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SAN FRANCISCO — Google fired back at Apple on Tuesday with a pair of new smartphones, a “convertible” tablet and other gadgetry ahead of the year-end holiday shopping season.

The California tech giant unveiled two new Nexus smartphones with enhanced features including fingerprint sensors and improved cameras aimed at the high end of the market dominated by Apple and Samsung.

Google said it was partnering with South Korea’s LG for its 5.2-inch screen Nexus 5X, and with China’s Huawei for its “phablet” sized 5.7-inch Nexus 6P.

Both handsets will be sold unlocked, with Google hoping to capitalise on a trend in the US and other markets away from smartphone subsidies as part of long-term contracts.

“We care about making sure there are affordable, high quality smartphones for users around the world,” said Sundar Pichai, the Google product chief who is slated to head the company’s largest unit under a reorganisation announced earlier this year.

The phones, which aim to showcase the Google Android operating system, were available for ordering in the United States, Britain, Japan and Ireland, with more countries to be added next week, Google said as it unveiled the phones at a San Francisco media event.

The Nexus 5X starts at $379 for US customers and the 6P starts at $499.

Marshmallow powered

The devices will feature the new Android operating system known as Marshmallow, which allows for fingerprint sensors for unlocking and other features including Android Pay.

The phones are priced below the premium devices from Apple such as the new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus, and similar offerings from Samsung.

With the Nexus-branded devices, Google is able to control much of the hardware and software in a manner similar to Apple, which has its own operating system.

“We try to push the next generation of computing forward; to do that we build hardware,” Pichai said of Google making its own branded devices.

The new software allows for a voice-commanded Now On Tap virtual assistant to be summoned by holding down the home screen button.

Google makes Android mobile software available free to device makers, but makes its Nexus line to showcase capabilities of the operating system.

While Android is used on some 80 per cent of smartphones worldwide, many devices use older versions of the software with carriers often slow to release upgrades.

Convertible tablet

The Pixel C is the first tablet built ground-up by Google and is seen as an alternative to the iPad Pro unveiled this month and Microsoft’s Surface.

The “C” in the name stands for “convertible” because it features an optional keyboard that doubles as a cover and connects magnetically for laptop-computer style use.

“We think the Pixel C tablet and keyboard experience really unlocks ways to play and be productive across one device,” Google’s Andrew Bowers said while showing off the new hardware.

Pixel C tablet will be available in time for the year-end holidays at a starting price of $499, with the keyboard priced at $149, according to Google.

Google unveiled an upgraded version of its popular Chromecast device that plugs into television screens to stream content wirelessly from the Internet, with smartphones or tablets serving as controls.

The company also introduced Chromecast Audio, a pendant sized device designed to plug into stereo speakers for streaming music, podcasts, YouTube or other audio content through home sound systems.

“Now you have a simple way to amplify your experience to the biggest devices in the home,” said Rishi Chandra of the Chromecast team.

Spotify tunes in

Chandra announced that the mobile app of music-streaming service Spotify will work with Chromecast Audio, which avoids Bluetooth connectivity hiccups.

Chromecast Audio promised to provide a low-cost way for people to outfit homes with Internet “smart” stereo systems, according to Gartner analyst Brian Blau.

“It is an interesting play on having your music anywhere you want,” Blau said.

Both new Chromecast devices kept the $35 price of the earlier version.

Gartner analyst Werner Goertz saw the new Google offerings as aimed mostly at the consumer market, and playing catch-up with devices launched by rivals.

“The major innovation was around the Pixel,” Goertz said after the presentation.

“Everything else was pretty much catch-up. I was hoping for a little more disruption.”

SAO PAULO — For almost his entire 47 years, Paulo Henrique Machado has been confined to a hospital ward in Sao Paulo — yet the Brazilian isn’t letting that get him down.

The toys, bright posters and adventure books around the hospital room, not the respirator tubes, tell Machado’s story as he embarks on the pilot for what he hopes will become a popular children’s TV show.

Machado’s mother died at childbirth and shortly after he contracted polio, condemned from then on to stay at the Hospital de Clinicas in Brazil’s biggest city.

Yet like the superheroes that he admired so much, Machado was able to defeat his apparently crushing problems.

“When I was a child, I had to make the hospital my kindergarten. I played, I went into other rooms,” he recalled. “At that time there was an epidemic of infantile paralysis in Sao Paulo. There were seven of us in the room and today only two of us remain.”

Now his love of playing is being translated into the creation of an animated cartoon series called “Brincadeirantes”, which is a combination of the words in Portuguese for “playing” and “person in a wheelchair”.

