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| Decaying steel town gets movie star turn in 'Out of the Furnace' Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 04:05 PM PST  By Eric Kelsey BEVERLY HILLS, California (Reuters) - A brief drive through Pittsburgh's down-and-out steel mill borough of Braddock at the time of the economic downturn in 2009 was all it took, and director Scott Cooper knew where he wanted to set his next film. Starring Christian Bale and Casey Affleck, it will be in wide release in U.S. movie theaters on Friday. "I wasn't going to make the movie if I didn't shoot it there." "Out of the Furnace," distributed by independent studio Relativity Media, tells the story of steel mill worker Russell Baze (Bale) and his younger brother, Rodney (Affleck), an Iraq War veteran haunted by his tours of duty, who would do anything to avoid working in the mills like his brother and father. "Even if something disastrous was to happen, they would rather stay there." The film - which features several past Oscar nominees and winners, including Willem Dafoe, Woody Harrelson, Forest Whitaker and Sam Shepard - adds a working-class quality to the recent spate of Hollywood fare that touches on the social anxieties and financial insecurity wrought by the recession. Full Story | Top |
| Study casts doubt on whether extra vitamin D prevents disease Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 04:01 PM PST By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers cast doubt on the prevailing wisdom that vitamin D supplements can prevent conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, saying on Friday low vitamin D may be a consequence, not a cause, of ill health. The findings could have implications for millions of people who take vitamin D pills and other supplements to ward off illness - Americans spend an estimated $600 million a year on them alone. Vitamin D, sometimes known as the "sunshine vitamin" is made in the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight and in found in foods like fish liver oil, eggs and fatty fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel. It is known to boost the uptake of calcium and bone formation, and some observational studies have also suggested a link between low levels of vitamin D and greater risks of many acute and chronic diseases. Full Story | Top |
| South Africa, world mourn 'giant for justice' Mandela Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 03:16 PM PST  By Ed Cropley and Pascal Fletcher JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela died aged 95 at his Johannesburg home on Thursday after a prolonged lung infection, plunging his nation and the world into mourning for a man hailed by global leaders as a moral giant. Although Mandela had been frail and ailing for nearly a year, Zuma's announcement late on Thursday of the death of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate shook South Africa. U.S. President Barack Obama said the world had lost "one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this earth". Ordinary South Africans were in shock. Full Story | Top |
| Zuma's announcement on death of Nelson Mandela Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 03:03 PM PST Following is the full text of South African President Jacob Zuma's address to the nation on the death of anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela on Thursday: "My Fellow South Africans, our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding President of our democratic nation, has departed. "Let us express, each in our own way, the deep gratitude we feel for a life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of humanity. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. talks to ease spending cuts, avert shutdown at critical stage: aides Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 02:48 PM PST  By Richard Cowan and David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. budget negotiators were down to the final, most difficult items in a two-year deal to avoid another federal shutdown next month and ease some across-the-board spending cuts set to hit military and domestic programs, congressional aides said on Thursday. The small-scale agreement being negotiated by Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, and Republican Representative Paul Ryan would lead to less than $100 billion in new savings, aides familiar with the talks said. Ryan, the chairman of the House of Representatives budget committee and Murray, who chairs the Senate budget committee, are expected to continue their talks on Friday with the aim of a deal that can be passed next week, before the start of a House recess on December 13. But any deal's fate in Congress could hinge in part on whether it includes an agreement to extend long-term federal unemployment benefits due to expire later this month for some 1.3 million Americans. Full Story | Top |
| Nelson Mandela, from apartheid fighter to president and unifier Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 01:52 PM PST  Nelson Mandela guided South Africa from the shackles of apartheid to multi-racial democracy, as an icon of peace and reconciliation who came to embody the struggle for justice around the world. Imprisoned for nearly three decades for his fight against white minority rule, Mandela emerged determined to use his prestige and charisma to bring down apartheid while avoiding a civil war. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come," Mandela said in his acceptance speech on becoming South Africa's first black president in 1994. "We have, at last, achieved our political emancipation." In 1993, Mandela was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor he shared with F.W. de Klerk, the white Afrikaner leader who freed him from prison three years earlier and negotiated the end of apartheid. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. charges Russian diplomats with healthcare fraud Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 01:48 PM PST  By Emily Flitter and Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have charged 49 current and former Russian diplomats and their family members with participating in a scheme to get health benefits intended for the poor by lying about their income. The charges come against a backdrop of tense exchanges between Russia and the United States over law enforcement actions in both countries. Russia's deputy foreign minister expressed disappointment Thursday that the U.S. had not tried to discuss the charges with Russia through diplomatic channels, but a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department said she did not expect the issue to harm relations between the two countries. Meanwhile, according to the charges, the family members had their housing costs paid for by the Russian government and spent "tens of thousands of dollars" on vacations, jewelry and luxury goods from stores like Swarovski and Jimmy Choo. Full Story | Top |
