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| Colorado theater gunman loses latest round in court Friday, Mar 14, 2014 03:56 PM PDT  By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - A Colorado judge overseeing the mass murder case against a gunman charged with killing 12 people in a suburban Denver movie theater has rejected several defense challenges to the state's death penalty laws and abruptly canceled hearings on the issue. The series of written opinions issued on Friday by Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour represented a setback and rebuke to efforts by the defense to shield James Holmes from the possibility of execution, if he is convicted. Denying several defense motions seeking to challenge Colorado's capital punishment and sentencing laws, Samour said most of the issues raised by Holmes' lawyer were "frivolous" and had already been litigated and resolved. "To the extent the defendant wishes to change the current state of the law in Colorado, his arguments should be directed to the legislature or the Colorado Supreme Court," Samour wrote. Full Story | Top |
| Peru former President Fujimori hospitalized after stroke Friday, Mar 14, 2014 03:36 PM PDT Peru's jailed former president, Alberto Fujimori, was hospitalized and in stable condition on Friday after suffering a small stroke, doctors said. Fujimori, 75, was conscious and talking on Friday afternoon following a stroke in his jail cell in the morning, said Dr Juan Barreto, with the Clinica La Luz in Lima. "He is a little bit delicate." Fujimori started to have problems with blood flow to his brain four days ago, and a magnetic resonance imaging scan confirmed he had a stroke on Friday that impaired movement of his left arm, said Jose Luis Ore, the medical director of the clinic. "He won't be released today and probably not tomorrow." Fujimori, who has been imprisoned since 2007 on charges of human rights abuses and corruption committed during his 1990-2000 term, often coordinates with members of his political party from his jail cell and criticizes President Ollanta Humala via Twitter and Facebook. Full Story | Top |
| Insurers must accept funds from U.S. program that helps HIV-AIDs patients Friday, Mar 14, 2014 03:15 PM PDT By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) - The lead agency for President Barack Obama's healthcare reform announced on Friday that it would require, rather than merely encourage, insurers that sell Obamacare policies to accept funds from a federal program that helps people with HIV-AIDS pay health insurance premiums. Earlier this year, BlueCross BlueShield of Louisiana, the state's largest carrier, said it would begin rejecting checks from the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program for Obamacare policies it sells. For decades the Ryan White program had helped low-income people with HIV and AIDS pay for both AIDS drugs and insurance premiums, but Louisiana Blue said such "third party payments" invited fraud. The chief federal agency administering Obamacare, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said on Friday it was requiring insurers to accept the funds, after saying last month that it "encouraged" carriers to accept the Ryan White payments and did not see any potential for fraud. Full Story | Top |
| House Obamacare vote sets stage for new campaign attacks Friday, Mar 14, 2014 03:04 PM PDT  By Susan Cornwell WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-run U.S. House of Representatives on Friday approved a bipartisan deal to spare doctors from a looming Medicare pay cut but included a provision to undermine Obamacare, which critics said was a non-starter in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The vote was 238-181, with most House Democrats refusing to swallow what they called an Obamacare "poison pill," a provision to delay for five years the tax penalty that most Americans must pay under President Barack Obama's healthcare law if they decline to sign up for insurance. Just a dozen Democrats, some of whom face tough re-election races in November, voted with Republicans to pass the bill, which the White House has threatened to veto. Hundreds of thousands of doctors who participate in traditional Medicare face a 24 percent pay cut on April 1, a situation dating to a 1990s initiative to restrain federal spending on the government healthcare program, which today serves nearly 50 million elderly and disabled people. Full Story | Top |
