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Effects of Obesity Worse for Teen Girls

Obesity ‘worse for teen girls’ blood pressure’

Obesity has a greater impact on the blood pressure of teenage girls than on teenage boys, a US study has suggested.

High blood pressure is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke in later life.

The study of 1,700 teenagers, presented to the American Physiological Society conference, found girls had three times the risk of higher blood pressure.

A British Heart Foundation spokeswoman said a third of young people in the UK were overweight or obese.

The teenagers, aged between 13 and 17 had their blood pressure measured as part of school district health surveys and health checks. Their body mass index (BMI) – a measure of weight/height ratio – was also recorded.

There are two types of blood pressure which are measured. Diastolic pressure – the lower number in a reading – measures the force on the arteries between heartbeats. Systolic blood pressure, represented by the top number in a blood pressure reading, is the amount of force that blood exerts on blood vessel walls when the heart beats.

High systolic measurements indicate risk for heart disease and stroke.

It was found obese boys were 3.5 times more likely to develop elevated systolic blood pressure than non-obese boys.

But similarly obese girls were nine times more likely to develop elevated systolic blood pressure than their non-obese peers.

Danger ‘highlighted’

The researchers from the University of California say the link may be counteracting the known protective effect of the hormone oestrogen on the heart.

Dr Rudy Ortiz, who led the study, said: “Overall, there is a higher likelihood that those who present with both higher BMI and blood pressure will succumb to cardiovascular complications as adults.

“But the findings suggest that obese females may have a higher risk of developing these problems than males.”

Dr Ortiz said the significant difference between boys and girls could be explained by exercise levels.

“Obese adolescent females participate in 50 to 60% less physical activity than boys in the population surveyed.”

Natasha Stewart, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Here we have yet more evidence highlighting the danger that obesity poses to the health of our children.

“Based on this American study alone, it’s too early to say for sure whether girls are more at risk than boys, but we do know girls tend to be less active than boys which could play a part.

“What is certain is that obesity is clearly putting both boys’ and girls’ health at risk.

“This is a very real problem for lots of families – about a third of young people in England are now overweight or obese.

“Healthy eating and physical activity during childhood is vital to ensure growth, development and a pattern of healthy habits which will carry through into adulthood.”

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Ghana Government Looking at Ways to Reintegrate the Nation’s ‘Witches’

Accra — Ghana’s government is looking at ways to support people accused of witchcraft – mainly women and children banished by their communities to “witches’ camps” in the north – and to reintegrate them in their home villages.

Currently around 1,000 women and 700 children are living in six camps in northern Ghana, where they have found refuge from threats and violence from people in their home communities after being labeled witches and blamed for causing misfortune to others. In most cases the residents were taken to the camps by family members. A small number of men are also banished to the camps as “wizards”, according to Hajia Hawawu Boya Gariba, Ghana’s deputy minister for women and children’s affairs.

Belief in witchcraft is widespread in Africa – and other parts of the world – but in sub-Saharan Africa accusations against children are a recent and growing phenomena, according to a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report released last year.

The camps are located in remote areas and the residents usually live in basic conditions in mud huts without electricity, with limited access to food, water or medicine. Local reports detail women going hungry, residents having to walk kilometres to collect water, and children being unable to attend school. The camps are run by managers – usually the people who founded them – who rely on funding from NGOs and private donations to operate the facilities. Sometimes camp managers also take payment such as food from residents.

While the issue of “witches’ camps” is nothing new – they have been around for decades – recent media reports have spurred the government to action. “As a government we are embarrassed that we have these camps in our country – especially as our human rights record will be scrutinized as far as this is concerned,” Gariba said.

Stigma

A meeting of government officials, accused women from the camps, camp managers, NGOs and doctors in Accra on 8 September considered what action should be taken to improve the situation for camp residents. Gariba said the government was working with the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to improve conditions in the camps by providing food and other support to the inmates, then in the long-term the government would look at repatriating the residents to their home villages and shutting down the camps.

