A study published this week has bad news for those that like a lie-in. Sleeping for more than nine hours a night when combined with sitting for more than seven hours during the day could be bad for your health, according to the Sax Institute, Australia. 

Although the effects of sleep and sitting have been studied previously, this is the first study to look at how the combination of these lifestyle factors might act together.

To assess the effect of these factors the research team looked at health behaviors of more than 230,000 Australians taking part in the 45 and Up Study, Australia’s largest ongoing study to investigate the health of the country’s population as it ages.

The team looked at behaviors already known to increase the risk of death and disease, such as smoking, high alcohol intake, poor diet, and lack of exercise, and added in sitting too much and sleeping too much or too little, to see how various combinations of these behaviors could together affect a person’s risk of premature death.

The results of the study, published in the journal PLOS medicine, found that the combination of too much sleep and too much sitting was even riskier for health when combined with a lack of exercise, creating a ’triple whammy’ effect, and making a person four times more likely to die earlier than a person without these lifestyle habits.

Another “triple whammy” threat found was smoking, plus high alcohol intake, plus lack of sleep (less than 7 hours a night), which also increased the risk of early death by 4 times as much.

In addition the study also found other harmful behavior combinations could double the risk of early death, including:

Commenting on the results the study’s co-author Professor Adrian Bauman said, “The take-home message from this research—for doctors, health planners and researchers—is that if we want to design public health programs that will reduce the massive burden and cost of lifestyle-related disease we should focus on how these risk factors work together rather than in isolation,” with senior researcher Dr Melody Ding adding, “Our study shows that we should really be taking these behaviors together as seriously as we do other risk factors such as levels of drinking and unhealthy eating patterns.”

LE BOURGET (France): Nearly 200 nations adopted on Saturday a global pact to fight climate change, calling on the world to collectively cut and then eliminate greenhouse gas pollution but imposing no sanctions on countries that don’t.

Loud applause erupted in the conference hall after French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius gavelled the agreement. “This is huge,” tweeted US President Barack Obama. “Almost every country in the world just signed on to the #ParisAgreement on climate change....”

In the pact, the countries committed to limiting the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans could absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100.

In practical terms, achieving that goal means the world would have to stop emitting greenhouse gases altogether in the next half-century, scientists say. Achieving such a reduction in emissions would involve a complete transformation of how people get energy, and many activists worry that despite the pledges, countries are not ready to make such profound and costly changes.

DUNEDIN (AFP) - A low-flying seagull was blamed for interfering with the speed gun on Friday when New Zealand’s NeilWagner bowled a ball clocked at 160 kilometres (99.4 miles) per hour -- one of the quickest on record.

The surprise missile from Wagner, whose normal bowling speed is in the low 130s, lit up social media before the speed radar’s operators said the reading may have been affected by a passing bird.

The left-arm seamer’s ball came on a blustery day at Dunedin’s University Oval when he was bowling to Sri Lanka’s Dinesh Chandimal on day two of the first Test.

However, members of the television production team operating the speed radar said a bird had probably caused an inaccurate reading from one of two monitors at the ground.

The alternative reading was 133kph, more in keeping with Wagner’s usual pace.

If Wagner did in fact send down a ball at 160kph, he would have been just a shade off Mitchell Starc’s Test world record of 160.4, set last month in Perth.

The fastest recorded delivery is 161.3 by Pakistan’s Shoaib Akhtar, nicknamed the "Rawalpindi Express", against England in a 2003 World Cup limited-overs match.

KABUL: The head of Afghanistan's main intelligence agency resigned on Thursday over disagreements with President Ashraf Ghani, laying bare divisions that have hindered efforts to fight the growing Taliban insurgency.

The resignation of Rahmatullah Nabil follows a series of setbacks in recent months including the fall of the northern city of Kunduz to the Taliban and an insurgent raid on Kandahar airport in the south on Tuesday in which 50 civilians, police and security personnel were killed.

Already without a permanent defence minister due to conflicts within Ghani's national unity government, the country now has no spy chief just as the Kandahar raid underlined the Taliban's ability to inflict serious damage on its forces.

Nabil, who strongly opposed Ghani's moves toward a rapprochement with Pakistan, said in his letter of resignation from the National Directorate of Security (NDS) that there had been “a lack of agreement on some policy matters” in recent months.

He said the president had imposed unacceptable conditions on the way he did his job, with “repeated verbal summons” that put him under impossible pressure and forced his resignation.

Relations between Ghani and the NDS had been strained since at least the fall of Kunduz, which caught security forces badly unprepared and which an inquiry last month blamed on poor leadership.

Later, Ghani dismissed some NDS officials, including the provincial chief of the agency, who he said had neglected their duty to defend Kunduz. The Taliban held the city for several days before government troops could regain control.

ISLAMABAD: UN Women, the United Nations entity for gender equality and the empowerment of women, named Muniba Mazari as Pakistan’s first female goodwill ambassador to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

As the goodwill ambassador for UN Women Pakistan, Muniba will dedicate her efforts towards the empowerment of women and girls, and would serve as an advocate for UN Women’s “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality” and other campaigns.

Muniba Mazari is a writer, artist, singer, activist and a motivational speaker. She is also a paraplegic, having lost control of both legs in a car accident.

Through her vibrant paintings, she expresses in bold colours the strength of her own personality. Her purpose is to inspire others to live their lives to the fullest.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture also called for a halt to acrackdown on lawyers and activists.

It issued its report after questioning a large Chinese government delegation as part of a two-day hearing.

The report gives Beijing one year to report back on progress made in implementing key areas of the UN Convention against Torture.

"The Committee remains seriously concerned over consistent reports indicating that the practice of torture and ill-treatment is still deeply entrenched in the criminal justice system, which overly relies on confessions as the basis for convictions," the committee said.

At the hearing to review China's record on torture, held for the first time since 2008, China denied it held political prisoners and said torture was banned, to derision from dissidents.

The committee, made up of 10 independent experts, said 200 lawyers have been rounded up in China since July, of which at least 25 remain in detention.

It also voiced alarm over the high number of deaths in custody.

When one committee member voiced concern over the use of interrogation chairs, in which prisoners are forced into painful postures for hours on end, the Chinese delegation insisted they were needed to keep detainees from injuring themselves, the report said. They also denied the existence of secret detention facilities.

On Thursday, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying defended China's record in a daily news briefing, saying "in recent years China has been promoting the rule of law and has made great efforts in all regards, including on opposing torture".

Arsene Wenger believes that this could be “a lucky year” for Arsenal in the Champions League after the Gunners completed “the greatest escape”.

Arsenal required a victory by two goals or more, or by scoring three or more and simply winning, against Olympiakos on Wednesday in order to secure qualification from their Champions League group.

A 5-1 defeat to Bayern Munich last month left Arsenal dead last in their group, needing two wins from two in order to finish runners-up behind the Germans.

An Olivier Giroud hat-trick sealed what Wenger described as “the greatest escape”, with the Arsenal boss now looking ahead to the draw for the last 16.

“We’ll see who we get next round, I’ve not even looked at that,” Wenger said.

“We were in escape mode before the game and we needed something special. I told you that it would be the greatest escape. When you do that, it creates a positive memory for the rest of the season. Maybe it is a lucky year for us in the Champions League. You never know.

“When we look at who we lost [to injuries] in the last three weeks – Coquelin, Cazorla and Sánchez – and we came here with all the other players who were already out, not many people gave us a chance.

“But we are a real team. We are very close in the dressing room and you could see this tonight. We needed the perfect performance and it was one of the best we have given in Europe.”