| Amgen vaccine triggers immune response in advanced melanoma -study Friday, Mar 14, 2014 02:23 PM PDT An experimental Amgen Inc cancer vaccine used to treat advanced melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, proved effective in a late-stage study in shrinking tumors in a way that suggests the drug triggered the intended systemic immune response, according to data presented on Friday. The vaccine shrank tumors that were directly injected with the drug and tumors around the body that were not injected, according to the data. The drug, talimogene laherparepvec, also known as T-vec, is an engineered virus designed to replicate inside the injected tumor, killing cancer cells there, as well as prime the immune system to attack other cancer cells around body. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. says Obamacare covers married gay couples under family plan Friday, Mar 14, 2014 01:49 PM PDT  By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Married gay couples will be eligible for a family health policy under President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, beginning in 2015, the U.S. government said on Friday, encouraging insurers to begin offering coverage this year. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also announced it would extend for one month a temporary program that offers insurance to some of the sickest Americans, who have had trouble finding private plans in new health insurance marketplaces set up in all 50 states under Obamacare. Friday's announcements add to the series of delays and modifications the administration has made to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, since the law was enacted in 2010 and formally launched last October. Obamacare's six-month enrollment period ends March 31. Full Story | Top |
| Breastfeeding past two years linked to infant tooth decay Friday, Mar 14, 2014 01:04 PM PDT The more frequently a mother breastfed her child beyond the age of 24 months during the day, the greater the child's risk of severe early tooth decay, researchers found. "The No. 1 priority for the breastfeeding mother is to make sure that her child is getting optimal nutrition," lead author Benjamin Chaffee of the University of California, San Francisco told Reuters Health. Chaffee completed the study as a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley. He and his team looked at a possible link between longer-term breastfeeding and the risk of tooth decay and cavities in a survey of 458 babies in low-income families in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. Full Story | Top |
| Peru's former president Fujimori suffers stroke, hospitalized Friday, Mar 14, 2014 12:50 PM PDT Peru's jailed former president Alberto Fujimori was hospitalized and in "moderately serious" condition after suffering a small stroke Friday, a doctor said. Fujimori, 75, was conscious and talking on Friday afternoon following a morning stroke in his jail cell, said doctor Juan Barreto with the Clinica La Luz in Lima where the former political leader is recovering. There may be more serious consequences and he will remain hospitalized." Barreto said that one of Fujimori's arms is numb and that he risks partial paralysis if his situation worsens. Fujimori, who has been imprisoned since 2007 on charges of human rights abuses and corruption committed during his 1990-2000 term, often coordinates with members of his influential political party from his jail cell and criticizes President Ollanta Humala via Twitter and Facebook. Full Story | Top |
| Rare meningitis strain kills student at Drexel University Friday, Mar 14, 2014 12:44 PM PDT By Daniel Kelley PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Drexel University confirmed on Friday that a student died this week from the rare strain of meningitis that hit Princeton University and the University of California at Santa Barbara last fall. Stephanie Ross, 19, a mechanical engineering major from the Pittsburgh area, was found unresponsive in her room at Phi Mu sorority last week, according to a letter sent to the university community by school President John Fry. Drexel, located in downtown Philadelphia, is tracking down anyone who had recent contact with Ross in an effort to provide prophylactic antibiotics to ward off infection, school officials said in a statement. Ross recently attended a regional officer training conference for the Phi Mu sorority. Full Story | Top |
| Maryland Senate votes to ease marijuana penalties Friday, Mar 14, 2014 12:30 PM PDT  By Alice Popovici ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (Reuters) - The Maryland state Senate voted overwhelmingly on Friday to decriminalize possession of a small amount of marijuana, part of a trend across the United States to ease penalties for pot. The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 36-8 to make possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana a civil and not criminal offense. The legislation is among bills that lawmakers in Maryland, among the most liberal U.S. states, are considering to ease restrictions on possession of marijuana, including a measure to legalize it. The bill's sponsor, Baltimore County Democrat Robert Zirkin, during debate cited research showing that reducing the penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana elsewhere had not resulted in more people using the drug. Full Story | Top |
