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| Three injured in avalanche that engulfed Montana home Friday, Feb 28, 2014 07:18 PM PST An avalanche swept down a mountainside into a Missoula, Montana, neighborhood on Friday and engulfed the two-story home of an elderly couple, burying them in snow along with a young boy nearby, but all three were later found alive, police said. The man was identified as Fred Allendorf, a professor emeritus in conservation and genetics at the University of Montana campus several blocks away. Full Story | Top |
| Generic drugmakers ramp up campaign against FDA label proposal Friday, Feb 28, 2014 04:34 PM PST By Toni Clarke WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Generic drugmakers are furiously campaigning against a proposed U.S. rule that would require them to change the prescribing information on their products if they receive new safety information, which they say would open them to product liability lawsuits. The rule would overturn regulations that have been in place for three decades that prohibit generic drugmakers from updating safety data on their labels without such changes first being made by the company that developed the drug. The Food and Drug Administration, which issued its proposal in November, said the change is designed to "create parity" between branded and generic drug makers with respect to labeling changes, and remove an unnecessary impediment to the prompt communication of safety data. Generic drugmakers say the proposed rule would raise the cost of drugs and lead to confusion among consumers. Full Story | Top |
| Documents show 1990s effort to 'humanize' Hillary Clinton Friday, Feb 28, 2014 04:29 PM PST  By John Whitesides and Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aides in former President Bill Clinton's White House crafted a strategy to "humanize" then-first lady Hillary Clinton and work around her "aversion" to the national media, according to documents released on Friday. The documents also detailed the first lady's struggles in the early 1990s with her healthcare task force, including worries about resistance on Capitol Hill and an aide's warning the plan could not meet a pledge to allow patients to pick their doctors, a promise that also came back to haunt President Barack Obama. The release of nearly 4,000 pages of previously sealed documents by the Clinton Presidential Library served to revisit Hillary Clinton's record and early struggles with her image as she gears up for a potential 2016 run for the presidency. An August 31, 1995, memo by Clinton's press secretary Lisa Caputo suggested she do interviews with "regional media." "Hillary is comfortable with the local reporters and enjoys speaking with them," the memo states. Full Story | Top |
| Federal program aims to make pet food, livestock feed safer Friday, Feb 28, 2014 02:44 PM PST A new federal program aims to standardize inspection procedures for pet food and farm animal feed produced in the United States, making them safer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday. The Animal Feed Regulatory Program Standards comprise a series of new voluntary standards for inspections by state and other regulatory programs that oversee the production of pet food and feed for farm animals such as cattle, chickens and pigs. Concern over the safety of pet food and farm animal feed has mounted in recent years, as discoveries of salmonella-contaminated dog food and livestock feed contaminated with a corn-based toxin led to waves of product recalls and worries about the safety of the U.S. food production system. Full Story | Top |
| Philip Seymour Hoffman died of accidental overdose: official Friday, Feb 28, 2014 02:29 PM PST  By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found in his New York apartment on February 2 with a needle in his arm, died of an accidental overdose of drugs, the New York City Chief Medical Examiner said on Friday. The cause of death was acute drug intoxication, including heroin, cocaine, benzodiazepines and amphetamine, according to Julie Bolcer, spokeswoman for the Medical Examiner's Office. She added that it is the final determination in Hoffman's death. A drug overdose had been suspected when Hoffman, 46, was discovered in his apartment along with dozens of small plastic bags containing a substance believed to be heroin. Full Story | Top |
| Mattress covers may not help with dust mite allergies Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:51 PM PST By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Based on two dozen clinical trials, U.S. researchers find that expensive mattress covers make no difference in reducing dust mite allergies or their symptoms. Up to 40 percent of the world population has allergies, and dust mites are thought to be one of the most common causes. "Based on this analysis which combines data from many different studies, there doesn't seem to be any benefit to using dust mite covers to prevent allergic disease or to prevent symptoms," lead author Whitney Arroyave told Reuters Health. Arroyave, a researcher with the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, and her colleagues combined results from 24 trials of methods to reduce dust mite exposure and prevent allergy signs and symptoms The study team found that use of the mattress covers had a large effect in reducing exposure to house mite dust levels - about 20 percent - but this reduction had no statistically significant impact on house dust mite sensitization, or symptoms such as wheezing, asthma, runny nose or dermatitis. Full Story | Top |
| Doctors could do a better job of breaking bad news: study Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:39 PM PST By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Less than half of German people who are told they have cancer through a set and accepted protocol for breaking bad news are satisfied with the conversation, according to a new study. "The idea was somehow that physicians will 'naturally' have the ability to communicate," Dr. Carola Seifart wrote in an email. For example, the diagnosis of a new cancer or a negative development with an existing cancer can significantly change a person's view of the future. While SPIKES has been tested in the U.S., the researchers write that it has not been tested in Germany and there is little information on how bad news is broken there. Full Story | Top |
