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| Paralyzed patients regain movement after spinal implant: study Monday, Apr 07, 2014 09:01 PM PDT  The success, albeit in a small number of patients, offers hope that a fundamentally new treatment can help many of the 6 million paralyzed Americans, including the 1.3 million with spinal cord injuries. The results also cast doubt on a key assumption about spinal cord injury: that treatment requires damaged neurons to regrow or be replaced with, for instance, stem cells. "The big message here is that people with spinal cord injury of the type these men had no longer need to think they have a lifelong sentence of paralysis," Dr Roderic Pettigrew, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, part of the National Institutes of Health, said in an interview. "They can achieve some level of voluntary function," which he called "a milestone" in spinal cord injury research. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. childhood obesity rates have increased since 1999: study Monday, Apr 07, 2014 03:06 PM PDT By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - U.S. childhood obesity rates have increased over the past 14 years, according to a study published on Monday, casting doubt on a recent analysis by government health researchers that found a sharp drop in preschool obesity rates over the past decade. The good news, announced in February by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), received widespread media coverage and prompted first lady Michelle Obama to say she was "thrilled at the progress we've made over the last few years in obesity rates among our youngest Americans. The new study, published online in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, used the same data source as the CDC, but analyzed obesity rates over a different timeframe. It found increases in obesity for children age 2 to 19, and a marked rise in the percentage who were severely obese. Full Story | Top |
| Zogenix files lawsuit against Massachusetts over painkiller ban Monday, Apr 07, 2014 02:22 PM PDT (Reuters) - Zogenix Inc said it sought a restraining order against an order by Massachusetts officials blocking sales of its FDA-approved painkiller, Zohydro. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced the Zohydro ban in late March, formally declaring a public health emergency stemming from the abuse of opioids in the state. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, follows an unanswered formal request to the Governor for a meeting to discuss the drug, the company said on Monday. Full Story | Top |
| TSX drops for third day as jitters gain the upper hand Monday, Apr 07, 2014 02:15 PM PDT  Uncertainty about what the jobs figures would mean for Federal Reserve policy and the timing of any U.S. interest rate rise boosted market volatility, fueling a selloff in U.S. stocks, and undermining the Canadian market, where insurers were hit hard for a second straight session. The S&P/TSX VIX index , which gives a glimpse of the level of market volatility, shot up 15 percent. "It's the spillover effect of weakness in the United States," said Elvis Picardo, a strategist at Global Securities in Vancouver. "Those days are over." The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite index closed down 122.77 points, or 0.85 percent, at 14,270.33. Full Story | Top |
| Next Potash Corp CEO likely to keep priority on price Monday, Apr 07, 2014 01:56 PM PDT  The next chief executive of Canada's Potash Corp of Saskatchewan , the world's biggest fertilizer producer, is likely to stick with the company's strategy of supporting prices by managing supply, rather than shifting to a volume-driven scramble for market share. Potash Corp's long-serving CEO, Bill Doyle, passes the torch to successor Jochen Tilk in July, but the charismatic Doyle will stay on as senior adviser for a year. His extended presence signals there will be no imminent change in Potash Corp's practice of scaling back output when demand slips, as the company did in December when it cut 18 percent of its workforce. Because Potash Corp owns the most potash-producing capacity in the world, a change in that philosophy would cause the crop nutrient's value to plunge. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. senators press for hard line over reported Iran-Russia deal Monday, Apr 07, 2014 01:35 PM PDT Two U.S. senators who led a push for more sanctions on Iran during negotiations over its nuclear program called on President Barack Obama on Monday to impose more restrictions if Tehran pursues an energy barter agreement with Russia. Reuters reported last week that Tehran and Moscow had made progress toward an oil-for-goods deal that sources said could be worth $20 billion and enable Iran to boost vital energy exports in defiance of Western sanctions. Senators Robert Menendez and Mark Kirk wrote to Obama and said that if Iran moved forward with the plan, Washington should respond by reinstating sanctions eased under a preliminary nuclear agreement, rigorously enforce reductions in global purchases of Iranian crude and punish any violations to the fullest extent of the law. "We urge you to put Iran on notice that United States is prepared to re-instate these sanctions should Iran attempt to evade our sanctions and violate the terms of the JPA (preliminary agreement)," wrote Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and Kirk, an Illinois Republican. Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street ends lower; S&P 500 in biggest three-day drop since January Monday, Apr 07, 2014 01:32 PM PDT  By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks fell on Monday with the S&P 500 posting its biggest three-day drop in two months, as investors bid down Internet stocks and rotated into defensive names to protect against further declines. Internet stocks were among the day's biggest decliners with Amazon.com down 1.6 percent at $317.76 and Yahoo! Inc off 3.5 percent at $33.07. The Global X Social Media ETF which includes Groupon Inc and LinkedIn fell 2.5 percent. The Nasdaq index posted its worst three-day decline since November 2011. ... Full Story | Top |
