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| California bill seeks to curb sexually explicit Internet bullying by teens Friday, Mar 07, 2014 07:02 PM PST  By Laila Kearney SARATOGA, California (Reuters) - Teenagers who share sexually explicit images of others on the Internet to harass them could soon face tougher punishment under California legislation proposed on Friday, spurred by the suicide of a teen after images of her sexual assault were circulated to other students. The new bill, dubbed Audrie's Law after 15-year-old Audrie Pott, who killed herself in Los Altos in September 2012, is the latest effort by lawmakers in California and other states to curb online cruelty that has been blamed for a number of teen suicides. The law would make it a crime for juveniles, those under age 18, to take or distribute images of a sexual nature of a minor with the intent to harass, shame or intimidate the person, said Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen, who helped draft the legislation. The proposed law would also allow juveniles to be tried as adults if they are accused of sexually assaulting an intoxicated, developmentally disabled or otherwise incapacitated person. Full Story | Top |
| Ranbaxy recalls over 64,000 bottles of generic Lipitor in U.S Friday, Mar 07, 2014 06:52 PM PST (Reuters) - Indian drug maker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has recalled more than 64,000 bottles of the generic versions of its cholesterol-lowering drug in the United States due to reports of a dose mix-up, U.S. regulators said. Ranbaxy recalled tablets of atorvastatin calcium, the generic name for Lipitor's active ingredient, after a pharmacist found a 20-milligram tablet in a sealed bottle marked for 10-milligram tablets, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said on its website. The FDA declared a Class II recall, which signifies a remote chance of severe adverse consequences or death due to the product flaw. Ranbaxy could not be reached for comment outside of India's business hours. Full Story | Top |
| Ohio couple found guilty of enslaving woman and child Friday, Mar 07, 2014 05:47 PM PST By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - An Ohio couple was convicted on Friday of holding captive a cognitively disabled woman and her young child, who were forced to eat dog food and threatened with a large snake, federal prosecutors said. A jury found Jordie Callahan, 27 and Jessica Hunt, 32, guilty of engaging in labor trafficking, conspiracy and forced labor after a three-week trial in a Youngstown federal court. Prosecutors told jurors during the trial that Callahan threatened to kill the adult victim if she did not engage in sex acts with him, clean the apartment, go to the store and care for the couple's numerous dogs and reptiles. Prosecutors also said the victims were beaten, threatened with pit bulls and a 130-lb (60-kg) Burmese python, fed dog food and made to crawl on the floor while wearing a dog collar as they were being held captive in a room in the couple's Ashland apartment, some 85 miles northeast of Columbus. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. fraternity ends pledging for new members after hazing deaths Friday, Mar 07, 2014 05:22 PM PST By Mary Wisniewski CHICAGO (Reuters) - Sigma Alpha Epsilon, one of the oldest and largest U.S. college fraternities, said on Friday that it would eliminate its member initiation practices, following a number of hazing-related deaths and other incidents. Starting Sunday, the fraternity with 14,000 undergraduate members across the country will end pledging, according to a statement from SAE, based in Evanston, Illinois. Pledging usually involves doing chores and learning fraternity history for weeks or months. "We have experienced a number of incidents and deaths, events with consequences that have never been consistent with our membership experience," SAE said in a statement. Full Story | Top |
| Malaysia's Anwar convicted of sodomy, political future in doubt Friday, Mar 07, 2014 04:10 PM PST  By Al-Zaquan Amer Hamzah PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia (Reuters) - A Malaysian court convicted opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy and sentenced him to five years in prison on Friday, shattering his plan to take control of the country's richest state and stoking political tension in the Southeast Asian nation following a divisive national election last year. The former deputy prime minister, who was previously jailed for six years on sodomy and corruption charges, will not be jailed immediately as his lawyers won a stay of the sentence pending an appeal. But the ruling bars Anwar from running for a seat in the state assembly of Selangor this month, a move that would likely have paved the way for him to become chief minister of Malaysia's most populous state - a potent platform from which to attack the government ahead of the next national election. This has been choreographed," he added, saying the government had underestimated "the wrath of the people." A government spokesman said that Malaysia had an "independent judiciary." "This is a case between two individuals and is a matter for the courts, not the government," the spokesman said. Full Story | Top |
| Obama visits Florida ahead of bellwether special election Friday, Mar 07, 2014 03:47 PM PST  By Roberta Rampton MIAMI (Reuters) - President Barack Obama gave a feel-good campaign-style speech at a gymnasium packed with screaming high school students on Friday, sketching out the main points of his populist agenda ahead of a special election in Florida on Tuesday. Obama did not mention the race for the House of Representatives seat that had been held by the late Republican Bill Young in a congressional district that includes St. Petersburg, a city north of Miami. The White House said it was a coincidence that his speech came just before the election. Obama and his family plan to spend the rest of his weekend in Florida, at a lush Key Largo private resort. Full Story | Top |
