end we were unsuccessful. Therefore, we believe that it is in the best interest of all to cancel this year’s World Cup race as soon as possible to allow for Federations and athletes to change their race and travel plans. We do apologize for any inconvenience this causes, and hope to return as a host of ITU races in the future,” said Event Director Herwig Grabner.
“We are disappointed we will not be able to contest the World Cup race in Kitzbuehel this year, a city that has a storied history of hosting successful of ITU events. However, we remain committed to debuting new formats and will therefore introduce the time-trial format in the junior race so that we can explore how this format could be incorporated in future events,” said ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado.
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To date, the Kitzbuehel World Cup will not be replaced on the 2016 schedule.
Athens, Greece – A strong earthquake hit Friday near the Greek capital of Athens, causing residents to run into the streets in fear and firefighters to check for people trapped in elevators. The Athens Institute of Geodynamics gave the earthquake a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 but the U.S. Geological Survey gave it a preliminary magnitude of 5.3. The Athens Institute says the quake struck at 2:13 p.m. local time about 13.7 miles north of Athens.The quake sparked limited power cuts and communication problems around Athens and the fire brigade reported receiving calls about people being trapped in elevators. The shock was caught live in the studios of state broadcaster ERT.
Authorities inspected areas close to the epicenter by helicopter and police patrols but no deaths or serious injuries were reported. Government spokesman Stelios Petsas said one abandoned building had collapsed in a western district of Athens and that several other abandoned buildings had suffered serious damages in other parts of the city. “There are no reports of serious injuries … I urge members of the public to remains calm, in Greece we are well acquainted with earthquakes,” he said.
The most powerful quake to hit the Greek capital in the last 20 years came in 1999, when a temblor of magnitude 6.0 caused extensive damage and killed more than 140 people.Gerasimos Papadopoulos, the senior seismologist at the Geodynamics Institute said Friday’s quake was felt across southern Greece.”It had a very shallow depth and that’s why it was felt so strongly,” he said. “It is too early to say whether this was the main earthquake, but there have been aftershocks of magnitude 3.5, 2.5 and 3.2 and that is encouraging. But we need more time and data to have a clear picture.”Earthquakes are common in Greece and neighboring Turkey.The head of the anti-quake protection agency, Efthymios Lekkas, told Greeks to remain calm, BBC News reported. “There is no reason for concern. The capital’s buildings are built to withstand a much stronger earthquake,” he said.
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A new global half distance championship triathlon event for professional and age group triathletes alike, organised by Challenge Family, is to take place in Samorin, Slovakia on June 3, 2017.
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Known as ‘The Championship’, the event will take place at the incredible x-bionic® sphere in Samorin, Slovakia. Jan Masek, CEO of x-bionic® sphere said: “ We are thrilled to host The Championship and are committed to providing triathletes from across the globe with a truly unforgettable experience at x-bionic® sphere.”
For professional athletes the event will carry a minimum €150,000 professional prize purse, and professional athletes will be able to qualify for The Championship via Challenge Family events worldwide.
Professional athletes who finish in the top five at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, or a top three finish in the 2016 World Triathlon Series end of season rankings, 2016 ITU Long Distance Championship, 2016 Ironman World Championship or 2016 Ironman 70.3 World Championship will also receive an invite. Challenge Samorin 2016 will carry double the qualifying slots for the event.
Professional athlete’s qualifying at non-Challenge Family events will be required to validate at a Challenge Family event within the qualifying period, which commences at Challenge Fuerteventura 2016 and concludes at Challenge Rimimi 2017.
Age group athletes will have the opportunity to qualify with a top five age group finish at any Challenge Family event worldwide during the qualification period. Top 3 teams in the male, female and mixed categories in relay events will also qualify at Challenge Family events.s
Three hundred loyalty slots are available to any age group athlete who participates in at least four Challenge Family events within the qualification period. Loyalty spots are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis for athletes who meet the minimum participation criteria. Loyalty slots are not dependent on an athlete’s race time or finish position.
“At Challenge Family we’re driven by the same thing that drives our athletes: the passion to push limits, to perform at our best and to enjoy what we do in style. The Championship embodies this and it is our goal to set the new standard in triathlon,” said Zibi Szlufcik, CEO of the Challenge Family.
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The Championship comprises of a 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21.1km run and is to be an annual event.
A new global half distance championship triathlon event for professional and age group triathletes alike, organised by Challenge Family, is to take place in Samorin, Slovakia on June 3, 2017.
Advertisement
Known as ‘The Championship’, the event will take place at the incredible x-bionic® sphere in Samorin, Slovakia. Jan Masek, CEO of x-bionic® sphere said: “ We are thrilled to host The Championship and are committed to providing triathletes from across the globe with a truly unforgettable experience at x-bionic® sphere.”
