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White House pushes colleges to crack down on sexual assaults Monday, Apr 28, 2014 06:59 PM PDT By Jeff Mason WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House will press U.S. colleges and universities on Tuesday to do more to curb sexual assaults on students while it launches a new website, NotAlone.gov, to help victims find resources and report crimes. The move comes after a three-month study by a task force established by President Barack Obama in January to help identify ways to protect students from sexual violence. "Colleges and universities need to face the facts about sexual assault. No more turning a blind eye or pretending it doesn't exist," Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement released on Monday evening. Full Story | Top |
Pfizer move to join tax-driven deal-making raises red flags in U.S Monday, Apr 28, 2014 03:58 PM PDT A wave of tax-driven overseas deal-making by U.S. companies gained momentum with drugmaker Pfizer Inc's announcement on Monday that it had made takeover bids for UK rival AstraZeneca Plc , fueling political concerns about tax "reflagging" strategies. Pfizer said it wants to buy AstraZeneca and merge the two companies into a UK holding company with a UK tax domicile, while maintaining its operational headquarters in New York. It would likely be the largest deal ever done that included such a so-called tax "inversion." If a deal goes through - which is far from certain given AstraZeneca has so far rejected Pfizer's overtures - it would likely mean a loss of corporate tax revenue for the United States, and a lower effective tax rate for the combined entity than the two companies pay now. For 2013, Pfizer disclosed an effective rate of 27.5 percent and global cash income tax paid of $2.87 billion, including income taxes paid to the U.S. government and other state and foreign tax authorities, based on company filings. Full Story | Top |
Actavis sues U.S. drug regulator over generic Celebrex Monday, Apr 28, 2014 03:40 PM PDT (Reuters) - Actavis Plc said on Monday it has sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, challenging its decision to award exclusive rights to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd to sell a generic version of Pfizer Inc's blockbuster painkiller Celebrex. A similar lawsuit was announced Friday by Mylan Inc over generic drug marketing exclusivity for Celebrex. Actavis alleges that FDA improperly awarded sole exclusivity to Teva despite an earlier ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that resulted in the expiration of that entitlement. Full Story | Top |
Reproductive health app wins health-and-fitness Webby Monday, Apr 28, 2014 03:21 PM PDT By Daniel Gaitan NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Glow, a reproductive health service, was announced Monday as the Webby Award winner for best health and fitness mobile application. The free app, available for iOS and Android operating systems, aims to help women take full control over their reproductive health and calculate when they are most fertile http://bit.ly/1fqI2lb. Users begin by indicating whether or not they are trying to conceive, before adding personal health information, including weight, height, activity level, average menstrual cycle and body temperature. "Glow is an ambitious enterprise where for the first time ever, our emerging ability to crunch and analyze vast quantities of data will be used to empower women (and couples) to take control of their reproductive health," according to glowing.com. Full Story | Top |
S&P 500, Dow end up after late rebound; Apple, Pfizer lift Monday, Apr 28, 2014 02:31 PM PDT By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended higher on Monday after a volatile session, as gains in Apple and Pfizer helped offset another round of selling in some high-growth tech shares. The Dow also managed to end the session with a modest gain, while the Nasdaq closed slightly lower after rebounding from a fall of over 1 percent. A flurry of merger and acquisition activity in the pharmaceutical sector increased speculation of further deal-making. Shares of Pfizer gained 4.2 percent to $32.04 after the U.S. drugmaker was said to be working on its next move in a potential bid to take over Britain's AstraZeneca Plc . Full Story | Top |
Exposure to violence declining among children, teens: study Monday, Apr 28, 2014 02:29 PM PDT By Andrew Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Despite frequent media reports of school shootings and child abuse, a new analysis says the amount of violence U.S. children are exposed to fell considerably during the past decade. The reductions persisted even through the economic recession period from 2008 to 2011, indicating the hard times experienced by many families did not translate to an increase in violence. "It should be encouragement to people who have been working on this problem," said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire in Durham. The findings are based on three telephone surveys taken in 2003, 2008 and 2011 of children and teens between the ages of two and 17 years old. Full Story | Top |
Scientists find MERS virus antibodies that may lead to treatments Monday, Apr 28, 2014 01:56 PM PDT By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found natural human antibodies to the newly-emerging Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus and say their discovery marks a step towards developing treatments for the often fatal disease. MERS, a SARS-like viral disease first detected in 2012 that has caused outbreaks in the Middle East and sporadic cases around the world, has raised international alarm in recent weeks with a surge in infections and deaths in Saudi Arabia. Saudi officials confirmed 26 more MERS cases and 10 deaths at the weekend, bringing the toll in the kingdom alone to 339 confirmed cases, of which 102 have been fatal. There is currently no cure or vaccine for MERS - a severe respiratory disease which causes cough, fever, shortness of breath, and can lead to pneumonia and kidney failure. Full Story | Top |
