Multivitamin study offers mixed results

There’s no evidence that multivitamins do healthy adults much good – but the supplements don’t seem to do much harm either, a federal panel said Wednesday.

Concluding a three-day conference convened by the National Institutes of Health, the panel called for further studies of multivitamins.

Still, the panel found that some individual vitamins or minerals appeared to show specific benefits.

One well-designed trial suggested that antioxidants and zinc might slow the progression of age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. Calcium and vitamin D supplements seem to have an effect on fracture risk and bone density in post-menopausal women.

The panel endorsed consumption of folic acid by women of childbearing age to prevent congenital deformities of the nervous system.

Washington

White House offers more NSA info

After five months of resistance, the Bush administration provided new information to Congress on the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping Wednesday, hoping to help the architect of the controversial operations secure a new job as CIA chief.

Gen. Michael Hayden, who ran the NSA before becoming the nation’s No. 2 intelligence official last year, faces what will undoubtedly be the toughest public questioning of his government career at today’s Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing.

Hayden has come under fire in recent months for his stewardship of surveillance programs that he and others in the Bush administration say have helped stop terror attacks.

For the first time on Wednesday, the administration briefed the full House and Senate intelligence committees on the NSA’s no-warrant surveillance program.

Atlanta

Gay-marriage ruling will be appealed

Georgia will appeal a judge’s ruling that struck down its voter-approved ban on gay marriage, and the governor said Wednesday he will call a special legislative session if the state Supreme Court doesn’t rule on the issue soon.

“I think the people spoke overwhelmingly. I think the people of Georgia knew exactly what they were voting for,” Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue said.

The constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage was approved by 76 percent of the state’s voters in November 2004. On Tuesday, however, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Constance C. Russell ruled the measure violated the Georgia Constitution’s single-subject rules for ballot questions.

The ballot measure addressed issues other than gay marriage, including civil unions and the power of Georgia courts to rule on disputes arising from same-sex relationships.

Virginia Beach, Va.

Robertson warns of possible tsunami

In another in a series of notable pronouncements, religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says God told him storms and possibly a tsunami will hit America’s coastline this year.

Robertson has made the predictions at least four times in the past two weeks on his news-and-talk television show “The 700 Club” on the Christian Broadcasting Network, which he founded.

Robertson said the revelations about this year’s weather came to him during his annual personal prayer retreat in January.

“If I heard the Lord right about 2006, the coasts of America will be lashed by storms,” Robertson said May 8. On Wednesday, he added, “There well may be something as bad as a tsunami in the Pacific Northwest.”