For professional athletes the event will carry a minimum €150,000 professional prize purse, and professional athletes will be able to qualify for The Championship via Challenge Family events worldwide.
Professional athletes who finish in the top five at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, or a top three finish in the 2016 World Triathlon Series end of season rankings, 2016 ITU Long Distance Championship, 2016 Ironman World Championship or 2016 Ironman 70.3 World Championship will also receive an invite. Challenge Samorin 2016 will carry double the qualifying slots for the event.
Professional athlete’s qualifying at non-Challenge Family events will be required to validate at a Challenge Family event within the qualifying period, which commences at Challenge Fuerteventura 2016 and concludes at Challenge Rimimi 2017.
Age group athletes will have the opportunity to qualify with a top five age group finish at any Challenge Family event worldwide during the qualification period. Top 3 teams in the male, female and mixed categories in relay events will also qualify at Challenge Family events.s
Three hundred loyalty slots are available to any age group athlete who participates in at least four Challenge Family events within the qualification period. Loyalty spots are awarded on a first-come-first-served basis for athletes who meet the minimum participation criteria. Loyalty slots are not dependent on an athlete’s race time or finish position.
“At Challenge Family we’re driven by the same thing that drives our athletes: the passion to push limits, to perform at our best and to enjoy what we do in style. The Championship embodies this and it is our goal to set the new standard in triathlon,” said Zibi Szlufcik, CEO of the Challenge Family.
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The Championship comprises of a 1.9km swim, 90km bike and 21.1km run and is to be an annual event.
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Dark chocolate has similar performance benefits to beetroot and can give you an extra edge in your fitness training scientists from Kingston University have discovered.
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“Beetroot juice is rich in nitrates, which are converted to nitric oxide in the body. This dilates blood vessels and reduces oxygen consumption – allowing athletes to go further for longer,” explained postgraduate research student Rishikesh Kankesh Patel
The Kingston University team wanted to find out whether dark chocolate could provide a similar boost, as it contains a substance called epicatechin – a type of flavanol found in the cacao bean, that also increases nitric oxide production in the body.
After undergoing initial fitness tests to establish a baseline for comparison, a group of nine amateur cyclists were then split into two groups. The first group was asked to replace one of its normal daily snacks with 40g of a dark chocolate known to be rich in flavanols for a fortnight, while the other participants substituted 40g of white chocolate for one of their daily snacks as a control.
The effects of the athletes’ daily chocolate consumption were then measured in a series of cycling exercise tests in the sports performance laboratory. The cyclists’ heart rates and oxygen consumption levels were measured during moderate exercise and in time trials. After a seven-day interval, the groups then switched chocolate types and the two-week trial and subsequent exercise tests were repeated.
The study, which has now been published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, found that after eating dark chocolate, the riders used less oxygen when cycling at a moderate pace and also covered more distance in a two-minute flat-out time trial.
Mr Patel said the results opened the door for more research which could eventually lead to dark chocolate becoming a staple part of endurance athletes’ diets.
“Both dark chocolate and beetroot juice are known to increase nitric oxide, which is the major mechanism we believe is behind these results,” Patel said. “We found that people could effectively exercise for longer after eating dark chocolate –something that’s not been established before in this way.”
“We want to see whether the boost in performance is a short term effect – you eat a bar and within a day it works – or whether it takes slightly longer, which is what the initial research is showing,” Mr Patel said. “We are also investigating the optimal level of flavanols. At the moment there is not a lot of consistency in flavanol levels in commercially-available chocolate. Once we’ve found the optimal chocolate dose and duration, we’ll compare its effects to those of beetroot juice, and also test the influence of combining consumption of both, as they produce an increase in nitric oxide in slightly different ways.”
Sport analysis lecturer James Brouner, who is an ultra-distance runner in his spare time, said that the research suggested dark chocolate could offer particular benefits to endurance athletes.
“From a performance perspective, making an athlete more efficient can have major advantages in long duration steady-state exercise,” he said. “With so many athletes consuming beetroot juice to achieve this gain but complaining of the palatability, dark chocolate could have a similar effect but with the additional benefit of tasting good too.
“When performing endurance-based activity, being as economical as possible in energy provision is key to enhancing your performance. From our results, the consumption of dark chocolate has altered the participants’ response to the activity and therefore could enhance their endurance performance.”
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Related: Sports nutrition news: omega-3, beetroot, caffeine & nitrates
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Dark chocolate has similar performance benefits to beetroot and can give you an extra edge in your fitness training scientists from Kingston University have discovered.
