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Herbalife raises forecast as China drives fourth-quarter sales Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 07:53 PM PST (Reuters) - Herbalife Ltd , the nutrition products company accused by billionaire investor William Ackman of being a pyramid scheme, raised its forecast for the first quarter of 2014 on strong sales growth in China. The company's China sales rose more than 120 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, the fastest of any region worldwide, prompting the firm to estimate adjusted profit of $1.25 to $1.29 per share in the first quarter this year. Direct sales models have recently come under fire in China. Authorities launched a probe into Herbalife rival NU Skin Enterprises Inc last month after state media published reports that it brainwashed its members. Full Story | Top |
Health experts warn of water contamination from California drought Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 07:49 PM PST By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California's drought has put 10 communities at acute risk of running out of drinking water in 60 days, and worsened numerous other health and safety problems, public health officials in the most populous U.S. state said on Tuesday. "The drought has exacerbated existing conditions," said Mark Starr, deputy director of the California Department of Public Health. The contamination warning comes days after President Barack Obama announced nearly $200 million in aid for the parched state, including $60 million for food banks to help people thrown out of work in agriculture-related industries as farmers leave fields unplanted and ranchers sell cattle early because the animals have no grass for grazing. The California Farm Bureau estimates the overall impact of idled farmland will run to roughly $5 billion, from in direct costs of lost production and indirect effects through the region's economy. Full Story | Top |
Running takes the exotic route in Asia Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 07:25 PM PST By Saikat Chatterjee HONG KONG, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Out for a jog one day in the sleepy Laotian town of Luang Prabang, Michael Gilmore got an idea. He had just run a half-marathon at the temple ruins of Angkor Wat in neighbouring Cambodia, so why not set up something similar in Laos? After months of work to woo sponsors, about 400 runners assembled in a narrow street opposite the royal palace last October for the first half-marathon in Luang Prabang. "Destination races are catching on quickly in Asia, as organisers realise it just takes an extra marginal shift to get more people to a new place," said Gilmore, a British national who works in equity sales at HSBC in Singapore. Full Story | Top |
Leftist Mexican lawmakers present medical marijuana bill Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 05:51 PM PST By Lizbeth Diaz MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Left-wing Mexican senators on Tuesday presented an initiative to legalize medical marijuana, saying a new approach was needed to speed up drug liberalization and help end a cycle of cartel violence that has killed tens of thousands. Mexico has been shaken by a wave of gang-related violence since former President Felipe Calderon launched a military crackdown on drug cartels seven years ago, and there is growing pressure both domestically and regionally to explore new ways of tackling the problem. "Seventy thousand dead, 26,000 disappeared and an incalculable number of internally displaced are more than sufficient reason to look for an alternative model," congressman Fernando Belaunzaran told reporters. The proposal is one of several efforts by members of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) to decriminalize cannabis. Full Story | Top |
U.S. military tears down Army base site of mass killing in Texas Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 04:39 PM PST By Lisa Maria Garza DALLAS (Reuters) - The U.S. military has demolished the building at a Texas base where a former Army psychiatrist went on a shooting rampage in 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32 others, military officials said on Tuesday. The central Texas military base is where soldiers prepare to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. Nidal Hasan, an American-born Muslim, opened fire on unarmed soldiers preparing for deployment on November 5, 2009 in what he later called retaliation for U.S. wars in the Muslim world. Full Story | Top |
Icahn says Actavis-Forest deal validates shareholder activism Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 04:27 PM PST After a nearly three-year campaign at Forest Laboratories Inc that spanned two proxy battles and the ousting of a chief executive, billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn has once again ended up on top. The proposed $25 billion acquisition of Forest Labs by generic drug maker Actavis Plc is the biggest deal yet to emerge from Icahn's many forays into healthcare. Icahn, Forest's second-largest shareholder, proclaimed the deal to be "yet another validation of the activist investment philosophy" and said the company's shareholders had realized a 209 percent return since his earliest stake was disclosed in November 2009. "He's a smart and astute investor and he gets the strategic rationale of this deal," Forest Labs Chief Executive Brent Saunders said of Icahn. Full Story | Top |
Ohio gay couple sues after being denied Obamacare coverage Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 03:48 PM PST (Reuters) - A gay couple in Ohio filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday, charging they were unable to obtain family coverage under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law because the state of Ohio does not recognize their same-sex marriage. The plaintiffs, Alfred Cowger and Anthony Wesley of Gates Mills, Ohio, have been together since 1986 and were married in New York state in 2012, six years after adopting a daughter, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Ohio. The suit names the U.S. government and the state of Ohio as defendants, charging they violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights by refusing to recognize their married status, thereby preventing them from enrolling in family coverage under the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. After the family moved to the Cleveland area from Pennsylvania in 2010, the three were covered under the same non-group family health insurance policy purchased from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio. Full Story | Top |