Across from Machado’s bed lies his great friend Eliana, the inspiration for the character of Leca in the pilot for the “Brincadeirantes” idea, which so far has got more than 62,500 visits on YouTube.

She’s also an artist and the author of two books, using her mouth to hold the pen while she draws.

Machado still has some movement in his arms which allows him to create 3D drawings on his computer for the pilot episode, which was crowd financed to the tune of 120,000 reais (about $30,000).

The story follows seven children in wheelchairs who are determined to keep having fun.

“’Brincadeirantes’ is dedicated to children,” he said. “We want to demonstrate that a boy in a wheelchair is no different. Quite the opposite — he must play and explore his world to understand the difficulties lying ahead.”

Hard road

The bright cartoon colours combine with darker themes reflecting the hard times Machado has faced. 

Based on real experiences, the pilot shows Leco — Machado’s animated self-portrait — going to an amusement park for the first time.

“This really happened. It was when I was 10. Every time I got close to one of the attractions, the person in charge would give me a toy. But what I wanted wasn’t a toy, it was to play,” he recalled.

The story also pays homage to the five other children in the original ward who didn’t make it.

“Suddenly your best friend is gone,” he said, remembering his childhood friends’ deaths. “I wanted to go with him because I couldn’t see any other way forward. The pain is like a wound and yet then it starts to scar over and you are stronger.”

The gift of a computer in the 1990s launched Machado on a new road. He has learned graphic design and joined a huge online community, including some 5,000 friends on Facebook.

“Technology is constantly changing. I love the film ‘Avatar’ because it’s about someone who is paralysed and is able to enter another body thanks to technology. Getting more freedom gives you courage.”

Movie buff

Movies have been an escape for Machado ever since he first went to a movie theatre when he was 29 and watched Hollywood action blockbuster “Independence Day”.

The pleasure and emotion he gained from watching films then prompted him to try his own hand. One which inspired him in particular was “The Sessions”, which shows a polio victim “exploring his capacity to have an intimate life, to feel pleasure despite his condition.”

“Our bodies cannot move but the rest is the same,” Machado said.

There have been other motivators, including Formula One legend Ayrton Senna, who came to visit in hospital, as did Brazilian animated film director Carlos Saldanha. They’ve helped Machado think big, even in the tiny physical confines of his hospital world.

“Now my dream,” Machado says, “is for ‘Brincadeirantes’ to become a television series and then to go on to the big screen.”

Anything else?

“I haven’t been to the Moon yet!” he answers, laughing.

Launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show earlier this month, Audi’s latest gambit into the crucial compact executive saloon segment is lighter, sportier, more comfortable, advanced and efficient and better looking than ever. Using more lightweight material, new suspension design and high-tech infotainment and driver assistance systems, the fifth generation Audi A4 also features class-leading aerodynamics.

Raising the bar for new segment entrants like the Jaguar XE and old hand compact executives like the BMW 3-series alike, the new Audi A4 is initially offered with three prodigiously efficient turbocharged four-cylinder engine choices. The front-drive entry-level 1.4-litre version tested impressed with much nimbler handling and more confidently flexible highway performance than was expected.

Crisp and clean

With sharper more defined lines, the new A4 looks clean, crisp and more elegantly sporty than before. Using a hexagonal rather than trapesoidal design, a new grille emphasises its width and is framed by more heavily browed, squinting headlights with sharply angular LED elements. Big gaping side intakes and defined sill lines also lend a sportier look.

Stylishly upmarket but not overstated, the A4’s relatively level and elegant waistline provides an airier cabin ambiance, while a big footprint and visually shorter front overhang lend a confident posture. With body design, mirrors, wheel wells and engine underbody cover honed to manage airflow, the A4’s best-in-class CD0.23 aerodynamics pays dividends in terms of efficiency and noise reduction. 

Built using more lightweight aluminium and high strength steel content in addition to other weight savings, the new A4 is up to 120kg lighter than its predecessor — depending on model — but is nonetheless slightly larger and roomier. Additionally, the new A4’s use of aluminium suspension components further reduces unsprung weight for improved ride comfort and handling ability.

Mid-range muscle

Small, efficient and prodigiously powerful, the entry-level A4’s 1.4-litre turbocharged direct injection engine develops 148BHP at 5000-6000rpm and even more usefully, 184lb/ft throughout 1500-3500rpm. The lightest A4, the 1,320kg 1.4 TFSI sprints through the 0-100km/h benchmark in just 8.7 seconds and tops out at 210km/h. It returns frugal 5.3l/100km fuel efficiency and low 126g/km CO2 emissions on the combined cycle.

