Wednesday, May 26, 2010 @ 9:42 PM Author: clarinda
1st News Article: Vienna is best place to live
The Austrian capital 'retains the top spot as the city with the world's best quality of living,' British consultancy firm Mercer said in its 2010 Quality of Living Survey. -- PHOTO: INTERNET PICTURE
VIENNA - VIENNA is the best city in the world to live while war-torn Baghdad is the worst, a survey said on Wednesday, putting Europe at the top of the rankings with Asia and Africa trailing.
The Austrian capital 'retains the top spot as the city with the world's best quality of living,' British consultancy firm Mercer said in its 2010 Quality of Living Survey. Swiss cities Zurich and Geneva followed in second and third places respectively, while Vancouver in Canada and Auckland in New Zealand were joint fourth.
For its annual survey, Mercer assessed the quality of living in 221 cities worldwide, measuring them against New York with an index score of 100 points as the base city. Vienna, which also took the number one spot last year, scored a total 108.6 points, while Baghdad scored the lowest with just 14.7 points.
European cities continued to dominate the top 25 cities in the survey, Mercer said, while Canadian cities also had a strong showing. Among cities in Britain, London ranked number 39, Birmingham 55 and Glasgow 57. In the United States, the highest ranking entry was Honolulu in 31st place, followed by San Francisco in 32nd.
Singapore was the top-scoring Asian city in 28th place, followed by Tokyo in 40th. Baghdad ranked 221st, remaining at the bottom of the list. It was followed by Bangui in the Central African Republic, N'Djamena in Chad, Khartoum in Sudan and Tbilisi in Georgia.
Mercer also awarded cities eco rankings based on water availability and drinkability, waste removal, quality of sewage systems, air pollution and traffic congestion. Calgary in Canada came top of this list, followed by Honolulu in second place and Ottawa and Helsinki in joint third place. Port-au-Prince in Haiti ranked at the bottom of this table, Mercer said. -- AFP
Singapore: My home country
Birmingham: Current city I am residing in
Calgary: The city that I will transit in en-route to Los Angeles
2nd News Article: Fast food still calorie-laden
A pancake breakfast providing 1,380 calories, a single-serve pizza that packs two days' worth of sodium and a pasta dish swimming in four day's worth of fat top a list published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). -- PHOTO: KEVIN TAN
WASHINGTON - LAWS requiring US restaurant chains to list calorie counts have not stopped them from offering unhealthy meals that pack in calories, fat and salt, a group that encourages healthy food said.
A pancake breakfast providing 1,380 calories, a single-serve pizza that packs two days' worth of sodium and a pasta dish swimming in four day's worth of fat top a list published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
The group, which 'outs' the calorie, fat and sodium counts of America's favorite foods every year, said it looked for evidence that restaurants are trimming back their offerings in the face of new laws and political pressure. They found little.
'One might think that chains like Outback Steakhouse and The Cheesecake Factory might want to lighten up their meals now that calories will be required on their menus, courtesy of the health care reform law signed in March,' Michael Jacobson, executive director of the non-profit CSPI said.
'But these chains don't promote moderation. They practice caloric extremism, and they're helping make modern-day Americans become the most obese people ever to walk the Earth,' he said in a statement.
More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. -- REUTERS
SOME of the meals listed by the CSPI:
* Bob Evans' Cinnamon Cream Stacked & Stuffed Hotcakes has 1,380 calories and 34 grams of saturated fat or 'about what you'd get in two country-fried steaks and four eggs', the CSPI said.
* California Pizza Kitchen's Tostada Pizza with Grilled Steak has with 1,680 calories, 32 grams of saturated fat, and 3,300 mg of sodium.
* Five Guys' Bacon Cheeseburger has 920 calories and 30 grams of saturated fat. Its large French fries has 1,460 calories 'about triple the calories of a large order of fries at McDonald's,' the CSPI said.
* P.F. Chang's Double Pan-Fried Noodles Combo has 1,820 calories and 7,690 milligrams of salt.
* The Cheesecake Factory's Pasta Carbonara with Chicken has 2,500 calories and 85 grams of saturated fat. -- REUTERS
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