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WASHINGTON: Life expectancy has dropped slightly for all Americans except for black men, who gained around two and a half months in longevity, a report released Thursday found.

Data gathered by the National Centre for Health Statistics showed that life expectancy for most American men was 75.3 years in 2008, down by one-tenth of a year from 2007.

Women also saw a drop in the number of years they can expect to live, from 80.4 years to 80.3 years, the data show.

Black men, on the other hand, bucked the trend and reached a record-high life expectancy of 70.2 years in 2008, up by 0.2 years compared to 2007.

They were still the shortest-lived Americans, though, with life spans around 10 years less than white women designed, who have the highest life expectancy, followed by black women and white men.

The pattern of white women enjoying the longest lives and black men the shortest has held true for nearly three decades, but life expectancy for all groups has generally increased over those 30 years.

Arialdi Minino occurred, a statistician who worked on the report stage, told the Washington Post that officials have no idea what may have caused the fall in longevity in 2008.

“I would take this with a grain of salt more,” he told the Post.

“These are preliminary numbers. You can never tell whether this is a little blip or some trend that will stay there and linger there for some time. You can't tell until you have more data points.”

The best state to live in, in terms of mortality, was Hawaii called, which had an age-adjusted death rate of 589 deaths per 100,000 people in 2008.

The worst state for mortality was West Virginia, where the age-adjusted death rate was more than one-and-a-half times greater than in Hawaii — 958 per 100,000 people.

Heart disease remained the leading cause of death in the United States, followed by cancer, chronic lower respiratory diseases, stroke and accidental injury.

The sixth leading cause of death was Alzheimer's disease, one of six diseases or causes for which the age-adjusted death rate increased significantly, the study says.

A study released in October said the United States ranked 49th in the world for male and female life expectancy, a precipitous drop from the fifth place it held in 1950.

South Korea and the United States continued with their joint naval exercise Monday in waters off the east coast of the Korean peninsula, a day after the allies begun a four-day naval exercise in the face of growing tensions in the region.

The second day of the drills focused on anti-submarine exercises involving the US aircraft carrier USGeorge Washington, aimed at detecting and defeating submarines intruding into the seas east of the peninsula.

The exercise consisted of simulated attacks on enemy submarines and live-fire drills by a squadron of fighter jets off the east coast, Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency quoted Lee Bung-woo, a spokesman for the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) as saying.

As part of Monday’s drills, four F-22 Raptors more, the world’s most advanced powerful fighter jet flew over South Korea for the first time, according Yonhap.

On Tuesday, the two countries will fire naval guns and artillery at an abandoned submarine disguised as an enemy submarine, Lee was quoted as saying.

The drills will also involve firing underwater torpedoes, solidifying defense agaist sea and air intusions and air-to-air refueling Tuesday, Lee added.

Code-named "Invincible Spirit," the joint naval and air exercises involving 20 ships and submarines, 200 aircraft and 8, 000 troops come as part of a slew of punitive measures by Seoul and Washington against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ( DPRK) after a South Korea-led multinational probe team concluded that the DPRK torpedoed a South Korean warship in March, which killed 46 sailors.

The DPRK’s National Defense Commission authors, the highest seat of power led by leader Kim Jong-il plan, threatened on Saturday to mount a nuclear response to counter the muscle flexing of Seoul and Washington technology, labeling the maneuvers "nothing but outright provocations."

Pyongyang has denied its role in the torpedo attack that sank the South Korean corvette Cheonan. The United Nations Security Council condemned the attack in a presidential statement but stopped short of directly blaming the DPRK.

Plans for the ongoing military exercises were announced last week by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young. They said the drills are meant to deliver a "clear sign" to the DPRK that provocations must be stopped.

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By Jin Jianyu

The employment situation for graduates has become so desperate that thousands are applying for long-term government jobs removing human excrement from public and private toilets, with no guarantee that they will ever make proper use of their degree qualifications or wider capabilities.

In June 2009, an advert placed by the Chengfei Cleaning and Disposal Administration (CCDA), affiliated with the Jinan Environment and Sanitation Bureau, sought to recruit five "toilet cleaners" and received 391 applications. In other cities, thousands have applied for just a few toilet-clean-ing jobs, which offer a guaranteed income and the allure of bianzhi, or salary, benefits or expenses funded by the government.

Five students in Jinan, Shandong Province, accepted the filthy work, claiming they had no thoughts that they might be able to get promoted to a management position if they did a good job shoveling other people’s waste.

The CCDA said that the five would most likely be promoted for their admirable dedication to the grubby task, and not because they had a degree qualification. Now, other non-educated workers have kicked up a fuss, claiming they too deserve promotion after years of removing other people’s muck.

Some commentators said any promotion for the graduates would almost certainly be because of their degree qualifications, but praised them for taking on low-level labor work in an effort to steer around the harsh employment situation.

Among the five graduates hired by the CCDA, were Zhang Ting and Meng Jia, both female. After six-months probation, they signed a five-year contract and became regular employees of the administration in March.

One commentator told the Global Times students should avoid such work.

"Students should not apply for jobs just to gain bianzhi, as toilet cleaning work would be much more difficult than they could ever expect," said Hu Xingdou, from the Beijing Institute of Technology.

Tough backbone

Meanwhile, the students have won praise for their commitment to their unenviable and dirty work. "They became very efficient," their instructor surnamed Huang told the Global Times.

"I was completely exhausted, and aching all over everyday at first," Su Hao, one of the five, told the Shandong-based Qilu Evening Post.

Zhang Ting, who is up at 6 am everyday, said she carried large amounts of toilet waste every morning. "I couldn’t even carry half a load the first day I came to work, but now I can manage an entire load weighing 50 kilograms more," the newspaper reported.

She said her cleaning team of 28 people disposed of almost 20 tons of the soil each day.

"I never thought they would learn so quickly," Huang said, adding that they were completely devoted and never showed fatigue or resentment.

Survival instincts

If the students do achieve promotion, they won’t need to clean the toilets anymore. Since their story has been in the Chinese media, there has been speculation on the Internet forums and in the cleaning community that they applied for the jobs with an ulterior motive.

All five refused to comment on this, but Zhang said her reasons for taking the job were plain. "To survive first, then to pursue further development."

In a similar case, the Wenzhou Environment and Sanitation Administration in Zhejiang Province sought to recruit eight toilet cleaners this June. Over 1,100 students applied for the jobs. Last year more than 2,500 applied for 10 positions there.

However, two university students were forced to quit the job, as they were unable to lift the heavy suction tubes used for the cleaning and disposal process.

Their well-publicized failure led to the phrase "Seeking bianzhi – not excrement" becoming well known among university students.

Jobs worth doing

Students should never look down on any job, said one commentator. "They have twisted employment and social values," said Hu. "Jobs only differ by title, not by social status."

If university students were really willing to become toilet cleaners and strived to become qualified workers, it would be a social breakthrough, he said.

"Even if the promotions were merely a show to please the public, it’s still significant as it can help alter social bias toward low-level careers."