Quick-spooling and more responsive than expected from low-end with little detectible turbo lag, the A4 1.4 TFSI moves off-the line with its driven front wheels digging tenaciously into the tarmac under its low-mounted in-line engine. Smooth and refined, the 1.4 TFSI benefits from a wide and generous torque band, and confidently keeps pace with fast moving European highway traffic.

Best in its muscular mid-range and at the cusp of its maximum power band, the 1.4 TFSI’s talents lie in its versatile high torque band, where on-the-move flexibility and responsiveness were effortlessly confident even with three passengers and luggage. With slick-shifting 6-speed manual gearbox — rather than optional automatic — with intuitively light clutch pedal pick-up, the A4 was especially engaging.

Comfort and agility

Developed with new lightweight aluminium five-link, front and rear, suspension with upper links integrated directly into the bodywork for enhanced stiffness, the Audi A4 benefits from enhanced comfort, control and responsiveness. Allowing for more optimal tuning, the A4’s new suspension is set-up for comfortable absorption of longitudinal forces and is simultaneously stiff on a lateral plane, for sportier driving. 

Along with a more responsive, direct and sporty electric-assisted steering system, the new A4’s more sophisticated five-link suspension greatly mitigates its front-biased in-line engine ahead of the front axle and front-wheel drive configuration and weighting. Nimbler and tidier than previous front-drive Audis, the A4’s handling was agile and turn-in crisp, especially with the lighter and less powerful 1.4-litre engine.

More eager and seemingly lighter in front, the A4 responsively and precisely tucks into corners, with agility aided by electronic torque vectoring, which subtly brakes the inside wheel through corners. Composed, taut and agile through corners, the A4 is also superbly stable at speed. Fitted with standard fixed-rate dampers and 225/50R17 tyres, it was confident, composed and comfortable over imperfections and settled on rebound.

Sophisticated suite

Smooth riding and highly refined inside, the A4’s cabin features a very well-adjustable and ergonomic driving position and good visibility. Driven in a lower specification version with smart breathable cloth seats, the A4 is also available with quality leathers, woods and other materials. Build quality is thorough and cabin design and layout is crisp, fresh, elegant, uncluttered and user-friendly.

Well-equipped in entry-level spec with pop-up screen infotainment system with voice command and Bluetooth connectivity, the A4’s optional equipment list is exhaustingly extensive. Of numerous available features, the A4’s integrated 3D navigation and virtual cockpit with configurable instrument cluster screen are particularly noteworthy. Also notable are the A4’s smartphone integration capabilities, wireless charging and optional detachable tablet-style rear entertainment screens. 

With a thoroughly comprehensive suite of advanced driver assistance and safety, the A4’s technological tour de force is its optional Tour package. Utilising radar, navigation and other systems, Tour package systems can detect, prevent or mitigate front city collisions and through turns, anticipate and prepare for corners, and self-drive in traffic jams with automatic lane-keeping self-steering up to 65km/h on well-developed roads.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.4-litre, in-line turbocharged 4 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 74.5 x 80mm

Compression ratio: 10:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive

Top gear/final drive ratios: 0.67:1/3.56:1

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 148 (150) [110] @ 5000-6000rpm

Specific power: 106.1BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 112.1BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 184 (250) @ 1500-3500rpm

Specific torque: 179.2Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 189.4Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 8.7 seconds

Top speed: 210km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 6.8/4.5/5.3 litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 126g/km

Fuel capacity: 54 litres

Length: 4726mm

Width: 1842mm

Height: 1427mm

Wheelbase: 2820mm

Track, F/R: 1572/1555mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.23

Overhangs, F/R: 880/1026mm

Headroom, F/R: 1039/953mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 480/965 litres

Unladen weight: 1,320kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Suspension: Five-link

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs/discs

Tyres: 225/50R17

Is retirement hazardous to your health?

It’s an intriguing question in light of a new study that finds senior citizens who work are in better health than their counterparts who don’t.

Researchers from the University of Miami and their colleagues examined data on more than 83,000 Americans who participated in the National Health Interview Survey between 1997 and 2011. All of them were at least 65 years old when they were interviewed, and 13 per cent of them were still working part time or full time. The majority of these workers — 61 per cent — held white-collar positions.

Compared to people with white-collar jobs, those who were unemployed or retired were 2.75 times more likely to report their health as “poor” or “fair”. (The other options were “good”, “very good” or “excellent”.) People with blue-collar jobs, service-industry jobs or who worked on farms rated their health as about the same as their white-collar peers.