This will include educating communities back home so they understand the banished women are not actually witches, said Gariba, who has also suggested drafting legislation to make it illegal to accuse people of witchcraft.

Akwasi Osei, the chief psychiatrist in Ghana’s national health service, who helped initiate the meeting, emphasized the need for community education. “Right now if you [repatriate accused witches] you can be sure they will be lynched when they go back home,” he said. “You have to prepare [their] society and help them understand that it’s not these women who were the causes of [misfortune].”

A second meeting later this month will firm up a plan of action to eventually disband the camps, Gariba said.

Reluctant to leave

Not everyone thinks trying to close the camps is a good idea. Bilabim Jakper, 60, has lived in the Nabuli “witches’ camp”, Gushegu District, northern Ghana, for the past nine years and says she wants to stay put.

Her husband died 15 years ago, and after that her former husband’s younger brother accused her of witchcraft. “He told family members I attempted to kill him spiritually in the night … Later the whole village heard about the incident and concluded I was a witch. They beat me up and threatened to kill me.”

She escaped and eventually found her way to Nabuli. She said she does not believe her original community would accept her back. “They say I am a bad omen to my family. Here is my home … The people here are my friends and relatives now.”

Alhassan Sayibu, who has managed the Nyani “witches’ camp” in northern Ghana for 10 years since taking over from his father, said the risk of violence against so-called witches and wizards in their original communities was too high and the camps should not be closed.

“If something bad happens they [could] be accused [again]. Three months ago [people in one community] broke someone’s hand after she was sent back there and she was brought back here again. Even men are beaten and returned here,” Syibu said.

Gariba suggested if some inmates were still unable to return after their original communities were educated, the camps could be redeveloped into care centres.

Who are the accused?

Chief psychiatrist Osei said women accused of witchcraft are generally mentally ill – suffering depression, dementia or schizophrenia. Women were also usually easy targets when people were looking for a scapegoat, he said. “Very often [accused witches are] vulnerable women who are probably widowed or childless … or are poor and illiterate,” he said.

Emmanuel Dobson, executive director of Christian Outreach Fellowship, an NGO providing food, medicine and accommodation to people in the witches’ camps, agreed that mainly older, uneducated women were targeted. He also pointed to the patriarchal culture in northern Ghana as a factor in their vulnerability. “When a man marries a woman she becomes his property. The woman’s family then has less authority over the life of the woman, and the woman is left helpless [if] her husband is not able to advocate for her.”

If you’re concerned about issues like this, you’ll love my book “If I Was Famous, I’d Have a Lot To Say”

Copyright © 2011 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
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Campaigning for Africa’s Research and Development

Commentary/Ghana/Africa

It is encouraging to hear these days the constant talks about research and development (R&D) in Ghana’s/Africa’s progress. Propositions of setting up high-level research and training institutes in crucial fields such as green technology, crop improvement, tropical medicine, deforestation, water supply and desertification are becoming daily issues not only in Ghana but in one part of Africa or another.

At issue aren’t the arguments that part of African states’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP) be given to R&D but also how the mass media should appropriately communicate the R&D results to Ghanaians/Africans. You watch CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta or read Time magazine’s Jeffrey Kluger and you get the message. Eugene H. Amonoo-Neizer, chair of Ghana’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), says Accra should set aside a percentage of its GDP for R&D. The Ghana mass media is yet to communicate to Ghanaians and Africans how the CSIR’s intercession in the shea butter industry has enhanced the industry so good that it is now growing faster and may beat Ghana’s ancient major cash crop cocoa.

The initial point is how African governments will think indisputably about R&Ds in their development processes, finance them and appropriate the results for development. African governments need not be told about R&D, the elites know the benefits all too well. In 2005, African Ministers of Science and Technology approved the ambitious Consolidated Plan of Action for Africa’s Science and Technology (CPA, 2008-2013) to beef up the wobbly African science and technology capacity.