| U.S. Navy to test futuristic, super-fast gun at sea in 2016 Monday, Apr 07, 2014 01:26 PM PDT By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy is planning sea trials for a weapon that can fire a low-cost, 23-pound (10-kg) projectile at seven times the speed of sound using electromagnetic energy, a "Star Wars" technology that will make enemies think twice, the Navy's research chief said. Rear Admiral Matthew Klunder, the chief of Naval Research, told a round table group recently the futuristic electromagnetic rail gun had already undergone extensive testing on land and would be mounted on the USNS Millinocket, a high-speed vessel, for sea trials beginning in 2016. It's firing," said Klunder, who planned to discuss progress on the system later on Monday with military and industry leaders at a major maritime event - the Sea-Air-Space Exposition - near Washington. "We're also talking about a gun that's going to shoot a projectile that's about one one-hundredth of the cost of an existing missile system today." The Navy research chief said that cost differential - $25,000 for a railgun projectile versus $500,000 to $1.5 million for a missile - will make potential enemies think twice about the economic viability of engaging U.S. forces. Full Story | Top |
| Activist petition seeks end of SeaWorld California orca shows Monday, Apr 07, 2014 01:22 PM PDT  By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - The battle over a proposed ban in California on using killer whales in entertainment shows at amusement parks like SeaWorld stepped up on Monday, as animal rights activists converged on Sacramento to present petitions they said were signed by 1.2 million people worldwide. The symbolic move to present the petitions by representatives of the Animal Welfare Institute and others came a day before a committee of state lawmakers was set to debate a bill to end orca shows at SeaWorld's San Diego park. The lobbying comes after executives from SeaWorld Entertainment Inc spent two days at the state capitol presenting their case. The bill to ban orca shows at parks in California was introduced by state Assemblyman Richard Bloom, a Santa Monica Democrat, who has said he was inspired by the documentary film, "Blackfish," which tells the story of an orca that killed a trainer at SeaWorld's park in Orlando, Florida, in 2010. Full Story | Top |
| SandRidge MLP tax request snared by IRS 'pause' Monday, Apr 07, 2014 12:15 PM PDT  By Anna Driver NEW YORK (Reuters) - SandRidge Energy Inc's letter asking the Internal Revenue Service whether its water disposal business would qualify as tax-free for inclusion in a master limited partnership (MLP) has been caught up in the agency's pause of such reviews. "That process has started and there was the pause," Duane Grubert, SandRidge's head of investor relations, said at the OGIS energy conference in New York on Monday. SandRidge is exploring ways, including forming an MLP, to unlock the value of its oilfield water disposal business it estimates is worth around $1 billion. Oil and gas wells in the Mississippi Lime, a rock formation where SandRidge and other companies including Chesapeake Energy Corp operate, produce a large amount of water in the drilling process that is disposed of underground. Full Story | Top |
| Mallinckrodt to buy Questcor for lucrative MS drug Monday, Apr 07, 2014 11:48 AM PDT Specialty pharmaceuticals company Mallinckrodt Plc will buy drugmaker Questcor Pharmaceuticals Inc for about $5.6 billion to gain access to its multiple sclerosis drug, Acthar Gel, which is set to hit sales of $1 billion this year. The acquisition is Dublin-based Mallinckrodt's second in less than two months as it pushes into the lucrative specialty drugs market, which focuses on complex and chronic diseases. Mallinckrodt's shareholders took a dim view of the deal, however, pushing the company's shares down as much as 10 percent. Questcor has been facing federal probes into its marketing practices related to Acthar and multiple accusations from short-seller Citron Research. Full Story | Top |
| EU study finds honey bees death rates are lower than feared Monday, Apr 07, 2014 11:31 AM PDT  By Barbara Lewis BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A pioneering European Union survey into the impact of pests and diseases on honey bees found death rates were lower than feared, in part countering concerns about the collapse of colonies of the crop-pollinating insects. The study of 32,000 bee colonies across 17 EU member states from late 2012 until summer 2013 found winter mortality rates ranged from 3.5 percent to 33.6 percent. The winter of 2012-13 was particularly cold and the highest mortality rates were in northern countries with harsher climates. During the beekeeping season, when the insects are active, mortality rates were between 0.3 percent and 13.6 percent. Full Story | Top |
| After deal, Libya's ports prepare to load oil tankers Monday, Apr 07, 2014 10:30 AM PDT By Ayman al-Warfalli and Ahmed Elumami ZUEITINA PORT, Libya/TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya's Zueitina oil port prepared on Monday to load crude into tankers after the government reached a deal with rebels to reopen four terminals that insurgents have occupied since the summer. The federalist rebels agreed on Sunday to end gradually their eight-month blockade of Zueitina, Hariga, Ras Lanuf and Es Sider ports, which account for around 700,000 barrels per day of the OPEC country's crude exports. Full Story | Top |
| EPA chief says power plant rule will be tough, enforceable Monday, Apr 07, 2014 10:14 AM PDT By Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's chief said on Monday that new carbon pollution standards due in June will be flexible enough for all states to meet but will be environmentally stringent and federally enforceable. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy gave her first remarks since the agency sent its proposed rule, which aims to curb carbon emissions from more than 1,000 existing power plants in the United States, to the White House's Office of Management and Budget for review. The rule, a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's second-term climate change strategy, is on track to be released in June, kicking off a months-long public comment process. Without providing details on the highly anticipated rule, McCarthy said the proposal targeting the largest source of domestic carbon emissions would have regulatory teeth. Full Story | Top |
| Russia says Ukraine needs 'international assistance' on constitution Monday, Apr 07, 2014 10:09 AM PDT MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his German counterpart on Monday that "international assistance" was needed in Ukraine to help carry out constitutional reform, his ministry said in a statement. Lavrov told Frank-Walter Steinmeier in a telephone conversation that it was necessary "to take urgent efforts to organize international assistance for the soonest start of a national dialogue of all political forces and regions of Ukraine ... in order to openly agree on a mutually acceptable constitutional reform." (Reporting By Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Full Story | Top |
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