May 19,2013

Why women live longer___Women live longer than men partly because their immune systems age more slowly, a study suggests. As the body's defences weaken over time, men's increased susceptibility to disease shortens their lifespans, say Japanese scientists. Tests of immune function could give an indication of true biological age, they report in Immunity & Ageing journal. The immune system protects the body from infection and cancer, but causes disease when not properly regulated. The Japanese study set out to investigate the controversial question of whether age-related changes in the immune system could be responsible for the difference in average life expectancy between men and women. Prof Katsuiku Hirokawa of the Tokyo Medical and Dental University and colleagues analysed blood samples from 356 healthy men and women aged between 20 and 90. They measured levels of white blood cells and molecules called cytokines which interact with cells of the immune system to regulate the body's response to disease. In both sexes, the number of white blood cells per person declined with age as expected from previous studies. However, closer examination revealed differences between men and women in two key components of the immune system - T-cells, which protect the body from infection, and B-cells, which secrete antibodies.

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7 mercy petitions sent back to new Home Minister for consideration

New Delhi 22 Nov (babushahi.com bureau): After execution of 26/11 terror attacker Ajmal Kasab� execution fourteen mercy pleas filed by death row convicts are still hanging with President Pranab Mukherjee has referred back seven of these, including Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru�s plea, for consideration by the Union Home Ministry. However, the officials call it a normal procedure for the President to refer back all pending mercy petitions for consideration whenever a new Home Minister takes charge as Sushilkumar Shinde took over as the Home Minister on August 1. Apart from the seven mercy petitions referred back to Shinde, five other are also being processed by the Home Ministry. Two other are pending for consideration by the President, making it a total of 14 pending petitions. The referring back of seven petitions to the Home Ministry aimed to seek opinion of Shinde in all seven cases. All these seven mercy petitions were earlier sent to the President, incorporating opinion of the state government concerned and the Home Ministry�s recommendations, for final disposal. In case of Afzal Guru, the Delhi Government and the Home Ministry had recommended that the mercy petition filed by his wife be rejected by the President. In May 2011, the President had rejected the mercy petition of Davinder Pal Singh Bhullar. As per the 2011 report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), around 400 convicts, including 10 women, face death penalty across the country.