| TSX steady after economic data, records monthly gain Friday, Feb 28, 2014 01:35 PM PST  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index was little changed on Friday as data showing economic growth in North America helped drive gains in the energy sector, while gold-mining shares were dragged down by a weaker gold price. The TSX, nevertheless, recorded its strongest monthly gain since October, rising 3.8 percent in February. The Toronto market has outperformed the S&P 500 so far this year, rising about 4.3 percent, following a selloff in January triggered by concerns about emerging market growth. ... Full Story | Top |
| Nighttime finger splints can ease arthritis pain Friday, Feb 28, 2014 12:09 PM PST By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Inexpensive splints worn nightly can reduce the pain of hand osteoarthritis, a chronic ailment that affects a majority of older adults, a new study shows. "It's a well-tolerated, safe and cheap intervention," rheumatologist Dr. Fiona Watt told Reuters Health. Watt, from the Arthritis Research UK Centre for Osteoarthritis Pathogenesis at the University of Oxford, led the new study. She and her colleagues tested custom-made splints on London clinic patients who suffered painful and deforming hand osteoarthritis. Full Story | Top |
| Florida restaurant chain adds Obamacare surcharge to meal bills Friday, Feb 28, 2014 11:43 AM PST By Barbara Liston ORLANDO (Reuters) - Diners at a Florida restaurant chain are being asked to pay a health insurance surcharge on their meal tabs to cover the cost for business owners of the Obama administration's new healthcare program. Customers at eight Gator's Dockside restaurants dotted around central and north Florida are finding a 1 percent surcharge on their bills listed as "ACA," the letters standing for the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare. A $14.56 lunch tab for Asian salad and iced tea ordered by a reporter at a Dockside restaurant in the town of Clermont, a short drive west of Orlando, included a 13-cent ACA surcharge. "Therefore, instead of raising prices on our products to generate the additional revenue needed to cover the cost of ACA compliance, Gator's Dockside has implemented a 1 percent surcharge on all food and beverage purchases only," the notice adds. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. House Republican unity tested on Obamacare alternative Friday, Feb 28, 2014 10:12 AM PST  By Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A month after Republicans rallied around offering an alternative to President Barack Obama's healthcare law in an election-year move to broaden their appeal to voters, divisions are surfacing over the issue in the U.S. House of Representatives. House Speaker John Boehner has not committed to voting this year on legislation to replace Obama's landmark Affordable Care Act. Majority Leader Eric Cantor brought together committee chairmen and other Republican leaders, who have controlled the House since January 2011, to discuss healthcare legislation on Friday. "The goal is to develop consensus along healthcare policy," said Camp, whose committee is one of a few with oversight of healthcare legislation. Full Story | Top |
| Myanmar orders aid group to stop work, patients at risk: MSF Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:50 AM PST  By Jared Ferried YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar has ordered Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) to halt all its work in the country, leaving tens of thousands of people without vital care, the medical aid group said on Friday. MSF did not give a reason for the suspension, but local media reported government officials had been angered by the charity's public comments on the western strife-torn state of Rakhine. The Nobel Prize-winning aid group has been giving care there to both ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims, a mostly stateless minority who live in apartheid-like conditions and who otherwise have little access to healthcare. The United Nations and human rights groups say at least 40 Rohingya were killed by security forces and ethnic Rakhine Buddhist civilians in a restricted area of the state in January. Full Story | Top |
| New York jury finds Kerry Kennedy not guilty of impaired driving Friday, Feb 28, 2014 09:41 AM PST By Victoria Cavaliere WHITE PLAINS, New York (Reuters) - It took a jury less than hour to find the daughter of slain U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy not criminally liable for sideswiping a tractor-trailer while driving on a suburban New York highway, after mistakenly taking a sleeping pill. After a four-day trial, the six-member jury quickly found Kerry Kennedy not guilty of driving while impaired by drugs. On July 13, 2012, she took the sleeping pill zolpidem, known by the brand name Ambien, rather than her usual thyroid medication before getting behind the wheel of her silver Lexus. "I'm incredibly grateful to the jury for working so hard on this case, and to my lawyers, and to my family and friends and so many other people who supported me," Kennedy, 54, told reporters after the verdict was read at Westchester County Court in White Plains, New York. Full Story | Top |
| Tick test for persistent Lyme disease tried in humans Friday, Feb 28, 2014 08:29 AM PST By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A small experiment to see whether uninfected ticks could "diagnose" a lingering Lyme infection in people produced modest results, researchers say. DNA from the Lyme parasite, but not live parasites themselves, were transmitted to the ticks from just two people out of two dozen who had persistent Lyme symptoms despite treatment. In animal studies, researchers have successfully used "xenodiagnosis," or diagnosis with another animal, to detect the signs of a persistent Lyme infection in the blood. The technique has also worked in people to detect another parasitic infection, Chagas disease. Full Story | Top |
| Ex-SAC trader Martoma seeks to toss insider trading conviction Friday, Feb 28, 2014 07:59 AM PST  By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former SAC Capital Advisors LP portfolio manager Mathew Martoma asked a U.S. judge to throw out his insider trading conviction, saying federal prosecutors did not prove he committed a crime and that improper evidence and jury bias tainted the verdict. The request submitted late Thursday night in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan was expected. It followed Martoma's February 6 conviction on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. "This court should enter a judgment of acquittal on all counts," Martoma, 39, told U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe, who presided over the roughly month-long trial, in the filing. Full Story | Top |
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