Amonoo-Neizer is merely reminding African governments that it is an African Union’s protocol they signed which mandated them to set aside one per cent of their GDP to R&D. Rather, most African governments are concerned with excessive spending on defence. As Africa’s democracy deepens, critical questions are being asked openly about development indicators, most of which qualities are better shaped by R&D. Why are Africans’ life expectancies so low and so many people dying in their 50s? Why are infant mortalities so bad? Why do people think death is caused by witchcraft? Despite abundant water, why are Africans thirsty?

Despite these, the small R&D outcomes aren’t communicated to Africans. Though Ghanaians are one of the leading producers of cocoa, it was only recently that they got to know about the health benefits of cocoa. The Western world, where R&D is high and backed by superb health communications networks such as United States’ produced The Doctors and Dr. Oz, had known about cocoa’s health benefits years before Ghanaians, and they consume cocoa (and use it for other products) more than Ghanaians.

Olugbemiro Jegede, secretary general of the Association of African Universities, in Accra, grumble about the dearth of communications between researchers and the mass media to Africans. “Africa can only develop and tell the world about its research capacity if the media put out put relevant information … The gap between the public and research continues to widen because journalists are not bridging that gap. Africa needs to transform to ensure that whatever we are spending on research translates into results.”

In the absence of poor R&D and inadequate communications, certain cultural inhibitions that need scientific interpretations have been entangling Africans’ advancement continue to grow, and entrapping the supposedly highly educated. In the year 2011, backed by solid scientific research, Ghanaians/Africans should have less to do with issues of witchcraft, false prophets, demons and evil spirits. In 2011, it is still the irrational ancient way, and more so.

Olugbemiro Jegede and Eugene Amonoo-Neizer reveal Africans attempt to raise their R&D profiles regardless of challenges such as lack of funding. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) acknowledges Africans’ new interest in R&D. “A growing number of African countries have realized that, without investment in science and technology, the continent will remain on the sidelines of the global economy and will find it difficult to bring an end to extreme poverty.”

UNESCO sees Africa’s R&D hopeful signs from the fact that recently several African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Burkina Faso have enacted laws supporting biotechnology and bioscience researches. “In 2008, 14 countries (Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Madagascar, Malawi, Morocco, Senegal, Swaziland, Togo, Zimbabwe and Zambia) called on UNESCO to help review their science policy. And, since 2005, six new science academies have been set up in Mozambique, Sudan, Mauritius, Morocco, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, compared to just nine in the entire period from 1902 to 2004,” UNESCO reports.

As Eugene Amonoo-Neizer said, UNESCO has the same opinion that the development of Africa’s science and technology sector faces a number of challenges, starting with budgetary constraints. “Research and development (R&D) attracts considerably less public investment in sub-Saharan Africa than defence, education or health. The proportion of GDP devoted to R&D averages about 0.3% on the continent, seven times less than that spent by industrialized countries on this sector.”

But Eugene Amonoo-Neizer should have used his forum at the Germany-funded Savannah Agricultural Research Institute, in Ghana’s Northern Region, to move beyond African governments’ low funding of R&D. UNESCO will do that for Eugene Amonoo-Neize: “Brain drain, fostered by the absence of measures to promote research and innovation, the gaps in legislation to protect intellectual property and the low wages earned by scientists, constitutes a major concern. In 2009, at least a third of African scientists or those with engineering degrees were living and working in developed countries. The absence of measures to encourage innovation, gaps in the legislation regarding intellectual property rights and low salaries paid to researchers have all contributed to the brain drain.”

In the efforts to resolve these barriers, the battle for the soul of Africa’s research and development will be waged by “rendering science more attractive to pupils in secondary schools and to students.” And yes, a good dose of international scientific cooperation to keep the emerging African scientific soul warm.

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2009 Humanity Day Address, Delivered by Mankind Olawale Oyewum

Sports Complex, University of Lagos on the 17th of March, 2009.

