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ByMariaCheng The Associated Press LONDON Onarecentmorningin London, Lara Thomson practiced spinning on benches, swinging from metal bars and balancing off raised ledges — all elements of a daredevil discipline known as "parkour." What was unusual about the scene is that Thomson is 79 and all of her classmates are over 60. They are members of a unique weekly class for seniors in a sport more commonly known for grav- ity-defying jumps than helping people with arthritis. Invented in the 1980s in France, parkour is a sport usually favored by extremely nimble peo- ple who move freely through any terrain using their own strength and flexibility, often using urban environments such as benches, buildings and walls as a type of obstacle course. It's also known as free running. The London parkour class of about a dozen students is taught by two instructors who have adapted the sport's main ele- ments to a level that can be han- dled even by those over 60 who have replacement joints or other medical conditions. "I wondered whether it was a government plot to get rid of old people when I heard about the class," Thomson joked. She said she has balance problems and that the class helps her feel more confident about getting around. "Being able to get outside and do silly things like hugging trees is great," she said, referring to a stretching exercise. While most fitness classes aimed at seniors focus on calmer activities such as dance or yoga, experts say parkour is a reason- able, if unorthodox, option. "When I first heard about this, I had a picture in my mind of el- derly people jumping off of walls and I thought there was no way this could be appropriate," said Bruce Paton, a physical therapist who works with the elderly at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health at University College Lon- don. He is not connected to the program. "But when you look at the things they're doing, it's ac- tually quite gentle and could in- crease their strength and flexibil- ity to help them with their daily activities." Still, Paton said parkour could potentially be dangerous for peo- ple with serious heart problems and warned anyone with a joint replacement or muscle weakness should be careful. The parkour instructors said ev- eryone who takes the class fills out a health form and they are partic- ularly careful to dissuade partic- ipants from doing too much; sev- eral students have artificial joints, arthritis or a pacemaker. "Every single technique in par- kour can be changed so that any- one can do it," said Jade Shaw, ar- tistic director of Parkour Dance, who teaches the class. The park- our sessions initially began as a pilot project last year and Shaw is hoping to get more funding to expand it further. For now, the classes are free and held at a Ti- betan Buddhist center in South London. "I think it's very beneficial and I'm hoping we'll soon have a lot more older people bouncing around the parks," she said. David Terrace, a health and fitness expert for the charity Age U.K., said any efforts to get older people more active should be wel- comed. He said adaptations have been made to other sports to help the elderly exercise more, such as turning soccer into walking soccer and building customized boats to accommodate wheel- chairs for sailing. "There's no age limit for exer- cise, it's just about the individual and what they feel comfortable doing," he said. At 85, George Jackson is the oldest participant in the London parkour class. "I really enjoy it and wish I could do more," said Jackson, an army veteran and former boxer. "I just sometimes forget how old I am and that I can't do certain things." He said he struggles with a swollen ankle and knee but that the class has helped. "I was limp- ing around before and now I can walk straight," Jackson said. "But I still don't plan to jump off of anything higher than a bench." HEALTHY LIVING Unexpected mix: Seniors take up, practice parkour LEFTERISPITARAKIS—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS George Jackson, 85, an army veteran and former boxer swings on monkey bars as he participates at a parkour class for elderly people at a park in south London. 'I really enjoy it and wish I could do more,' said Jackson, the class' oldest participant. News feed WASHINGTON A federal judge on Wednesday di- rected a Libyan militant charged in the 2012 Beng- hazi attacks to remain in U.S. custody after his own lawyer conceded that he had no reasonable chance of being released. A lawyer for Ahmed Abu Khattala acknowledged that it was appropriate for her client to remain behind bars at the moment, given the nature of the charge he faces and his lack of ties to the United States. But she said she had so far seen no evidence of any role by Khattala in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. "What's been filed has shown, quite frankly, an ut- ter lack of evidence of Mr. Khattala's involvement in the incident in Benghazi," said Michelle Peterson, an assis- tant federal public defender, adding, "We are left to glean from press reports what the government's evidence is." Prosecutors provided some new details in a court filing Tuesday night, argu- ing that he was part of a group of roughly 20 mili- tants who stormed the dip- lomatic compound on the night of the attacks. BENGHAZI Judge:Libyanmilitant to remain in US custody BISMARCK, N.D. State of- ficials are asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging North Dako- ta's constitutional prohibi- tion on same-sex marriage, despite a wave of court deci- sions striking down bans in other states. The state attorney gen- eral's office filed the mo- tion Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Fargo. North Da- kota Solicitor General Doug Bahr argues in court docu- ments that states have the right to define and regulate marriage. "Nothing in the United States