The survey also rated health using a measure called the Health and Activities Limitation Index, or HALex, which includes factors like whether people need help taking care of themselves or have limitations in the kind of work they can do. The 80 per cent of people with the highest HALex scores were considered to be in good shape, compared with the 20 per cent of people who had the lowest scores.

The researchers found that unemployed and retired senior citizens were nearly six times more likely than the white-collar workers to have a low HALex score. Again, other types of workers scored about the same as white-collar workers.

Older Americans with jobs also fared better on more objective measures of health. For instance, the National Health Interview Survey included information on whether people had ever been diagnosed with serious conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Compared to those with white-collar jobs, those who were unemployed or retired were 49 per cent more likely to have a history of at least two of these health problems.

By this measure, blue-collar workers were in even better health than white-collar workers: They were 16 per cent less likely to have two or more of these health problems.

Finally, interviewers asked whether people needed any assistance or special equipment to do things like stand, walk or climb stairs. Unemployed and retired seniors were 88 per cent more likely than white-collar workers to have multiple functional limitations, researchers found. In addition, the odds of having two or more limitations were 16 per cent lower for blue-collar workers and 18 per cent lower for service workers.

“Being unemployed/retired was associated with the greatest risk of poor health across all health status measures, even after controlling for smoking status, obesity, and other predictors of health,” the study authors concluded.

The results don’t show that working past retirement age is what made senior citizens with jobs healthier than their non-working peers. Indeed, the authors acknowledged that the reverse is often true: Health problems force some people to drop out of the workforce.

Still, understanding the health benefits associated with working past age 65 could motivate businesses to find ways to accommodate older workers, even if they have some limitations, researchers wrote.

The report was recently published in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

Azazeel

Youssef Ziedan

Translated by Jonathan Wright

London: Atlantic Books, 2013

Pp. 312

Youssef Ziedan’s novel, “Azazeel”, has many layers, each of them fascinating in its own right. At the narrative level, it is the diary of a 5th century monk named Hypa, who undertakes a number of significant journeys, spiritual and temporal. Born in Upper Egypt along the Nile, the disintegration of his family leads him to migrate to Alexandria, then

Jerusalem, Syria, north of Aleppo, and Antioch. Other layers of the story involve history, culture, philosophy, psychology, love, religion and spirituality.

Hypa’s descriptions of the people, landscapes, cities and customs he encounters weave a fascinating tapestry of life in a time which is largely forgotten. It is a multilingual and multicultural world peopled by Greeks, Arabs, Kurds and Turks, speaking Syriac (Aramaic), Greek, Arabic, Coptic, etc. It is also a world in transition and turmoil as Christianity advances at the expense of paganism, only to be embroiled in internal doctrinal squabbles.

While all the information which Hypa imparts on ancient history points to continuity in human civilisation and spirituality, part of the Christian clergy is hell-bent on a total rupture with everything associated with paganism and Judaism, even if it means persecuting innocent people, denying previously acquired scientific knowledge, and banning and burning books.

The deepest layer of the story is spiritual/psychological, concentrated in what Hypa’s diary reveals about his inner world, for he is not a self-satisfied monk. With the exception of a few episodes, he records his memories in a trembling, anxious voice. Though gifted in theology, poetry and medicine and meticulously observing the rules of monastic life, he is ever doubtful of himself and his faith, and only periodically achieves the serenity to which he aspires. He is tormented by his own lapses though they are few and far between.

His anxiety is all the more acute since he believes that it is Azazeel — the devil — pushing him to record his life story. Indeed, Azazeel does pop up from time to time as he writes, spicing the narrative with his biting sarcasm and providing a bit of comic relief. These frequent appearances make it harder for Hypa to deny that Azazeel is not an external force, but a part of himself. 

The writing process only increases Hypa’s agony: “Writing raises within us storms we have stifled, digs our memories out of their hiding places and brings to mind the most atrocious of happenings. In distant, receding periods of my life my faith has consoled me and filled me with joy. But today gloom surrounds me on every side and tempests rage within me… ” (p. 36)

He shudders as he recalls the terrible cruelties he has witnessed inflicted on persons, including his loved ones, who did not conform to prevailing doctrine; he agonises over his own cowardice that blocked him from saving them. As strife within the church increases, his dismay often makes him physically ill. “The past was leaping ahead of us from its hiding place, and the claws of hatred were about to dig into our bare backs.” (p. 196)