Advertisement
“Beetroot juice is rich in nitrates, which are converted to nitric oxide in the body. This dilates blood vessels and reduces oxygen consumption – allowing athletes to go further for longer,” explained postgraduate research student Rishikesh Kankesh Patel
The Kingston University team wanted to find out whether dark chocolate could provide a similar boost, as it contains a substance called epicatechin – a type of flavanol found in the cacao bean, that also increases nitric oxide production in the body.
After undergoing initial fitness tests to establish a baseline for comparison, a group of nine amateur cyclists were then split into two groups. The first group was asked to replace one of its normal daily snacks with 40g of a dark chocolate known to be rich in flavanols for a fortnight, while the other participants substituted 40g of white chocolate for one of their daily snacks as a control.
The effects of the athletes’ daily chocolate consumption were then measured in a series of cycling exercise tests in the sports performance laboratory. The cyclists’ heart rates and oxygen consumption levels were measured during moderate exercise and in time trials. After a seven-day interval, the groups then switched chocolate types and the two-week trial and subsequent exercise tests were repeated.
The study, which has now been published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, found that after eating dark chocolate, the riders used less oxygen when cycling at a moderate pace and also covered more distance in a two-minute flat-out time trial.
Mr Patel said the results opened the door for more research which could eventually lead to dark chocolate becoming a staple part of endurance athletes’ diets.
“Both dark chocolate and beetroot juice are known to increase nitric oxide, which is the major mechanism we believe is behind these results,” Patel said. “We found that people could effectively exercise for longer after eating dark chocolate –something that’s not been established before in this way.”
“We want to see whether the boost in performance is a short term effect – you eat a bar and within a day it works – or whether it takes slightly longer, which is what the initial research is showing,” Mr Patel said. “We are also investigating the optimal level of flavanols. At the moment there is not a lot of consistency in flavanol levels in commercially-available chocolate. Once we’ve found the optimal chocolate dose and duration, we’ll compare its effects to those of beetroot juice, and also test the influence of combining consumption of both, as they produce an increase in nitric oxide in slightly different ways.”
Sport analysis lecturer James Brouner, who is an ultra-distance runner in his spare time, said that the research suggested dark chocolate could offer particular benefits to endurance athletes.
“From a performance perspective, making an athlete more efficient can have major advantages in long duration steady-state exercise,” he said. “With so many athletes consuming beetroot juice to achieve this gain but complaining of the palatability, dark chocolate could have a similar effect but with the additional benefit of tasting good too.
“When performing endurance-based activity, being as economical as possible in energy provision is key to enhancing your performance. From our results, the consumption of dark chocolate has altered the participants’ response to the activity and therefore could enhance their endurance performance.”
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Related: Sports nutrition news: omega-3, beetroot, caffeine & nitrates
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Improving strength and stamina
Some of the world’s most acclaimed nutritionists, including Louise Burke of the Australian Institute of Sport and Team Sky’s James Morton, have joined forces to formulate sports-nutrition strategies for training in Olympic year.
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The authors also say there’s credible evidence that the following ergogenic aids improve strength and stamina: caffeine, creatine, sodium bicarbonate, beta-alanine and nitrates. The team highlights the emergence of vitamin D, too, showing that the science suggesting that vitamin D encourages muscle regeneration does add up.
Finally, the team looks at compounds such as epicatechin, nicotinamide riboside, resveratrol, beta-hydroxy beta-methylbutyrate, phosphatidic acid and ursolic acid that may also promote skeletal muscle adaptations to endurance and strength training, though studies of these compounds have largely been limited to rats.
>>> Dark chocolate found to improve endurance
Benefits of organic meet
It’s official: organic meat is better for you than non-organic. A team of 25 researchers undertook a meta-analysis examining how nutritional content varied between organic and non-organic red meats. Though the evidence wasn’t strong enough to verify differences in antioxidant and mineral content, it did show that organic meat contains 47% more omega-3 than the non-organic alternative. This is good news for triathletes, because this polyunsaturated fatty acid has been proven to improve recovery, reduce muscle soreness after exercise and even increase fat metabolism.
Beetroot
First it was claimed that beetroot (rich in nitrates) sent endurance through the roof, then it was labelled a memory enhancer. Now nitrates have been shown to improve neuromuscular function.
A study from Ohio, USA, assessed isometric and dynamic contractions in 14 resistance-trained athletes before and after three days of nitrate supplementation. The nitrate hit resulted in higher mean peak electromyography amplitudes: electrical signals travelled that bit faster. So nitrate supplementation could enhance muscle activation, leading to greater power and speed.
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Healthy eating: sports supplements vs nutritious food
Good carbohydrate nutrition: keep your intake in control
Nutritional supplements lowdown: when and what to take
How to order a healthy takeaway
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