Constitution pre- vents the people of North Dakota from defining mar- riage as the legal union be- tween a man and a woman," Bahr wrote in his 50-page re- sponse. North Dakota voters ap- proved a state constitu- tional ban on same-sex marriage 10 years ago. "The people of North Da- kota, through the deliber- ative political process, re- tain the traditional under- standing of marriage as the union between a man and a woman," Bahr wrote. North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said his office is duty bound to defend the ban NORTH DAKOTA State seeks to keep same-sex marriage ban BOSTON Gov. Deval Patrick said Wednesday he expects to have a bill on his desk by the end of the month that would strengthen security around abortion clinics in Massachusetts. The legislation is a re- sponse to the U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous decision last week striking down the state's 35-foot buffer zone law, deeming it an uncon- stitutional restraint on the free-speech rights of pro- testers. The decision has been praised by anti-abortion ac- tivists but decried by abor- tion rights supporters and the top elected official in Massachusetts, who say the zones helped protect pub- lic safety. Patrick called the ruling "a setback for reproductive freedom," but said the court also gave the state a road- map for possible legislative action the state could take that would survive a consti- tutional challenge. "That really creates the framework," Patrick said. Attorney General Martha Coakley said she has begun working with lawmakers to craft legislation to help pro- tect women entering clinics while respecting the rights of protesters. MASSACHUSETTS State working on clinic buffer-zone bill WAUKESHA, WIS. Doctors have found that one of the two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls accused of stabbing a classmate to please a fic- tional online horror char- acter is mentally incompe- tent to stand trial, attorneys said Wednesday. Prosecutors immediately requested a hearing to dis- cuss the doctors' conclu- sions, one from a psychol- ogist hired by the defense and the other from a state- appointed doctor. In a sign they might ex- pect the girl to plead insan- ity, the prosecution addi- tionally asked for an eval- uation not only of the girl's present condition, but also of whether mental disease was present at the time of the crime. Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren granted both requests and set the hearings for Aug. 1. The girl, who according to the criminal complaint told police she stabbed the victim about 17 times, ap- peared in court separately from her co-defendant. Prosecutors say the girls plotted for months to kill their 12-year-old friend to curry favor with the popu- lar online specter known as Slender Man. LEGAL Doctors: Pre-teen suspect incompetent ISLAMORADA, FLA. Fa- bien Cousteau says his 31- day underwater living ex- periment in the Florida Keys was a monumental success that used tools of which his fa- mous ocean explorer grandfather could only dream. Cousteau and a team of filmmakers and scientists dove June 1 to Aquarius Reef Base to study what effects climate change and pollution are having on a coral reef. The crew started decom- pression Tuesday inside the pressurized lab, 63 feet be- low the ocean's surface off Key Largo. They resurfaced Wednes- day and returned to the Aquarius command center in Islamorada. The entire expedition was broadcast in real time online, and Cousteau held video chats with classrooms worldwide. Cousteau says he was struck by the sunlight and fresh air when he emerged Wednesday morning, but he already missed his under- water home. SCIENCE Fabien Cousteau ends mission at undersea lab By Nicholas K. Geranios The Associated Press SPOKANE, WASH. Workers are preparing to enter one of the most dangerous rooms on the Hanford Nuclear Reserva- tion — the site of a 1976 blast that exposed a technician to a massive dose of radiation, which led to him being nick- named the "Atomic Man." Harold McCluskey, then 64, was working in the room when a chemical reaction caused a glass glove box to explode. He was exposed to the highest dose of radiation from the chemical element americium ever recorded — 500 times the occupational standard. Hanford, located in central Washington state, made pluto- nium for nuclear weapons for decades. The room was used to recoverradioactiveamericium, a byproduct of plutonium. Covered with blood, Mc- Cluskey was dragged from the room and put into an ambu- lance headed for the decon- tamination center. Because he was too hot to handle, he was removed by remote control and transported to a steel- and-concrete isolation tank. During the next five months, doctors laboriously extracted tiny bits of glass and razor-sharp pieces of metal embedded in his skin. Nurses scrubbed him down three times a day and shaved every inch of his body every day. The radioactive bathwa- ter and thousands of towels became nuclear waste. Friends at first avoided him until his minister told people it was safe to be around him. He was studied extensively by doctors for the rest of his life and died of coronary artery disease in 1987 at the age of 75. Hanford contains the na- tion's greatest collection of nuclear waste, and for more than two decades has been en- gaged in the dangerous work of cleaning up that waste. The space now dubbed the McClus- key Room is located inside the closed Plutonium Finish- ing Plant and is scheduled for cleanup this summer. "It's been largely closed up since the accident," Geoff Tyree, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Energy in Richland, said Wednesday. "It was restricted for the po- tential for airborne radiation contamination." HANFORD Feds to clean up 'Atomic Man' site Cousteau NEWS » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, July 3, 2014 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS B6