“I love my country better than my family;
but I love humanity better than my country.”

—Sir Francis Bacon.

Nations and organizations of the world, representatives of sects and groups, companies and embassies, cultural troupes and also schools, critics and journalists, humane and supportive colleagues and students from all centres of academic learning in Lagos, fellow lawyers in comprehensive training, students of this and other Universities, all categories of human mortals here present, ladies and gentlemen.

As if helplessly incarcerated in the web of irresistible spiritual manipulations and conjectures, I provided the inspirations behind an annual but profoundly universal celebration for this planet in 2007. The pain of pioneering its first edition on the 17th of March that year the thousands of my students, I and scores of brave others did commitedly bear. This was at Hybrid Academy, Surulere, and Lagos, Nigeria.

The same feat was repeated on the 17th of the March that followed. Then, teeming thousands gathered at Ijeshatedo Community Hall to recite the noble song we had composed for the joy of billions on earth in 2007. I am therefore excited that this same song, which is found relevant in 2009, shall forever remain fitting and befitting to the aching affairs and mood of man’s collective humanity.

As you say Happy Humanity Day to everyone you know and see today, I recommend for history’s ultimate commendation, your differently deep inputs and sacrifices that replay this poetic melody and better sounding song to the global hearing of your beloved planet. Thank you all for believing in, and whole-heartedly supporting the finest cause of humanity through Humanity Day!

That is a noble way to think: Every human life is an essential drop in the severally named but one ocean of God. The sociologists of heaven would accept no classification of man than as man; and that the logic of this reasoning might be noted and respected by all earthlings, God makes children out of parents. Man is not Yoruba, man is man. Man is not Ashanti, man is man. Man is not Hausa, man is man. Man is not Zulu, man is man.  Man is not Ibo, man is man. Man is not Black, or White, man is man. Man is not woman or man, man is man. Man is not literate or illiterate, man is man. Man is not Asian or American, European or African, man is man. Man is neither Rosicrucian nor Buddhist, not Christian, not Muslim, man is supremely man; and the most vicious venom invented by violent vandals in the development and joy of man is discriminatory bias—bias agelessly borne  of ignorance and which selfishness and hate-filled love horrendously prefer.

Theodore Parker say: “The world is my country, all of mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.” Humanity Day represents the birthday of man that men and women who celebrate key individuals and other festivals shall annually make a much-meaning and far-reaching ceremony in affirmation of their worthiness if they are wise.

Man was first the problem of the world before the world turned into problem for man. Every soul is a fragment of beautiful empire in blissful Humania, a place where man’s difficult but attainable perfection gloriously affects the golden hope of the collective man, and that of the whole Universe.

Those who attempt to survive with the facility of evil are as evil as the ruiners of good. For, to consume the immoral dish of evil in prevention of stomach desperation is to manage to escape from a danger which accosts the lives of those whom nature assigns to congratulate one’s victory from the claws of terror.

The liberty of man and his mind is, starting from this day and generation, not only the dream of worthy peoples ideal spiritual consciousness had historical awaken in different parts of the world; it is also the dream of every creature in the biological  mask of man. The enlightening wonders of the Greeks’ superior logics of existence, the organized African powers and ways of doing things, the tenacious initiatives of Great Britain’s years of survival in history, the courageous frontiers of the French and the American revolutions, etc., all have become, for man’s general humanity, the inspirations to be expanded and sincerely acted for the greater good of man. Therefore with our non-discriminatory world-view, let us see that the region is ruinous, which excludes our plant’s good in its development plans, and with similar spirit, let us affectionately frown at any monarch or priest, professor or poet, whose power and thoughts decimate our golden hope as a whole.

Let all politicians know that man’s next political level is the sovereignty of sovereignties inscribed The Earth Republic; and that as they lie on oath and steal nations’ resources and gold, they labour to be slaves in an empire of boundless freedom.

