High blood pressure, smoking take deadly toll on middle-aged Chinese

Heart disease, cancer and stroke are now the top killers of middle-aged people in China, fueled by high blood pressure and smoking, which have developed alongside the communist country's economy, according to one of the largest surveys of its kind.

The research into the major causes of death in adults found that over the past 45 years, China has undergone a huge health transition. Infectious disease has been replaced by the same chronic killers that plague the West.

The findings from the study of nearly 170,000 Chinese men and women over age 40 showed that about two-thirds of the 20,033 people who died during that time were killed by heart disease, cancer or stroke. The conclusions were based on medical data collected in 1991 with followup evaluations in 1999 and 2000.

Of those deaths involving people in their 40s to mid 60s - prime working years - Chinese mortality rates from each of the three categories topped deaths among the same age group in the United States, according to the study. The results are published in today's New England Journal of Medicine .

TBILISI, Georgia - City officials in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi voted Wednesday to rename a street in honor of President Bush, who was met by enthusiastic crowds here in May but also escaped an apparent attempt on his life.

"George Bush is doing a lot for the development of democracy in the world and is helping Georgia with its democratic transformation. And we are proud that one of Tbilisi's streets will carry his name," said Mayor Gigi Ugulava.

The measure passed 29-12, with opposition lawmakers in the assembly voting against the measure because they said it rewarded Bush for supporting President Mikhail Saakashvili - both politically and through generous U.S. financial aid.

"No one denies that the United States is helping Georgia a lot. But I believe that we should have named one of Tbilisi's streets after Thomas Jefferson," said the head of the opposition Labor Party, Georgy Gunava.

ORANJESTAD, Aruba - A court ruled Wednesday that three suspects in the disappearance of a U.S. teenager can remain free without conditions - overturning an earlier decision that restricted their travel.

The appeals court ruled there was a "lack of sufficient grounds and serious suspicions" to keep the restrictions on Joran van der Sloot and two Surinamese brothers, Deepak and Satish Kalpoe, the Aruban prosecutor's office said.

The three young men remain suspects in the May 30 disappearance of Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Holloway, 18, vanished on a high school graduation trip to the Dutch Caribbean island. Extensive searches have failed to find any trace of her in Aruba.

Van der Sloot, 18, and the Kalpoe brothers - the last people seen in public with the American - were released from jail on Sept. 3 on the condition they remain available for questioning.

Van der Sloot, who is Dutch, has left for college in Holland, where he traveled with the court's permission. The Kalpoe brothers were barred from leaving Aruba.

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