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| First U.S. case of deadly MERS virus confirmed: CDC Friday, May 02, 2014 04:53 PM PDT  A healthcare worker who had traveled to Saudi Arabia was confirmed as the first U.S. case of Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS), an often fatal illness, raising new concerns about the rapid spread of such diseases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. The male patient traveled via a British Airways flight on April 24 from Riyadh to London, where he changed flights at Heathrow airport to fly to the United States. He landed in Chicago and took a bus to an undisclosed city in Indiana. According to the Indiana State Department of Health, the man visited the emergency department at Community Hospital in Munster, Indiana, on April 28 and was admitted that same day. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: U.S. anti-money laundering authority faces hiring probe - sources Friday, May 02, 2014 04:32 PM PDT  By Emily Flitter and Brett Wolf NEW YORK/ST LOUIS (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department temporarily froze all recruitment by its anti-money laundering arm and forced the agency to rescind 11 job offers, after an investigation found it violated the federal employment code during an aggressive hiring push, according to several government officials. The Office of Personnel Management, a federal agency that governs labor practices in the government, determined that the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, illegally screened candidates in a quest to hire only lawyers for certain jobs, the officials said. It has recommended further investigations by two other federal agencies into FinCEN's practices, they added. Rules for hiring at government agencies make it illegal to screen candidates for qualifications that aren't stipulated in the job description, and the jobs FinCEN had posted weren't designated as being only for lawyers, the officials said. Full Story | Top |
| Bear that bit Missouri students has no rabies, is spared Friday, May 02, 2014 04:09 PM PDT  (Reuters) - A two-month-old bear cub that bit and scratched at least 18 students at a Missouri college poses no rabies threat and won't be killed, school officials said on Friday. The college earlier said that the cub, named Boo Boo, would have to be euthanized in order to test it for the disease. The cub was brought to the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sunday along with some other animals from a petting zoo to help students relax before final exams, the university said in a statement. Health officials previously said they couldn't rule out the possibility the cub had rabies, the university said. Full Story | Top |
| A bipartisan push to protect children online Friday, May 02, 2014 02:54 PM PDT By Daniel Gaitan NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A bipartisan effort aiming to help protect the privacy of children and young teenagers online is making its way through Congress. The Do Not Track Kids Act of 2013, introduced in both the House and Senate in November, would amend the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998, and apply prohibitions against the collection of personal information from children and young teens to online and mobile applications. "Children and teens are visiting numerous companies' websites, and marketers are using multimedia games, online quizzes, and mobile phone and tablet applications to create ties to children and teens," the bill reads. If passed, the bill would prohibit website and mobile application operators from using or providing the personal information of children and young teens to third parties without verifiable consent from a parent, or from the minor if he or she is between 13 and 15. Full Story | Top |
| Obama to have attorney general look into botched Oklahoma execution Friday, May 02, 2014 02:26 PM PDT  President Barack Obama on Friday said the botched execution of a murderer in Oklahoma raises questions about the death penalty in the United States and he will ask the U.S. attorney general to look into the situation. "What happened in Oklahoma is deeply troubling," he said. The condemned man, Clayton Lockett, 38, who was convicted of murder, rape, kidnapping and robbery in a 1999 crime spree, died of an apparent heart attack minutes after the lethal injection protocol failed. A prison report said the problem was largely due to a collapsed vein during the injection of the lethal drugs and that the needle was inserted in Lockett's groin instead of his arm. Full Story | Top |
| Wall Street dips as Ukraine concern offsets upbeat jobs data Friday, May 02, 2014 01:45 PM PDT  By Caroline Valetkevitch NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks eased on Friday as concerns about more violence in Ukraine prompted profit-taking ahead of the weekend and offset optimism about the fastest job growth in more than two years. Healthcare shares were among the biggest drags on the S&P 500, including U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc . Its shares fell 1.3 percent to $30.75 after its sweetened bid for AstraZeneca Plc was rejected. Adding to market pressure, more than 40 people were killed in the Ukrainian city of Odessa on Friday in the worst violence in the Black Sea port since President Viktor Yanukovich was ousted in February. Full Story | Top |
| Florida lawmakers approve medical marijuana bill Friday, May 02, 2014 01:42 PM PDT  By Bill Cotterell TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Florida legislators voted on Friday to allow doctors to prescribe a special strain of "non-euphoric" marijuana for treatment of chronic epileptic seizures and some other severe illnesses. Governor Rick Scott said he will sign the bill into law when it reaches his desk. It was historic," said Ron Watson, a lobbyist whose 8-year-old son, Dylan, died of leukemia. Watson and several other parents, many wheeling their stricken children into the Capitol, testified at committee hearings and contacted House and Senate members throughout this year's 60-day session of the Florida Legislature. Full Story | Top |
| Resources lift TSX to near six-year high Friday, May 02, 2014 01:42 PM PDT  By John Tilak TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index climbed to its highest in almost six years on Friday after higher commodity prices drove strong advances in natural resource shares, offsetting mixed U.S. jobs data. A flurry of acquisition deals and earnings reports also provided support. Shares of engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin Group Inc jumped 5.1 percent to C$52.14 after SNC said it will sell its AltaLink transmission system to Berkshire Hathaway Inc's energy unit for about $2.9 billion. While figures on Friday showed U.S. ... Full Story | Top |
