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New Zealand-based Tongan doctor Viliami Puloka and his research team has found about 35 per cent of Tongans in Aotearoa are participating in bowel cancer screenings. Photo: Supplied New Zealand-based Tongan doctor Viliami Puloka and his research team at the University of Otago has found about 35 percent of Tongans in Aotearoa are participating in bowel cancer screenings. This compares to 58 percent of the overall New Zealand population. Lead researcher Dr Puloka from the University's Department of Public Health said participants highlighted the importance of a "by Tongan, for Tongan" approach to screening. "Many Tongans are facing unnecessary deaths from bowel cancer because, while the programme exists, it isn't easily accessible to them," he said. "A Tongan-centric approach is essentia...

By Jonathan Allen and Brad Brooks, Reuters A Texas judge has temporarily blocked the execution Robert Roberson. Photo: Ilana Panich-Linsman / Innocence Project / AFP A Texas state judge has temporarily blocked the execution of a man who had been scheduled to become the first person executed in the United States for murder attributed to shaken baby syndrome, the court said. Travis County 200th Civil District Court Judge Jessica Mangrum issued the temporary restraining order just hours before Robert Roberson was to be put to death, according to Mangrum's office. The US Supreme Court earlier in the day had denied Roberson's request for a stay of his execution, which had been scheduled to take place at 6pm Thursday local time (midday Friday NZT). A spokesperson for the Texas Department o...

By Rich McKay, Reuters Colt Gray, left, and father Colin Gray. Photo: AFP PHOTO / BARROW COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE A grand jury has indicted a 14-year-old alleged shooter and his father who bought him the gun in the September slaying of two students and two teachers at a Georgia high school, affirming initial charges brought by prosecutors and adding numerous other criminal counts. The Barrow County grand jury indicted Colt Gray on a total of 55 counts, including four counts of malice murder, four counts of felony murder, plus aggravated assault and cruelty to children. Grand jurors indicted his father, Colin Gray, 54, with 29 criminal counts, including second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and adding reckless conduct to prosecutors' initial charges. In bringing second-degree ...

By Rachel Rasker, ABC Photo: 123rf If you had a health check-up recently, you might have been told that you're underweight, overweight or obese based on your body mass index or BMI. But the BMI was never intended as a diagnostic tool. At best, experts have called it "inaccurate"; at worst, it's been branded "nonsense". Yet the BMI has become embedded in our healthcare system, with those scoring too high or low excluded from accessing essential services such as medications and surgery. Now, there's a new formula on the block. The body roundness index (BRI) is gaining traction as a possible replacement for the BMI, with a recent study of more than 30,000 US adults finding a correlation between BRI and mortality risk. But health professionals have their hesitations, so don't expect to s...