Hypa’s problem is that he is a normal human being, sincere in his faith but with many questions to the dogmas being imposed; he sympathises with the views of those who are being persecuted, and keeps the forbidden religious books hidden under his bed. He loves music that is frowned upon, and falls in love with a woman — forbidden for a monk. To him, the essence of Christianity is love, self-sacrifice and forgiveness, but he sees the Church going in another direction. Still, he remains paralysed, caught in a dilemma: “Jesus the Messiah began his great mission among the people, not between walls amidst monks and priests. There was real life around him, yet why should we die before death comes? But I am safe in the church, after I was homeless…” (p. 115)

Besides enriching our view of the past and telling a mesmerising story, Ziedan mounts a powerful critique of fundamentalisms of all types, and shows the dire consequences of intolerance. Hypa’s story graphically illustrates how religion can be interpreted selectively in order to serve the interests of the power-hungry. In Hypa’s time, it was Christian bishops calling for holy war and persecuting so-called heretics in a way very similar to the Daesh today, though Ziedan’s awareness of these dangers predates recent events. (The Arabic original of “Azazeel” was published in 2009.)

Only upon finishing the book will one understand why Ziedan named it after Azazeel rather than Hypa. “Azazeel” is available at Readers/Cozmo.

Researchers have identified a troubling side effect of a widely prescribed class of antidepressants — they may make some patients more likely to commit violent crimes.

Data from Sweden show that young adults between the ages of 15 and 24 who had filled prescriptions for the drugs were more likely to be convicted of a homicide, assault, robbery, arson, kidnapping, sexual offence or other violent crime when they were taking the medications than when they weren’t. The researchers found no link between antidepressant use and criminal activity for older patients.

The findings, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, build on other evidence that the antidepressants — known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs — work differently in the brains of adolescents and adults. For instance, several studies have shown that the drugs actually boost the risk of suicidal thoughts in children, teens and young adults but not in older adults.

The link between SSRIs and crime is less clear. One analysis of trends in the US found that the “great American crime decline” that began in the 1990s coincided with the emergence of SSRIs, including Prozac, Celexa, Paxil and Zoloft. But reviews of safety data submitted to the Food and Drug Administration have found that SSRI use was associated with an increased risk of violent behaviour.

SSRIs help cells in the brain communicate with one another by making better use of a chemical called serotonin. This chemical is necessary for sending a message from one brain cell to another. Scientists believe that with more available serotonin, the brain circuits that control mood stand a better chance of functioning properly.

To get a clearer picture of the potential risks associated with SSRIs, researchers from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the University of Oxford in England turned to national data from Sweden, where the government keeps track of prescriptions that are filled as well as convictions for crimes.

In Sweden, the criminal justice system treats people as adults once they turn 15. So the researchers examined records for nearly 8 million Swedes who were at least 15 years old in 2006. They found that more than 850,000 of them had been prescribed an SSRI sometime between 2006 and 2009. That amounted to 14.1 per cent of all Swedish women and 7.5 per cent of all Swedish men.

Among all of the people who got prescriptions for SSRIs, 1 per cent of them were convicted of committing some type of violent crime between 2006 and 2009. The researchers focused on these 8,377 people and compared their criminal activity when they had an SSRI prescription to the periods when they did not.

The initial analysis found that the risk of a violent crime conviction was 19 per cent higher when people were taking the antidepressants than when they weren’t. The increase in risk was essentially the same when the researchers factored in the influence of other psychotropic drugs.

When they broke down the numbers according to age, they found that the risk was concentrated among the youngest group of people. For adults between the ages of 15 and 24, the risk of being convicted of a violent crime was 43 per cent greater when they were taking an SSRI than when they weren’t.

Then the researchers considered the men in this age group separately from the women. Among men, taking SSRIs was linked with a 40 per cent increased risk of being convicted of a violent crime; among women, the risk increased by 75 per cent, according to the study.

The study doesn’t prove that the SSRIs were responsible for the observed increase in criminal violence among teens and young adults, the researchers said. However, it does add to evidence that “the adolescent brain may be particularly sensitive to pharmacological interference,” they wrote.

Even if it turns out that the antidepressants do make young people more likely to commit violent crimes, does that mean doctors should stop prescribing them? The answer is not obvious, the researchers wrote. Dialing back on SSRIs may cause violence to go down, but then suicides may go up. “From a public health perspective,” they wrote, it may be better to keep on using the drugs “as long as potential risks are disclosed”.

Have you ever noticed how we all have a set face when we look at our reflection in the mirror? It mostly oscillates between a grim tight-lipped glance and a piercing in depth stare. There are very few of us that sport a “glad to be reacquainted with oneself” smile. My mother was one of those rare ones who always smiled while looking into the mirror.