U.N. rights commissioner urges prosecution of North Korean crimes Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 02:52 PM PST U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged world powers on Tuesday to refer North Korea to the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) following a U.N. report documenting crimes against humanity. North Korean security chiefs and possibly even Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un himself should face international justice for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings comparable to Nazi-era atrocities, U.N. investigators said on Monday. "We now need strong international leadership to follow up on the grave findings of the Commission of Inquiry. I therefore call on the international community, in line with the report's recommendations, to use all the mechanisms at its disposal to ensure accountability, including referral to the International Criminal Court," Pillay said in a statement issued in Geneva. Full Story | Top |
Deal action pushes S&P higher; Nasdaq extends winning streak Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 01:54 PM PST By Rodrigo Campos NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose on Tuesday, following Wall Street's biggest weekly gain of the year, as merger activity increased confidence that there is value in the stock market even as the benchmark index nears a record high. The Nasdaq Composite rose for an eighth straight session, a streak not seen since early July. U.S. homebuilder confidence suffered its largest one-month drop ever in February, and the New York Federal Reserve's gauge of manufacturing was weaker than expected. "People don't go out and look at homes in crappy weather." Forest Laboratories was the S&P 500's best performer after Actavis said it would acquire the specialty pharmaceuticals company in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $25 billion. Full Story | Top |
Smoke-free park policies slow to catch on: study Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 01:51 PM PST By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Bans on smoking in public parks are still fairly rare in the United States, despite more than half of states having indoor smoking restrictions, researchers say. "Air quality studies have demonstrated that smoking in outdoor areas such as building entrances or city streets is associated with measurable concentrations of secondhand smoke components, including nicotine and particulate matter," said the study's senior author Elizabeth G. Klein. "Secondhand smoke exposure can cause cardiovascular damage in as little as 30 minutes, so even small amounts of exposure, indoor or outdoor, could be a health concern," said Klein, of the Division of Health Behavior and Health Promotion at the College of Public Health at Ohio State University in Columbus. Banning smoking in public parks also helps to "denormalize" smoking, and hopefully leads to fewer young people picking up the habit, she said. Full Story | Top |
Most people say rating sites 'important' when picking doctors Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 01:19 PM PST "The numbers were actually substantially higher than just a few years ago," Dr. David Hanauer said. He is the study's lead author from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. I think there are still valid concerns whether these sites are trustworthy." Most previous research on websites that allow anyone to post reviews of doctors focused on what people say, the researchers write in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Full Story | Top |
Extra weight may add to elderly fall risk Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 01:16 PM PST By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For Australians over age 65 included in a new study, being obese raised the risk of experiencing a fall by 31 percent. "Falls are one of the most common causes of injury for older individuals and as the world population ages, the number of fall-related injuries are projected to increase rapidly," said lead author Rebecca Mitchell. "Likewise, rates of overweight and obesity among older individuals are also increasing," added Mitchell, a researcher with Neuroscience Research Australia at the University of New South Wales. Mitchell and her colleagues wanted to determine whether overweight and obesity added to the risk of falling among older adults, as well as the risk of being injured in a fall. Full Story | Top |
Oklahoma pharmacy agrees not to supply drug for Missouri execution Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 12:32 PM PST By Carey Gillam KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - An Oklahoma compounding pharmacy has agreed not to provide a drug needed to execute a Missouri inmate who has argued that it could cause severe and inhumane pain, but state officials said they would still proceed with the execution. U.S. District Judge Terence Kern on Tuesday dismissed inmate Michael Taylor's lawsuit against The Apothecary Shoppe in Tulsa, Oklahoma, after the settlement. The Missouri Corrections Department did not respond to a request for comment. Taylor's lawyers state in their court filings that in 2000, the Supreme Court recognized a Sixth Amendment right to have a jury find the facts needed to condemn someone, and in 2003, Missouri made that right retroactive and started vacating every death sentence lacking jury findings. Full Story | Top |
Actavis to buy Forest for $25 billion; windfall for investor Icahn Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 12:21 PM PST Generic drugmaker Actavis Plc said on Tuesday it would buy Forest Laboratories Inc for about $25 billion in cash and stock, giving it a major focus on higher-margin, branded treatments for Alzheimer's, hypertension and other disorders. The deal also means a major payday for activist investor Carl Icahn, the second-largest shareholder at Forest Labs, who waged two proxy battles and threatened a third to change its leadership and strategy. Actavis said it would pay the equivalent of $89.48 per share, representing a premium of 25 percent to Forest's closing price on Friday. The offer comprises $26.04 in cash and 0.3306 Actavis share for every Forest share. Full Story | Top |
Uganda dismisses Obama pressure on anti-gay law Tuesday, Feb 18, 2014 11:38 AM PST By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda on Tuesday dismissed U.S. president Barack Obama's call to its leader Yoweri Museveni not to sign an anti-homosexuality law, saying the U.S. was trying to blackmail the east African country. On Sunday, two days after President Museveni said he would sign the law widely criticized abroad as harsh and unjust, Obama warned that would complicate United States relations with Uganda and be a "step backward for all Ugandans." A senior Obama administration official said Washington - a major aid donor sending more than $400 million a year - would review U.S. relations with Uganda, a key regional ally in the fight against Islamic extremism in Somalia. But Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo said aid should not be tied to Uganda's stand on homosexuality. Full Story | Top |
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