| Uruguay not seen setting drug liberalisation trend: U.N. official Friday, Mar 14, 2014 12:03 PM PDT  By Fredrik Dahl and Derek Brooks VIENNA (Reuters) - The United Nations anti-drugs chief said on Friday he did not see - for now at least - Uruguay setting a trend for countries to legalise the cultivation, sale and smoking of marijuana. In a move being closely watched by other nations discussing drug liberalization, Uruguay's parliament in December approved a bill to legalise and regulate the production and sale of marijuana - the first country to do so. Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said that for now he did not see other countries following Uruguay's example. "So far I don't see any other countries, or group of countries, that may follow the route which has been taken by Uruguay," he told a news conference. Full Story | Top |
| Anti-gay laws violate global pacts: U.N. rights chief Friday, Mar 14, 2014 11:46 AM PDT  By Robert Evans GENEVA (Reuters) - A legal ban on same-sex marriage in Nigeria, Africa's largest country, violates international accords and could bring mob law against gays onto its streets, the United Nations' human rights chief Navi Pillay said on Friday. Pillay told her largely Nigerian audience that the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was "living in fear", since the loosely-drafted law, not yet put into effect, had gone onto the statute books. "The law violates international law in that it is discriminatory and seriously impinges on the freedom of expression and freedom of assembly," she declared. It could also "lead to human rights defenders advocating for the rights of LGBT people receiving draconian prison sentences," Pillay said, in a clear reference to phrasing in the measure that bars promotion of homosexuality. Full Story | Top |
| Western banks cold-shoulder Iran trade finance scheme Friday, Mar 14, 2014 11:39 AM PDT  By Jonathan Saul and Parisa Hafezi LONDON/ANKARA (Reuters) - Despite a diplomatic thaw, Western banks are steering clear of attempts by Iran to get them involved in financing humanitarian transactions, fearing they could be penalized under U.S. sanctions, bankers and government officials told Reuters. Iran was never barred from buying food or other humanitarian goods under sanctions imposed because of its disputed nuclear program, but measures by the European Union and the United States have made trade generally more difficult over the past two years by hindering payments and shipping. As part of talks in Geneva over the nuclear question, Tehran is pressing world powers to speed up trade finance arrangements on humanitarian deals involving both Western and Iranian banks, according to an Iranian government document seen by Reuters and sources familiar with the initiative. Iranian government officials and international trade sources say Tehran wants to simplify complex trade finance arrangements potentially worth billions of dollars, which would alleviate pressure on the country's sanctioned banking system. Full Story | Top |
| Italian prosecutors open probe against Roche, Novartis Friday, Mar 14, 2014 11:13 AM PDT  Prosecutors in Rome have opened an investigation into four executives at Swiss drugmakers Roche and Novartis on suspicion of fraud and manipulation of the pharmaceutical market, judicial sources said on Friday. Earlier this month, Italy's antitrust authority said Roche and Novartis colluded to try to stop cancer drug Avastin from being used to treat a serious eye disease and fined the companies 182.5 million euros ($254.2 million). Italy's regulator accused the two Basel-based firms of striking an alliance to prevent distribution of Roche's Avastin as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in favor of the more expensive drug Lucentis made by Novartis. A Novartis spokesman had no immediate comment on Friday. Full Story | Top |
| After North Carolina spill, coal ash ponds face extinction Friday, Mar 14, 2014 10:36 AM PDT  By Elizabeth Dilts NEW YORK (Reuters) - Power producers' coal ash disposal ponds like the one that leaked toxic sludge into a North Carolina river in February may soon become a thing of the past. After six years of deliberation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in May will decide on changes to the Clean Water Act that would direct power companies to remove dangerous impurities, including carcinogens, from coal ash wastewater before releasing it into rivers that supply drinking water. While the new regulations will not prohibit riverside coal ash disposal sites, the increased cost of wastewater treatment - up to $1 billion for the industry each year - could persuade power producers to move such sites inland, experts and industry groups said. At least 30,000 tons of arsenic-laced coal ash were released into North Carolina's Dan River in early February when a pipe broke under Duke Energy Corp's 27-acre (11-hectare) ash pond. Full Story | Top |
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