It was amazing how she did it and I remember the routine so clearly. She would comb her long wavy hair with her back turned towards the dressing table. Raising her arms she twisted it around expertly into a chic knot and then casually turned towards the mirror to adjust the small tendrils that had floated out. After patting them into place she always smiled. If I was watching and our eyes met, she smiled some more. It was a very spontaneous gesture but I felt deeply connected with her whenever I experienced it, as if an invisible happy wave emerged from her and disappeared into me.

My own mirror image was nothing spectacular all these years. I generally wore a concerned look and was seldom motivated enough to spend any extra time reflecting on my reflection. I combed my hair with grim determination, more intent on untangling the knots that appeared daily. Not being very good at styling it into any shape I generally left it hanging straight down my shoulders. The entire process took less than a minute with the result that I never even felt any need of buying a dressing table.

But surprisingly, for the last few days I seem to be radiating happy waves in all directions. In fact while walking past a mirrored shop window yesterday I saw an achingly familiar reflection of a lady who looked so much like my mother that I stopped dead on my tracks. It took me a moment to realise that the woman smiling broadly at me was my own image. I was flabbergasted at how closely I had started resembling my dear mum.

The reason I was bursting with happiness was because the young man, who had been dating our daughter for sometime, had proposed to her. As a parent, I always wondered at how I would react to the news of someone asking our daughter to marry him. There would be joy tinged with sadness I had contemplated. Joy for new beginnings and sadness for the definitive end of a childhood, as she once knew it.

I got the news just as I was boarding my flight. “Mom can you call me”, read the message from our daughter. She was holidaying in the Caribbean while I was going to India. Queuing up for my seat I calculated the time difference between our countries in my head, before calling her.

“Guess what mom?” she said, picking up on the first ring.

“Are you ok?” I asked.

“Dev asked me to marry him,” she laughed.

“Oh,” I almost dropped the phone.

“And I said yes,” she went on.

“Wow,” I said.

“He went down on one knee and proposed to me,” she gushed.

“Wow,” I repeated.

“The waiter thought something was wrong and ran to our table,” she giggled.

“Oh,” I said.

“Then he started clapping. The entire restaurant was clapping,” she confided.

“Wow,” I said looking at my smiling reflection in the airplane window.

“Mom? Are you okay,” she asked.

“Congratulations,” I said, laughing like my mother.

A three-year-old American girl has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes — a condition linked to obesity — making her one of the youngest people ever detected with the disease.

Type 2 diabetes used to be known as “adult-onset” because it is most common among the middle-aged and elderly, but in the last two decades increasing numbers of children have succumbed, due to poor diets and lack of exercise.

Details of the case were recently presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Stockholm by Michael Yafi, director of paediatric endocrinology at the University of Texas, Houston.

Since there is no global registry, it is not possible to say definitively that the girl is youngest patient ever but Yafi said his own research had not revealed any other cases in this age group.

“I’m sure there probably are others but they are either undiagnosed or not reported yet,” he told Reuters.

Diabetes is a growing problem worldwide with the number of diabetics estimated to be 387 million in 2014 and forecast to soar to 592 million by 2035, according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).

“This is a global problem,” Yafi said. “Type 2 diabetes is no longer limited to adults. Now when I see any obese child I screen the patient for type 2 diabetes.”

For the Hispanic toddler who presented at his Houston clinic, the main symptoms were excessive urination and thirst, although her past medical history was unremarkable. However, both her weight of 35 kilos and her body mass index were in the top 5 per cent of all children her age.

Tests quickly showed she had high blood sugar levels but she tested negative for antibodies that would have signalled type 1 diabetes, the auto-immune version of the disease that is usually diagnosed in childhood in which the body does not produce insulin.

She was put on a diet and given a liquid version of the drug metformin, since she had trouble swallowing tablets, and after six months she had lost weight and was able to come off treatment.

Yafi said the case showed that type 2 diabetes could be reversed in children by early diagnosis, appropriate therapy and changes in lifestyle.

IDF estimates that diabetes costs healthcare systems worldwide more than $600 billion a year and sales of diabetes treatments are big business for drugmakers such as Novo Nordisk , Sanofi and Eli Lilly.

TORONTO — No other actor has covered all angles of the war on drugs — its tragedies, its violence, its farces — more than Benicio del Toro.

It’s a story that has followed the Puerto Rico-born actor from the start: One of his first credits was the 1990 NBC miniseries “Drug Wars: The Camarena Story”.