| Cleaver-wielding man gets life in prison for killing NY psychologist Friday, May 02, 2014 12:33 PM PDT By Lindsay Dunsmuir NEW YORK (Reuters) - A cleaver- and mallet-wielding man who killed a psychologist in her Manhattan office during a botched robbery six years ago was sentenced on Friday to life in prison without parole, prosecutors said. Despite his insanity defense, David Tarloff, 46, was convicted in March of murder and assault in the attack on Kathryn Faughey, who was bludgeoned and stabbed to death, and her colleague, psychiatrist Kent Shinbach, MD, who was seriously injured, at their offices on New York's Upper East Side. Faughey died after being stabbed in the chest and struck multiple times on the head with a mallet in the February 2008 attack, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., said in a press release. The sentencing in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Friday marks the end of the long-running case, which had hinged on Tarloff's psychological condition. Full Story | Top |
| France to ban pigs and byproducts from North America, Japan over virus Friday, May 02, 2014 12:00 PM PDT By Sybille de La Hamaide PARIS (Reuters) - France will ban imports of live pigs, pork-based byproducts and pig sperm from the United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan to protect against a virus that has killed millions of piglets in North America and Asia, a farm ministry official said on Friday. The ban, which is due to be introduced on Saturday and does not include pork meat for human consumption, aims to ward off Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus (PEDv), which has killed around 7 million young pigs since first identified in the United States almost a year ago. "This disease worries us because the economic consequences would be dramatic if it hit our farms, in Europe and notably in France," Jean-Luc Angot, deputy director general and chief veterinary officer at the French farm ministry, told Reuters. Full Story | Top |
| ED drugs not working? You may not be using them right Friday, May 02, 2014 11:47 AM PDT By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who don't have success with popular erectile dysfunction drugs may be using them incorrectly, suggests a new study from Spain. Of 172 men who were not properly using their erectile dysfunction (ED) drugs, 88 responded to the medicines after they were re-educated about the treatments. "The idea came to us when we saw that a lot of patients sent to our specialized unit to try a different treatment for ED were not taking the PDE5i under optimal conditions," Dr. Borja Garcia Gomez told Reuters Health in an email. Gomez is an author of the new study from the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre in Madrid. Full Story | Top |
| ADHD medicine’s long-term safety still a question Friday, May 02, 2014 11:32 AM PDT By Ronnie Cohen NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Scant research has been done on the long-term safety of drugs for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a new analysis shows, though millions of American children have been taking them for decades. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 11 percent of American children between the ages of four and 17 - or 6.4 million - had been diagnosed with ADHD as of 2011. "We have too few long-term studies on the effects of these medicines," Dr. Sanford Newmark told Reuters Health. Researchers from the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan, Italy, found a dearth of long-term studies on side effects of stimulants such as Ritalin, which some kids take into adulthood. Full Story | Top |
| Boo Boo the bear cub bites 14 university students, sparks rabies scare Friday, May 02, 2014 10:42 AM PDT (Reuters) - A two-month-old bear cub meant to help students relax before final exams nipped more than a dozen of them at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and will have to be killed for rabies testing, the school said Friday. The cub, named Boo Boo, was brought to the university campus on Sunday along with other animals from a local petting zoo, the school said in a statement. Animals from the zoo have been brought to the private university in St. Louis for several years during exam time, but Boo Boo was included this year without the university's knowledge, the statement said. If the bear tests positive, students will be advised to get vaccinated for rabies, a life-threatening viral disease. Full Story | Top |
| Endocyte's ovarian cancer drug fails trial, shares sink Friday, May 02, 2014 09:20 AM PDT (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc and Endocyte Inc said they had stopped a late-stage trial of their experimental ovarian cancer drug as it failed to improve survival rates without the cancer worsening, sending Endocyte's shares tumbling as much as 63 percent. Vintafolide, Endocyte's lead drug, was recommended for conditional approval in Europe in March but Friday's trial failure could cast a shadow on the approval. "Now, with this development, we think the chances of formal approval are slim to none," Christopher Raymond, analyst at Robert W. Baird, wrote in a note. The drug is the only ovarian cancer treatment in advanced trials for Merck, which is considered one of the forerunners in cancer drug research along with Roche. Full Story | Top |
| Acorda Therapeutics says FDA rejects epilepsy drug Friday, May 02, 2014 09:19 AM PDT Acorda Therapeutics Inc said the Food and Drug Administration rejected its nasal form of the current standard therapy for epilepsy patients who experience repetitive seizures. The biotechnology company's shares fell as much as 11 percent after it said that it does not expect the treatment to receive regulatory approval this year. Piper Jaffray analyst David Amsellem said the drug's marketing filing was also low risk as it allowed Acorda to present data including research not conducted by or for the company. The application referenced Valeant Pharmaceuticals' Diastat — the current standard-of-care for epilepsy accompanied by so-called cluster seizures — which is administered rectally via a syringe. Full Story | Top |
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