| FDA probes cognitive impact of new cholesterol drugs Friday, Mar 07, 2014 03:09 PM PST The Food and Drug Administration has asked Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc and Sanofi SA to assess potential neurocognitive side effects of their experimental cholesterol drug, Sanofi said in its annual report on Friday. Amgen Inc, which is developing a similar drug, said it has also been in communication with the agency. The FDA said it could not discuss specific development programs, but is "aware of concerns raised with neurocognitive adverse events and other lipid-lowering therapies, including statins, and as part of our oversight of new drug development, we are carefully monitoring these events." The new drugs are part of an experimental class known as PCSK9 inhibitors designed to block a protein that maintains "bad" LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. extends Terremark contract as HealthCare.gov host Friday, Mar 07, 2014 02:56 PM PST  The Obama administration said on Friday Verizon Communications Inc's Terremark unit will remain under contract as host of the federal website HealthCare.gov to better ensure a smooth end to Obamacare's open enrollment period on March 31. Terremark's contract with the Department of Health and Human Services was due to expire on March 30, the day before the end of open enrollment for 2014, a time when high daily volumes are expected as consumers from 36 states rush to use to website to sign up for subsidized private health insurance. It would be extended for up to seven months, according to federal documents. Hewlett-Packard Co has been named to replace Terremark as website host and operator of the department's federal data center as part of Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. deadly pig virus cases on the rise Friday, Mar 07, 2014 02:03 PM PST (Reuters) - Cases of the deadly Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, a highly contagious pig disease, are increasing across the U.S. farm belt, a group of animal health researchers said. Confirmed cases of PEDv increased by 252 in the week ending March 1, bringing the total number to 4,106 in 26 states, according to data released on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Animal Health Laboratory Network. Full Story | Top |
| Pretty plating can improve likability of foods Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:35 PM PST "I'm very happy that chefs are now looking at things like this, because people eat out more and more, so to have chefs being aware that what they do may have a long lasting effect on people's food choices is a good thing," lead study author Debra Zellner told Reuters Health. Zellner is a researcher and professor in the psychology department at Montclair State University in New Jersey. In previous studies, she's found that people were "turned on" by neatness and balance in the plating of food, but she wanted to see if stepping up the presentation to a professional level would make a difference, so she contacted the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, to invite them to collaborate. "Chefs have all these ideas of what they should be doing and how they should be doing it - and they believe it matters to the consumer - but there's no data," Zellner said. Full Story | Top |
| Study ties troubled sleep to lower brain volume Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:33 PM PST  By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who have trouble sleeping tend to have less volume in certain regions of the brain than those without sleep problems, a new study of Persian Gulf War veterans suggests. "People discount the importance of sleep. "The study suggests we shouldn't discount sleep importance," she said. In their study, sleep was associated with the amount of gray matter in the brain's frontal lobe in particular. Full Story | Top |
| One in 100 Americans has chronic hepatitis C infection Friday, Mar 07, 2014 01:33 PM PST By Will Boggs MD NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - At least one percent of Americans are chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus, which over time can severely damage the liver, according to a new study. "Hepatitis C has a severe impact on the health and well-being of millions of Americans, especially baby boomers (those born from 1945 through 1965)," Dr. Scott D. Holmberg told Reuters Health in an email. "The new data from a nationally representative survey of the general United States population (the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, or NHANES) found about 2.7 million people have chronic hepatitis C infection," he added. "This number should be considered a minimum estimate for those infected in the U.S., because some populations known to be at high risk for hepatitis C, such as those who are homeless or incarcerated, are not included in the sample," Holmberg said. Full Story | Top |
| Mom who drove kids into ocean off Florida charged with attempted murder Friday, Mar 07, 2014 12:31 PM PST  By Barbara Liston and Kevin Gray ORLANDO/MIAMI (Reuters) - A pregnant woman who drove a minivan with her children inside into the surf off a Florida beach was charged with three counts of attempted murder, law enforcement officials said on Friday. A tourist's video showed lifeguards and bystanders rushing to help rescue the woman, Ebony Wilkerson, and her children, ages 3, 9 and 10, as their van bobbed in the waves on Daytona Beach on Tuesday. Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson said Wilkerson told authorities she was not trying to hurt the children. Wilkerson, 32, was arrested on Friday after a mental health evaluation and charged with three counts of child abuse. Full Story | Top |
| Ohio Attorney General DeWine in hospital after falling ill Friday, Mar 07, 2014 11:48 AM PST Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine collapsed during a speaking engagement on Friday and was taken to a Cincinnati hospital, his office said in a statement. DeWine, 67, a former two-term U.S. senator, was elected Ohio's attorney general in 2010. The statement said DeWine was, "as a precaution ... taken to The Christ Hospital to be evaluated." The Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper reported that DeWine was alert after passing out during the speaking event. DeWine's office oversaw a grand jury investigation into a cover-up by school officials in Steubenville after two football players were accused of rape last year. Full Story | Top |
| Mentor women after maternity leave, says Morgan Stanley boss Friday, Mar 07, 2014 10:47 AM PST  By Anjuli Davies and Sophie Sassard LONDON (Reuters) - For top Morgan Stanley financier Cecile Houlot-Hillary, every day brings pressure in the form of complex bond deals, intense competition and demands from high level clients. But, says the 17 year veteran of investment banking, the most challenging part of her career so far has been navigating her three spells of maternity leave. "It was clearly the crunch point - coming back and making sure I was still on track and nothing was going to stop me." Her successful return to work was largely down to the support of her managers, says French-born Houlot-Hillary, who believes such coaching is key for banks and their female employees. The 39-year-old, co-head of debt capital markets for financial firms at Morgan Stanley, is now a key player in the bank's diversity program, which includes coaching for women returning to work after having children. Full Story | Top |
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