He’s played a recovering drug addict (“21 Grams”) and one not so recovering at all (“Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”). He starred as Pablo Escobar in last year’s “Escobar: Paradise Lost”. And the critical pinnacle of his career came in his Oscar-winning performance as an honest Mexico police officer in Steven Soderbergh’s “Traffic”.

In Denis Villeneuve’s muscular, grim thriller “Sicario”, del Toro finds himself back on the other side of the border, playing a mysterious mercenary joined with a CIA task force covertly pursing a Mexican drug lord.

“I don’t know how it comes about, but all I can say is I’m an actor in a movie this time,” says del Toro. “Movies borrow from their times. These stories are out there in the newspapers.”

“Sicario”, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival in May and had its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, has already drawn raves for del Toro’s terse gravitas as a shadowy man known only as Alejandro. He says little but has a weighty presence. “Nothing will make sense to your American ears, and you will doubt everything we do,” he warns Emily Blunt’s less-experienced FBI agent.

“I’ve been in movies where I think it’s going to work, and it doesn’t. I’ve been in movies where I thought it wasn’t going to work and it did,” del Toro said in a recent interview. “And I tell you this one was one of those that I didn’t know.”

Villeneuve, the Quebecois director of “Prisoners”, was more confident.

“He knows a lot about that world being involved in movies and coming back with people who were involved in drug wars,” says Villeneuve. “For me, he was a source of information.”

Cinematographer Roger Deakins likens the weary-eyed del Toro to Robert Mitchum. Villeneuve would often cut del Toro’s dialogue, stripping the part down as he realised the actor did more with less.

“It was very simple. I just cut 90-95 per cent of his dialogue. Most of the time it was: ‘Say nothing. Action!’” says Villeneuve, chuckling. “He’s someone who’s very radical about authenticity. When he doesn’t feel something, he cannot act. It has to come from a deep emotional understanding.”

That del Toro, whose family moved to Pennsylvania when he was 12 years old, has frequently found — or been found by — drug-war tales is somewhat surprising to him. But it’s an issue he says he feels passionately about.

“I’ve done my best not to repeat myself,” he says. “I’ve done many characters that live in that world, the drug wars and the drug world, but this one had a different angle.”

This string of films, from “Traffic” to “Sicario”, only make up a small part of del Toro’s varied credits. He has played Che Guevara (“Che”), been a regular in the Marvel universe as The Collector and will always be beloved for his mumbling Fred Fenster in “The Usual Suspects”. He was also recently cast to play the villain in Colin Trevorrow’s “Star Wars: Episode VIII”.

“It’s a cool part. It’s a cool director that I’m really excited to work with,” says del Toro. “You’ve got to build it up from zero, the character. But it’s going to be exciting. Hopefully it will work.”

It’s not lost on the 48-year-old del Toro, though, that the strife and pain caused by the war on drugs has now spanned his entire career. He believes the legalisation of drugs deserves consideration.

“It’s time to evaluate the tactics,” he says, noting that Colombia is now much safer. “It’s real scary what’s happening in Mexico.”

The car that virtually invented the luxury super saloon back in 1963, the Maserati Quattroporte has always been a rare, exotic and sporty alternative in a segment renowned for its conservatism. Larger and more spacious and efficient than ever, the current Quattroporte aims to achieve a greater presence in the full-size luxury segment.

Swift, smooth and sporty even in entry-level guise, the enlarged Quattroporte is complemented by a smaller Ghibli executive saloon sister in a dual-track approach to expanding market presence. Meanwhile, the more luxurious new model trades its predecessor’s thirsty but seductive high-revving V8 engines for more power and fuel efficient Ferrari-sourced twin-turbo V6 and V8 engines.

Swooping lines

Beautifully seductive, the previous Pininfarina-designed 2003-2012 Quattroporte set the design bar high. Longer, wider, taller and designed squarely for the full-size luxury segment rather than with one foot in the executive saloon segment like its predecessor, the current model however well incorporates its greater size with a similar silhouette and more aggressive fascia.

Reminiscent of the large and stately 1979-90 Quttroporte generation, the current incarnation of the Italian luxury car emphasises the segment’s key attributes. Luxuriously refined, spacious and with high equipment levels, the new Quattroporte features an indulgently long twin-bulge bonnet and flowing wavy profile leading to wide rear haunches, with a gracefully rising and descending roofline.

Glamorously indulgent, the Quattroporte strikes an assertively athletic yet sophisticated figure, with its squinting headlights upturned edge trailing to a curvy front wing, and side ports, swooping lines and voluptuous Coke-bottle hips. Exotically moody, the Quattroporte’s broad hungry vertical slat grille features the brand’s evocative Neptune’s trident badge.