Ideal strength is measured in the context of its noble use. And none in the world is the strongest, no matter how strong in the raw content of any strength.

Call it an empty dream if you choose, but the real future of man that serves as the rail on which eternity shall be wheeled to us is one language in the midst of millions, one identity in the couch of varieties, one currency in the bank of several, one policy from the volumes by congress; and as the wheel of time rolls on the surface of our space, all living and non-living tings shall speak with one accord that “Humanity is the noblest essence of man.”

Empty shall be our zeal,

Squandered shall our passion be,

If humanity is not its reach!

Celebrations make sense only when they constitute some change-importing progress for man. So in Every Seventeenth of March, the book we must write for the good of man, and which must be dedicated to Humanity Day and to you, the world shall read in wholesale, the retail-by-retail details and ways of solving the group problems of man.

But whether or not I am around to run around, to diffuse the inspiration and plan with you in coming years, see it as a failure deserving the worst of shame, to have any 17th of March gone without the spirit of man as man, plus all the meaningful liturgies that fill earth’s joint divinity in harmony with God.

This is a holy agreement, whether formal or not, that our best shall be given to assist the cause of God as creature-captains in the ship of His work. Humanity Day is the link to our general hope as a race. Do not betray, or seem betraying its beauty I plead. This invaluably valuable beauty refuses to be yours unless you serve its all in the service you render to the world.

Every beautiful person, object or idea is manifested and made for purposes that transcend instant consumption. To sit beside in the hope of consuming beauty is to desecrate and be unworthy of the temple of beauty. For, to preserve and be worthy of beauty is to limit the extent of one’s consumption of, and do without preying on beauty made as reverence light for the joy of planet earth. Beauty is beauty only when strongly felt and passionately adored in one’s feelings; feelings that furnish every mortal’s mental outlook with shame-devoid honour, by the standard of posterity’s dispassionate judgment.

The world deserves more knowledge and love than are currently wrought by us. So with its good as our unbounded drive, let us all labour and wait, live and die, that in the future of this race, it shall not matter which truthful path individuals and nations take to get to the treasure that jointly aids.

Beware that evil is real and take kind precautions against being its game. Respect the beliefs and thoughts of others if you think you ought to keep your own. Follow only those motivations and dream that place no barriers on the path of others. Consent to no bid at diminishing your dignity without a heart to hurt. Be hopeful and be whole. To be immortal even as mortals, these are the guides.

As the conclusion of the gratitude note I wrote in appreciation of those who contributed to, and attended the official birth of my Earthbuilders in 2006 reads, “We hope that humanity will endure longer than our knowledge of her endurance has inspired us to think, since the power regulating her affairs is more sustaining than the evils good mortals fear will end her. But in the hope and knowledge of that endurance, we must create a noble volume of benevolent actions for us living as tasks, and for posterity as generations’ assignment.”

Stay strong and live well. May we all witness several of it before we die. Happy Humanity Day to you, and to your loved and hated ones. Happy Humanity Day to the family of man.

Thank you all for listening,

God bless humanity.

NB: Mankind Olawale Oyewumi is a teacher of Language and Literature.He is the father of SAMAFORMISM and the founder of Humanity Day.A writer of substance from Africa,he has two great books to his intellectual credit,SONGS OF THE LAW and IMMORTAL INSTRUCTIONS.He planned and edited A GIFT TO NIGERIA AT FIFTY.He is working on HOPE OF THE BRAVE (a novel) at the moment.

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Ghana Black Stars Coach Stevanovic Insists He Makes His Owns Decisions

Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic has asked Ghanaians to trust in his ability to make the right calls for the Black Stars and insists he is the man solely in charge of player call-ups to the national team.

The Serbian’s decision to leave the in-form Andre Ayew out of the side for the two games against Sudan and Nigeria and the seeming inconsistencies in the criteria for player call-ups was the main subject of an inquisition at his pre-game press conference before the international friendly against Nigeria.

