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| Environment as important as genes in autism, study finds Saturday, May 03, 2014 01:41 PM PDT By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Environmental factors are more important than previously thought in leading to autism, as big a factor as genes, according to the largest analysis to date to look at how the brain disorder runs in families. Sven Sandin, who worked on the study at King's College London and Sweden's Karolinska institute, said it was prompted "by a very basic question which parents often ask: 'If I have a child with autism, what is the risk my next child will too?'" The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), suggest heritability is only half the story, with the other 50 percent explained by environmental factors such as birth complications, socio-economic status, or parental health and lifestyle. The study also found that children with a brother or sister with autism are 10 times more likely to develop the condition, three times if they have a half-brother or sister with autism, and twice as likely if they have a cousin with autism. Full Story | Top |
| Boy who survived flight in wheel well 'no longer in Hawaii' Saturday, May 03, 2014 01:30 PM PDT  A 15-year-old Somali boy who survived a nearly six-hour trip from California to Hawaii stowed away in the wheel well of an airplane has left protective custody in Hawaii, officials said on Saturday. The teenager was "no longer in Hawaii" according to a brief statement from Hawaii's Department of Human Services. The boy has been in protective custody in Hawaii since he sneaked into the wheel compartment of a Boeing 767 that took off April 20th from San Jose International Airport. His mother, Ubah Mohamed Abdulle, said in a radio interview with the Voice of America that she had fled Somalia and was living in a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Full Story | Top |
| Indiana hospital caring for MERS patient still bustling Saturday, May 03, 2014 11:54 AM PDT  By Karl Plume MUNSTER, Indiana (Reuters) - Along a stretch of rust-belt suburbia in Indiana, the Community Hospital in Munster now claims the dubious distinction of being the first U.S. facility to admit a patient with the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The patient, a male healthcare worker, had traveled to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and began exhibiting symptoms upon his return to the United States, they said. Separately, Saudi officials on Saturday said the rate of infections was on the rise in the country, where MERS was first discovered in 2012. At Community Hospital, however, the news did not seem to create panic among Munster residents soon after it was broadcast on local news outlets. Full Story | Top |
| Saudi Arabia reports 25 new cases of MERS, deaths stand at 109 Saturday, May 03, 2014 06:26 AM PDT  Saudi Arabia has found 25 more cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) as the rate of infections rises and two more people have died from the new disease, the kingdom's Health Ministry said. On Friday seven people were confirmed as having MERS, followed by 18 more on Saturday, the biggest daily increase in new infections so far. On Friday the United States said it had discovered its first confirmed case of the disease in a man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia. Egypt said it discovered its first case, also in a man who had been in Saudi Arabia, on Thursday. Full Story | Top |
| Pfizer expected to be patient in face of AstraZeneca rejection Saturday, May 03, 2014 05:11 AM PDT Pfizer Inc has already had its takeover overtures rebuffed three times by rival AstraZeneca Plc, but investors in the U.S. drugmaker say it can tolerate a little more rejection before going hostile with the deal. AstraZeneca turned down a sweetened Pfizer cash and stock offer on Friday that amounted to 63 billion pounds ($106 billion), or about 50 pounds per share, saying it substantially undervalued the British drugmaker. The raised offer followed unsolicited Pfizer approaches in late April and January. Investors and analysts say Pfizer needs to raise its offer as high as 52 to 55 pounds per share to close the deal, as well as increase the cash portion to as much as 50 percent from around 30 percent. Full Story | Top |
| Pfizer U.S. research jobs jeopardized by promises to UK for merger Saturday, May 03, 2014 05:09 AM PDT  By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot NEW YORK (Reuters) - Employees at Pfizer Inc's U.S. research centers, such as the La Jolla, California site that specializes in cancer drugs, may want to dust off their resumes if the company's proposed acquisition of Britain's AstraZeneca comes to fruition. Pfizer said on Friday it was determined to reach a deal that would restore its status as the world's biggest pharmaceutical company despite AstraZeneca's rejection of its latest cash and stock offer of 63 billion pounds ($106 billion). To reassure the British government about its proposal, Pfizer has promised the combined company would keep 20 percent of its research and development workforce in the country. It also vowed to complete construction of a research center planned by AstraZeneca in Cambridge, England, and retain a manufacturing plant in the northern town of Macclesfield. Full Story | Top |
| Marijuana banking scheme passes first test in Colorado legislature Friday, May 02, 2014 10:11 PM PDT By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado lawmakers on Friday passed a bill that if enacted would lead to the first marijuana financial system in the United States, potentially granting legal cannabis businesses access to the Federal Reserve's money transaction system. Traditional banks have been wary to knowingly serve legal and medicinal marijuana businesses because the drug remains illegal under federal law, said the bill's sponsor, Representative Jonathan Singer. "This sets up a new type of financial structure to the gap we're seeing between banking and the marijuana industry," said Singer, a Democrat. The proposal calls for new "cannabis credit co-ops" - similar to credit unions without deposit insurance - to be governed by the state's financial services commissioner. Full Story | Top |
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