Swift and smoth

Powered by a 3-litre twin-turbo direct injection V6 engine, the Quattroporte develops 325BHP at 5000rpm and 406lb/ft throughout a broad 1750-4500rpm range. Swift even in entry-level guise as driven, the Quattroporte completes the 0-100km/h dash in 5.6 seconds, and tops 263km/h, but returns 9.8l/100km fuel efficiency and 228g/km CO₂ emissions on the combined cycle.

With quick-spooling turbos providing healthy low-end response, the Quattroporte suffers little off-the-line turbo lag, and delivers an abundant and early supply of flexible mid-range torque. Building up on a crest of mid-range muscle, the power builds with a smooth urgency and peaks early in the rev range for effortless accessibility and overtaking versatility.

Confidently quick acceleration on inclines, the Quattroporte’s versatility is aided by an 8-speed automatic gearbox driving the rear wheels, with a broad variety of ratios to eke its best performance and efficiency. Quick and smooth shifting, the Quattroporte’s gearbox features adjustable driving response modes, including manual sequential shift mode, through steering column-mounted paddle shifters.

Fluent footwork

Luxuriously comfortable on highways, the quick Quattroporte is a continent-shrinking luxury car. Riding on a sophisticated double wishbone suspension with adaptive two-mode electromagnetic Skyhook dampers, the Quattroporte is refined, forgiving and stable at speed yet composed through corners. Well-suited for lumps, bumps and imperfections, Skyhook adapts to road textures with seamless fluency, despite low profile tyres.

Driven on Jordanian roads, the Quattroporte is smooth, supple, refined, sure-footed and alert on highway, ever-ready to fluidly absorb imperfections or change of direction, and is settled on vertical rebound. Fluent and supple on straights, the Quattroporte’s Skyhook suspension tightens up for through corners to provide tautly poised body control for its 1,860kg mass.

With its smaller V6 engine positioned back in its long bonnet, short front overhang and near perfect weight distribution, the Quattroporte is balanced through snaking switchbacks, and more agile and eager than its size and weight would suggest. Tidy into corners, the Quattroporte’s long wheelbase provides good rear grip, and predictable and progressive at the limit characteristics.

Spacious and stylish

With light but accurate steering, comfortable, supportive and well-adjustable driving position and highly refined cabin ambiance, the Quattroporte provides a welcoming and relaxing ambiance, shielding one from noise, vibration and harshness. Indulgently luxurious and elegantly designed and finished, the Quattroporte’s cabin, features high-quality woods and leathers and extensive optional personalisation possibilities.

Spacious, sumptuous and airy inside, the Quattroporte’s cabin is accommodating in front and rear, with passengers benefiting from generous leg, hear and shoulder room. Featuring clear instrumentation, logical layouts and a user-friendly and intuitive touchscreen infotainment system, the Quattroporte also features tasteful colours, materials and design, in addition to plenty of refined textures.

Well-equipped, the Quattroporte comes with hard-working and effective six-piston Brembo front brakes, adaptive bi-xenon headlights, LED running lights, front and rear parking sensors, dual-zone climate control, hill hold function and many other standard features. Keyless entry, power sunroof, remote car start, rear side window blinds, rear view camera, satellite navigation and other features are optional equipment.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 3-litre, in-line, twin-turbocharged V6 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 86.5/84.5mm

Compression: 9.7:1

Valve-train: 24-valve, direct injection, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 8-speed, automatic, RWD, limited-slip differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 325.5 (330) [243] @5000rpm

Specific power: 109.3BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 175BHP/tonne

Torque lb/ft (Nm): 406 (500) @1750-4500rpm

Specific torque: 167.8Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 268.8Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 5.6 seconds

Top speed: 263km/h

Fuel consumption, highway/city/combined: 7.2-/14.2-/9.8 litres/100km

CO₂ emissions, combined: 228g/km

Fuel capacity: 80 litres

Length: 5262mm

Width: 1948mm

Height: 1481mm

Wheelbase: 3171mm

Track, F/R: 1634/1647mm

Overhang, F/R: 968/1123mm

Kerb weight: 1860kg

Weight distribution F/R: 50:50

Luggage volume: 530 litres

Suspension, F/R: Double wishbone/multi-link, 

Dampers: Adaptive electro-magnetic

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated discs, 360/350mm, 6-/4-piston

Stopping distance, 100-0km/h: 34 metres

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Turning circle: 11.8 metres

Tyres, F/R: 245/45R19/275/40R19