Suggestions that other non-football factors have influenced his recent call ups, a section heavily pursued by sections of the media seems to have riled the Serbian who was facing the Ghanaian media for he first time since the controversial calls.

And he used the occasion to insist that for every game he makes the call on which players to call up based on the opponent.

He claimed the Olympique Marseille midfielder was not fully fit at the time he was finalizing his squad for the two games and and said e was not sure if he will recover in good time. “I think I made a good decision,” he added.

Asked about the continued absence of AC Milan midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng from the side, Stevanovic insisted the door was not shut in the face of any player.

“Door is open for everybody. I don’t forget. Rule for all is discipline. The players believe me and I believe in the team too.”

As the inquisition centred heavily on the decisions he has made as Ghana boss at the expense of the Nigeria game, the Serbian lost his cool briefly, suggesting it was not right to be focussing on absent players after qualification for the Nations Cup.

“I don’t know why after a great game against Sudan to qualify for the Nations Cup we need to walkabout negative things. I take decisions and I stand by the decisions,” he adds.

Kickoffghana

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Vitamins Linked With Higher Death Risk

….in older women

By Michelle Roberts Health reporter, BBC News

When it comes to vitamins, it appears you could have too much of a good thing, say researchers who report a link between their use and higher death rates among older women.

Experts have suspected for some time that supplements may only be beneficial if a person is deficient in a nutrient.

And excess may even harm, as the study in Archives of Internal Medicine finds.

All of the women, in their 50s and 60s, were generally well nourished yet many had decided to take supplements.

Multivitamins, folic acid, vitamin B6, magnesium, zinc, copper and iron in particular appeared to increase mortality risk.

The researchers believe consumers are buying supplements with no evidence that they will provide any benefit.

Harms v gains

They are quick to stress that their study relied on the 38,000 US women who took part in it recalling what vitamins and minerals they had taken over the previous two decades.

And it is difficult to control for all other factors, like general physical health, that might have influenced the findings.

But they say their findings suggest that supplements should only be used if there is a strong medically-based cause for doing so because of the potential to cause harm.

“Based on existing evidence, we see little justification for the general and widespread use of dietary supplements,” Dr Jaakko Mursu of the University of Eastern Finland and his research colleagues said.

Less is more

In the study, iron tablets were strongly linked with a small (2.4%) increased death risk, as were many other supplements. The link with iron was dose-dependent, meaning the more of it the individual took, the higher their risk was.

Conversely, calcium supplements appeared to reduce death risk. However, the researchers say this finding needs more investigation and they do not recommend that people take calcium unless advised to by a doctor in order to treat a deficiency.

Drs Christian Gluud and Goran Bjelakovic, who review research for the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews to evaluate best evidence, said: “We think the paradigm ‘The more the better’ is wrong.”

They say dietary supplementation has shifted from preventing deficiency to trying to promote wellness and prevent diseases, and caution: “We believe that for all micronutrients, risks are associated with insufficient and too-large intake.”

Helen Bond of the British Dietetic Association said some people, like the elderly, might need to take certain supplements. For example, vitamin D is recommended for people over the age of 65.

But she said that generally, people should be able to get all the vitamins and minerals they needed from a healthy, balanced diet.

She said some took supplements as an insurance policy, wrongly assuming that they could do no harm. “But too much can be toxic and it is easy to inadvertently take more than the recommended daily amount.”

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UK to Reduce Aid to Anti-Gay Regimes in Africa

Joseph Ngug

London — African countries which persecute gays will have their aid cut, International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell has said.

Mr Michael was quoted by the Britain’s Mail on Sunday saying that already his country has cut aid to Malawi by £19million after two gay men were sentenced to 14 years hard labour.

Mr Mitchell, one of Mr Cameron’s closest allies, is also threatening to impose further aid ‘fines’ against Uganda and Ghana for hardline anti-gay and lesbian measures.

