Teen with Down syndrome climbs Everest

Fifteen-year-old Elisha “Eli” Reimer has become the first person with Down syndrome to climb Mount Everest. Eli reached Everest’s base camp in Nepal in mid-March after 10 days of hiking. The trek was a total of 70 miles.

“One of the reasons that this trek really made sense is because living with a disability, that experience mirrors climibing mountains,” Justin Reimer, Eli’s father and fellow climber, told CBSNews.com. “That imagery is really meaningful in the midst of all of this.”

Teens most guilty of underestimating calories in fast food, study reveals

Fast-food items may have way more calories than some of us — especially teens — think, according to new research.

“We found that people, especially teens, are consuming more calories than they think they’re getting when they eat fast food,” lead researcher Dr. Jason Block, of the Harvard Medical School/Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, said in apress release.

The study, which was published in BMJ on May 23 and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, showed that teens underestimate the number of calories in their meals by as much as 34 percent. But they’re not alone: Parents of school-age children underestimated fast food meal calories by about 23 percent, and adults by as much as 20 percent, Block pointed out.

In total, 1,877 adults, 1,178 adolescents (aged 11 through 20) and 330 school-aged children (3 to 15) were surveyed at 89 fast-food restaurants in four cities in the New England area. A quarter of the study participants underestimated their meals caloric value by at least 500 calories.

Adults on average ordered an 836-calorie meal, but they thought what they were eating contained 175 fewer calories. Teens bought about 756 calories per meal, but they underestimated by 259 calories on average. Children had meals that were 733 calories on average, but underestimated by 175 calories.

Different food chains also brought different results. People who ate at Subway were more likely to underestimate their calories than those who ate at McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, Wendy’s, and Dunkin’ Donuts. Subway adult and teen customers were 20 and 25 percent less accurate respectively than those who ate at McDonalds. Block feels that this may be due to a “health halo” provided by Subway’s marketing.

“These findings tell us that many people who eat at fast-food restaurants may not be making informed choices because they don’t know how many calories they’re consuming,” said Block. “Having the information is an important first step for anyone wanting to make changes.

Another study, published online May 23 in the American Journal of Public Health, showed that kids who eat fast food at least twice a week were 50 percent less likely to use caloric and nutritional information than children who ate at these establishments less frequently.

Researchers surveyed 721 American youth between 9 and 18 about their eating habits, and asked them for their age, gender, height, weight and how often they ate fast food. Kids who never ate fast food (about 8 percent of the group) and kids who didn’t realize there was caloric information available (about 20 percent) were excluded.

Overall, 42.4 percent of the group said they used the nutritional guides if they were available, but those who ate at fast food restaurants at least twice a week were 50 percent less likely to use the information than those who ate the food less frequently.

Girls were 80 percent more likely to use the calorie information than boys, and obese kids were 70 percent more likely to report using the guides than normal weight youth.

“Our findings are important given the high prevalence of obesity among youth and the adverse health effects associated with obesity. It is encouraging that a large number of youth, particularly youth who are obese, reported using the calorie information. This may have potential to lead to improved food and beverage choices as a way to manage weight, although more research is needed to assess whether youth know how many calories they should consume in a day given their activity level,” lead author Dr. Holly Wethington, a researcher with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, said in a press release.

“Public health practitioners, school nutrition services, retailers, and other interested groups can consider implementing complementary education programs to improve youth’s understanding of calorie information to hopefully make calorie labeling part of a successful weight management strategy.”

Brampton man charged in cold-case sex assault of a nine-year-old girl

Toronto police have charged a man in a cold-case sexual assault of a nine-year-old girl that occurred over twenty years ago.

The assault took place in February 1991, after the accused allegedly approached the victim and her five-year-old sister in the lobby of their apartment near Warden Avenue and Danforth Road.

The man then took the two girls in his car. He left the younger sister at a store on Victoria Park Avenue, and drove the victim to a secluded area where he sexually assaulted her, police say.

He then dropped off the victim at a restaurant on Danforth Road.

Shane Daniel Garry, 45, of Brampton faces eight charges including sexual assault, kidnapping and forcible confinement.

The suspect was identified using DNA evidence collected around the time of the incident, said Sex Crimes Unit Detective Ali Ansari. He would not confirm how a match had been made.

“I can’t tell you how we caught up with him,” he said. “It’s a solved case now, it’s before the courts.”

Ansari said police believe the suspect may have other victims.

Woolwich attack provokes anti-Muslim backlash across UK

The murder of soldier Lee Rigby has provoked a backlash of anti-Muslim anger across the UK, including the attacking of mosques, racial abuse and comments on social media.

How the world views Canada’s influence

If the world was a high school cafeteria, Canada would probably be sitting at a table with the athletes and cheerleaders, suggests a new global popularity poll.

Canada ranked second in a new BBC poll measuring how people view 25 countries around the world.

Fifty-five per cent of respondents viewed Canada’s influence in the world as “mainly positive” - second only to Germany.

The fewest amount of respondents - only 13 per cent - thought it was “mainly negative.”

Despite negative international press relating to the oilsands and seal hunt, the poll suggests Canada’s reputation only seems to be improving: Canada has gone up two percentage points in the positive category since 2012.

Germany topped the list as the most favourably-viewed country, bumping down Japan, which dropped to the fourth spot in the rankings.

The U.K. rose to the third position, propelled by favourable views in the wake of the London 2012 Summer Olympics.

“With ratings of most countries declining this year, it appears that frustration with governments in general is growing, as nearly five years on from the financial crisis they seem incapable of pulling their economies out of the slump,” Sam Mountford, director of GlobeScan, one of the group’s that conducted the poll, wrote in the report.

“But the ‘Olympics effect’ looks to have allowed the U.K. to buck this negative global trend.”

On the other end of the spectrum, countries like Iran, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel were overwhelmingly viewed as “mainly negative.”

The poll also shows that views of China and India have taken a serious hit since 2012. China’s positive rating fell eight points to 42 per cent and its negative rating grew by eight points to 39 per cent.

Similarly, India’s positive rating fell six points to 34 per cent and its negative rating grew eight points to 35 per cent.

The director of polling group PIPA attributes the decline to slowing growth rates and humanitarian issues.

“They seem to be falling back to earth with slowing growth rates and a perception of widespread corruption,” Steven Kull wrote in the report. “The scandals surrounding the treatment of women in India may also have had an impact on this year’s findings.”

The poll was conducted for the BBC by GlobeScan and PIPA, who interviewed more than 26,000 respondents face-to-face and by phone between Dec. 10, 2012 and April 9, 2013. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.0 to 4.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20, depending on the country.

A lot of messages about revealing my face 

Here you go

Not that handsome  :/