| Insight - Fukushima water tanks: leaky and built with illegal labor Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 01:25 PM PST By Antoni Slodkowski NAHA, Japan (Reuters) - Storage tanks at the Fukushima nuclear plant like one that spilled almost 80,000 gallons of radioactive water this year were built in part by workers illegally hired in one of the poorest corners of Japan, say labor regulators and some of those involved in the work. "Even if we didn't agree with how things were being done, we had to keep quiet and work fast," said Yoshitatsu Uechi, 48, a mechanic and former bus driver, who was one of a crew of 17 workers recruited in Okinawa and sent to Fukushima in June 2012 - among the thousands of workers from across Japan who have put together the emergency water tanks and stabilized the plant after three reactor meltdowns that were triggered by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The Okinawa crew was recruited by Token Kogyo, an unregistered broker, and passed on to work at the Fukushima plant under the direction of Tec, a larger contractor which reported to construction firm Taisei Corp, records show. Full Story | Top |
| Rheumatoid arthritis patients better off than decades ago Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 12:43 PM PST By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People with rheumatoid arthritis are better off than they were 20 years ago, according to new research from the Netherlands. Researchers found about half as many people were considered disabled after the first four years of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treatment in 2011, compared to 1990. "The results of our study relay the hopeful message to patients that today, in spite of having rheumatoid arthritis, they have a better opportunity to live a full and valued life than 20 years ago," Cécile Overman wrote in an email to Reuters Health. Overman is the study's lead author and a doctoral student in clinical and health psychology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Full Story | Top |
| Exercise later in life tied to healthy aging Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 12:42 PM PST  "Regular physical activity in older age is important to remain healthy. However, taking up physical activity at old age is also beneficial," Mark Hamer told Reuters Health in an email. These findings "underscore the importance of prevention as well as rehabilitation," said Ursula M. Staudinger, who directs the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center in New York City. "When you start later in life you can still get gains," Staudinger, who was not part of the research team, said. Full Story | Top |
| Amish school shooter's mother goes public with healing message Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 11:30 AM PST  By Daniel Trotta DELTA, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - After her son shot five Amish schoolgirls to death in 2006, Terri Roberts could have gone into hiding to nurse her pain, like many parents of mass murderers have in the past. Drawing inspiration from the Amish who were so quick to forgive her son, Roberts, 62, has embraced the victims' families in return and now publicly tells her story about the power of forgiveness. On October 2, 2006, Charles Roberts, 32, took 10 Amish girls hostage in their one-room schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania, lined them up and shot them in the head. Along with that, Terri Roberts herself became a victim, forced to confront life knowing that her son had committed such an atrocity. Full Story | Top |
| Florida Supreme Court hears arguments over marijuana ballot Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 11:07 AM PST By Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Florida's Supreme Court justices raised concerns on Thursday at a hearing on a proposed constitutional ballot amendment to allow medical use of marijuana, questioning whether its language might mislead voters into legalizing nearly wide-open pot smoking. The hour-long legal presentations by former House Speaker Jon Mills of Gainesville, in defense of the proposed amendment, and state Solicitor General Allen Winsor, who was seeking to block it from the 2014 ballot, focused on two points. By law, the seven justices will not rule on the merits of marijuana legalization, but will decide only if the proposed ballot is specific enough and whether its title and summary sufficiently explain what it does. Winsor said the ballot summary is misleading because it refers to prescribing marijuana "for debilitating diseases," while the amendment itself refers to "debilitating conditions" in the title. Full Story | Top |
| Takeda colitis drug raises PML concern: FDA staff Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 10:40 AM PST  An experimental drug for ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co could pose risk of a potentially fatal brain infection called PML even though the problem has not been seen in clinical trials, staff members of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday. Documents about the monoclonal antibody, called Entyvio, were released by the FDA staff ahead of a planned meeting on Monday among a panel of outside medical experts who will review the safety and effectiveness of the medicine and make recommendations to the FDA. Full Story | Top |
| Air pollution tied to slight reduction in birth weight Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 10:38 AM PST By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who were exposed to air pollution during pregnancy tended to give birth to slightly lighter babies, in a new study from New York City. A series of studies has suggested air pollution may be harmful during pregnancy, but the issue remains unresolved. "We had an opportunity to use a unique data resource in New York City that was designed to estimate exposure throughout the city, which allowed us to improve on past studies, as well as examine a large, ethnically diverse population," David Savitz told Reuters Health in an email. He and his colleagues looked at the birth weights of more than 250,000 babies born in New York City hospitals during 2008 to 2010. Full Story | Top |
| Swiss expert contests French finding that Arafat not poisoned Thursday, Dec 05, 2013 10:02 AM PST  By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - A Swiss scientist who examined samples from the body of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said French experts had made weak arguments in concluding that he could not have died of poisoning in 2004. French forensic examiners commissioned by magistrates investigating Arafat's death in a Paris hospital assessed on Tuesday that he had not been killed with radioactive polonium found in abnormally high levels in his body and clothing. The Swiss approach resembled that of the French inquiry but dug deeper into the mystery, said Francois Bochud, director of the institute of radiation physics at University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) who helped exhume Arafat's remains a year ago. Arafat, who signed the 1993 Oslo interim peace accords with Israel but then led an uprising after subsequent talks broke down in 2000, died aged 75 in November 2004. Full Story | Top |
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