France meets Alstom bidders with pledge to protect jobs Monday, Apr 28, 2014 01:54 PM PDT By Natalie Huet and Benjamin Mallet PARIS (Reuters) - France said it would defend jobs and its national interest as it met suitors eyeing a breakup of engineering group Alstom on Monday and suggested it preferred Germany's Siemens over U.S. giant General Electric. President Francois Hollande held talks with GE boss Jeff Immelt on Monday morning and sat down later with Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser to discuss the fate of Alstom, the maker of the country's prestigious TGV high-speed trains and turbines for power plants. "We won't let Alstom sell this national champion behind the back of its shareholders, its employees and the French government," Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg wrote on his official Twitter account before the meetings started, accusing Alstom's CEO Patrick Kron of "a breach of national ethics". Alstom, which is battling with big debts and falling demand, was bailed out by the French government in 2004 but now needs help again. Full Story | Top |
Calling girls 'fat' may result in weight gain Monday, Apr 28, 2014 01:30 PM PDT "This study is one step closer to being able to draw that conclusion, but of course we can't definitively say that calling a girl "too fat" will make her obese," said senior author A. Janet Tomiyama of the University of California, Los Angeles. "This study recruited girls when they were age 10 and followed them over nine years, so we know it's more than just a one-time connection, which makes me believe that it's an important question to continue researching," Tomiyama told Reuters Health in an email. Those girls were more likely to have a body mass index (BMI) – a measure of weight relative to height - in the obese range ten years later than girls who answered "no," according to the results in JAMA Pediatrics. Full Story | Top |
Hiring domestic help may reduce caregiver stress Monday, Apr 28, 2014 01:13 PM PDT By Shreen Jegtiv NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Elderly spouses caring for a sick husband or wife were less stressed when they hired a domestic helper, suggests a new study from China. "Domestic helpers provide support not just to frail older adults, but also to family caregivers - in this case, it is the spousal caregivers," Alice Chong told Reuters Health in an email. About half of spousal caregivers show signs of distress, anger or depression, especially when their spouse is older and frail, according to Chong and her coauthors. They wanted to determine whether having a domestic helper might reduce the spousal caregivers' distress to the extent that they were better able to allow the frail elders to stay at home. Full Story | Top |
Siemens offer for Alstom likely on Tuesday: source Monday, Apr 28, 2014 12:16 PM PDT Germany's Siemens is due to present its offer for a possible deal with French peer Alstom on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the matter. "The Siemens' offer should be confirmed tomorrow during the day," the source said. He added that the French state believed that Alstom should take the time necessary to examine all the offers on the table. A spokesman for Siemens in Munich did not confirm the information. Full Story | Top |
Pfizer chases AstraZeneca for potential $100 billion deal Monday, Apr 28, 2014 12:06 PM PDT By Ben Hirschler and Ransdell Pierson LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc approached Britain's AstraZeneca Plc two days ago to reignite a potential $100 billion takeover and was rebuffed, raising investor expectations it will have to increase its offer to close the deal. Pfizer said on Monday it proposed a takeover to AstraZeneca in January worth 58.8 billion pounds ($98.9 billion), or nearly 47 pounds per share. AstraZeneca shares were up 11.7 percent at $76.69 in New York on news of the latest offer, which would be the biggest foreign acquisition of a British company and one of the largest pharmaceutical deals. Pfizer shares were up 3.8 percent at $31.92 on the New York Stock Exchange on Monday afternoon. Full Story | Top |
Obama's health secretary nominee faces May 8 Senate hearing Monday, Apr 28, 2014 10:32 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. health secretary, will appear before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee on May 8 for the first of two confirmation hearings, a committee official said on Monday. Burwell, who would replace outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius if confirmed by lawmakers, is also expected to testify later at a separate hearing before the Senate Finance Committee. But a date for those proceedings has not been set, a Democratic Senate aide said. ... Full Story | Top |
How do you know when it's time for hospice? Monday, Apr 28, 2014 09:52 AM PDT By Randi Belisomo NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Worn out and needing someone to know she was desperate, Jen Bosworth called her mother's physician. "She was having problems getting around, and treatments weren't working," recalls Bosworth, then a 35-year-old newlywed. "She was spending more time being schlepped around than enjoying life." Bosworth's doctor welcomed the call, offering a new option: hospice care. "I was totally afraid of that word," remembers Bosworth, who wrote a one-woman show about her mother's illness, Why Not Me: Love, Cancer and Jack White. Full Story | Top |
Uganda says planning tougher law limiting gay sex, foreign NGOs Monday, Apr 28, 2014 09:03 AM PDT By Elias Biryabarema KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda has drafted a new law that would bar non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from promoting homosexuality, tightening rules further after anti-gay legislation in February was widely condemned as draconian. The draft, now being studied by the cabinet before being introduced in parliament, would also ban foreign NGOs from meddling in the east African country's politics, junior internal affairs minister James Baba told Reuters on Monday. Critics say the legislation will further erode civil liberties and entrench a climate of oppression and political intolerance already evolving ahead of 2016 polls in which veteran leader, Yoweri Museveni, is expected to stand. The February law strengthened punishments for having gay sex and imposed jail terms of up to life for some categories of homosexuality, including sex with a minor or while HIV-positive. Full Story | Top |
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