The policy was disclosed after Mr Cameron defended his decision to legalise gay weddings when he addressed last week’s Conservative Party Conference.

It also comes at a time when the divorce of Kenya gay couple in London, Charles Ng’ang’a Wacera and his civil partner, Daniel Chege Gichia were said to be seeking divorce, two years after their internationally debated wedding.

Mr Wacera had told the Nation in an interview last week that the reason why his marriage to Gichia broke down was a campaign of negative publicity by media houses back home in Kenya and in social forums.

The cut in aid to Malawi came after two gay men were convicted last year under the country’s rigidly imposed ban on homosexuality.

Pop stars Elton John and Madonna joined an international outcry when Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 26, and Steven Monjeza, 20, received a 14-year sentence for getting engaged.

But a Judge in Malawi was quoted saying in his judgement: “‘Malawi is not ready to see its sons getting married to its sons.”

The Mail reported that Uganda also faced the threat of an aid ‘fine’ by the UK unless it abandons plans to extend the death penalty to homosexuality.

Three weeks ago, the newspaper said, Mr Mitchell protested to Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who has claimed ‘European homosexuals are recruiting in Africa’ and who believes gay relationships are ‘against God’s will’.

Uganda is due to receive £70 million from British taxpayers in 2011.

“Again during a visit to Ghana earlier this year, Stephen O’Brien – Mr Mitchell’s deputy – told President John Evans Atta Mills that Britain would cut its aid unless he stopped persecuting gays,” The Mail claimed.

However, the threats to cut the aid to Ghana appeared to have little effect. Even though Ghana gets £36million a year from the UK, her President has vowed to ‘institute measures to check the menace of homosexuality and lesbianism.

And one of his regional ministers called for the ‘immediate arrest of all homosexuals’.

A spokesman for Mr Mitchell said: “The Government is committed to combating violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in all circumstances, in this country and abroad. We take action where we have concerns.”

“We now allocate funds every three months, rather than every year, so that we can review a country’s performance, for example on human rights, and take swift action when governments fall short. We only provide aid directly to governments when we are satisfied that they share our commitments to reduce poverty and respect human rights.”

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Firebrand Rick Perry Pastor Robert Jeffress Says He’s Not Jeremiah Wright

The Texas megachurch pastor who made waves at this year’s Voter Values Summit is not backing down.

One day after describing Mormonism as a cult and saying presidential candidate Mitt Romney is not a Christian, pastor Robert Jeffress defended his remarks on CNN.

“I am not a Jeremiah Wright on the fringe, making fanatical statements,” he said.

The pastor characterized his controversial statements as an honest response to a reporter’s question about his personal views.

“When somebody asks me a theological question about Mormonism, I have a responsibility to tell the truth,” he said. “Mormonism has never been considered a part of evangelical historic Christianity.”

He said he would vote for Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama in the general election, but that he would rather support a Christian for the GOP nomination. That doesn’t make him a bigot, he explained.

“To religious people, religion matters,” he said. “Those of us who are evangelicals have every right to prefer and support a competent Christian over a competent non-Christian.”

Jeffress endorsed Texas governor Rick Perry at the event, introducing him as “a proven leader, a true conservative, and a committed follower of Christ.”

While Perry has said he doesn’t share Jeffress’ views of Mormonism, a recent poll suggests that many pastors do. Three out of four pastors agree that Mormons are not Christians, according to this survey of 1,000 pastor, representing dozens of denominations.

But some pastors are coming to Romney’s defense. Rev. Myke Crowder, a senior pastor in Utah, released a statement condemning Jeffress.

“As an evangelical, born-again, Bible-believing Christian, and a pastor with more than 25 years’ experience living with and ministering among a majority Mormon population, I find the comments by Pastor Jeffress unhelpful, impolite and out of place,” he said. “Insulting Mitt Romney adds nothing to the conversation about who should be president. We’re picking the country’s chief executive, not its senior pastor.”

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