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| Minister warns Scotland could vote for independence, despite polls Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 07:54 PM PDT  By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - The government minister responsible for Scotland warned on Sunday nationalists could win an independence referendum this year because of complacency among those campaigning to hold the United Kingdom together. Speaking ahead of a September 18 vote that will decide whether Scotland breaks its three-century-old union with England, Alistair Carmichael, the Secretary of State for Scotland, said nationalists had a huge "war chest" to fund their campaign and appeared more "hungry" for victory. "Well I've got to tell everybody it could." Opinion polls have long shown Scots would vote to reject independence by a clear margin. Full Story | Top |
| British experts say they have found London's lost Black Death graves Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 07:38 PM PDT  By Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - Archaeologists in Britain said on Sunday they had solved a 660-year-old mystery, citing DNA tests which they said proved they had found a lost burial site for tens of thousands of people killed in medieval London by the "Black Death" plague. The breakthrough follows the discovery last year of 13 skeletons wrapped in shrouds laid out in neat rows during excavations for London's new Crossrail rail line, Europe's biggest infrastructure project. Archaeologists, who say the find sheds new light on medieval England and its inhabitants, later found 12 more skeletons taking the total to 25. Limited records suggest up to 50,000 victims were buried in the cemetery in London's Farringdon district, one of two emergency burial sites. Full Story | Top |
| Yellowstone National Park rattled by largest earthquake in 34 years Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 05:49 PM PDT  The latest earthquake struck at 6:34 a.m. near the Norris Geyser Basin and was felt about 23 miles away in two small Montana towns adjacent to year-around entrances to the park - Gardiner and West Yellowstone. The national park spans 3,472 square miles (8,992 square km) of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, and draws about 3 million visitors each year to its iconic geysers and wildlife attractions, including bison. A U.S. Geological Survey team planned to tour the Norris Geyser Basin on Sunday to determine if the quake altered any of Yellowstone's geothermal features, such as geysers, mud pots and hot springs. Several people reported having felt shaking they compared to the rumble of a tractor-trailer truck driving by, and a few items fell off the shelves at a local grocery store, a West Yellowstone police dispatcher said. Full Story | Top |
| Global warming threat heightened in latest U.N. report Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 05:07 PM PDT Global warming poses a mounting threat to the health, economic prospects, and food and water sources of billions of people, a report by top scientists said, in a call for urgent action to counter the effects of carbon emissions. The latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), places an emphasis on the risks and may make the case for cutting greenhouse gas emissions clearer both to policymakers and the public by placing it in the category of an insurance policy for the planet. "Climate change is really a challenge of managing risks," Christopher Field, co-chair of the IPCC group preparing the report, told Reuters before its release on Monday. "One critical way is in decreasing the amount of climate change that occurs, and the other is finding a way to cope as effectively as we can with the climate changes that can't be avoided," Field said. Full Story | Top |
| Credit markets open to Argentina for first time in years: ministry Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 04:34 PM PDT  Argentina has been approached by financial institutions offering it loans at favorable rates, the economy ministry said on Sunday, marking a tentative reopening of international credit markets for the first time in over a decade. The economy ministry issued a statement on Sunday, saying it had received offers of credit from abroad. "In recent weeks ... various financial institutions have presented proposals of access to external financing with repayment timetables and interest rates similar to those offered to other countries in the region," it said. It would be the first time Argentina has received loans from international creditors since a massive default in 2002. Full Story | Top |
| Liberian health authorities confirm two cases of Ebola: WHO Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 04:18 PM PDT By Alphonso Toweh MONROVIA (Reuters) - The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Sunday that Liberia has confirmed two cases of the deadly Ebola virus that is suspected to have killed at least 70 people in Guinea. The outbreak of the highly contagious Ebola, which in its more acute phase, causes vomiting, diarrhoea and external bleeding, has sent Guinea's West African neighbors scrambling to contain the spread of the disease. Eleven deaths in towns in northern Sierra Leone and Liberia, which shares borders with southeastern Guinea where the outbreak was first reported, are suspected to be linked to Ebola. Full Story | Top |
| AstraZeneca digs into new Cambridge home with MRC drug deal Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 04:02 PM PDT By Ben Hirschler CAMBRIDGE, England (Reuters) - AstraZeneca, which will complete its move to Cambridge by 2016, is already putting down roots in the ecosystem of the university city as it seeks to revitalize its drug research. Britain's second-biggest pharmaceuticals group said on Monday it had struck an unique deal with the state-funded Medical Research Council (MRC) under which academic scientists will work alongside its staff at its new Cambridge site. Transplanting AstraZeneca to the university city in the east of England forms the centerpiece of a $2.5 billion restructuring plan by Chief Executive Pascal Soriot, who hopes closer links with academia will spark ideas and innovation. AstraZeneca has suffered a dry period in drug discovery in recent years and badly needs to find new medicines to replace blockbusters like Nexium for heartburn and Crestor for high cholesterol that will lose patent protection in a few years. Full Story | Top |
| Shootout in Nigerian capital during attempted jail break kills 21 Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 04:00 PM PDT Detainees suspected of being members of Islamist militant group Boko Haram overpowered their guards at a prison near Nigeria's presidential villa in Abuja, seizing a rifle and triggering a gun battle that killed 21 people, security officials said. The prisoners struck on Sunday as the guards from Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS) came in to feed them at their headquarters' prison near the residence of President Goodluck Jonathan, SSS spokeswoman Marilyn Ogar said. Jail breaks by Islamists in Nigeria are common. Boko Haram militants, who are fighting to create an Islamic state in Nigeria and are seen as the main threat to Africa's top oil producer, attacked the main military barracks in the northeast, freeing dozens of prisoners on March 14. Full Story | Top |
| Medtronic valve for heart defects works well a year later: study Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 02:35 PM PDT By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A non-surgically implanted heart valve meant to delay open heart surgery in children with congenital heart defects worked well for all but a few patients during a year of follow-up observation, in line with favorable results seen in original clinical trials of the Medtronic Inc product. The Melody transcatheter pulmonary valve was approved in 2010 under a U.S. humanitarian device exemption, which allowed it on the market as long as a follow-up study was conducted to assess the product's reliability and safety. "The valves had excellent function during the first year, judged by no more than mild leakage and very few patients had narrowing of the valve," said Dr. Aimee Armstrong of the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories, who was lead investigator for the follow-up study sponsored by Medtronic. Within the first year of the study, eight adverse events were seen, including three cases of heart infections, two abnormal heart rhythms and one case each of bacterial infection, major stent fracture and blood clot in the lung. Full Story | Top |
| SocGen facing bribery lawsuit over Libyan deals: Financial Times Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 02:25 PM PDT  (Reuters) - The Libyan Investment Authority has accused France's second-biggest bank Societe Generale of funneling bribes worth tens of millions of dollars to associates of Saif al-Islam, the son of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the Financial Times reported late Sunday. "Societe Generale contests the unfounded allegations in the Libyan Investment Authority's (LIA) complaint," a spokeswoman for the bank said in an emailed statement, without giving more details. The FT said that the LIA claims to have suffered heavy losses in the deals with SocGen, and is seeking to have the trades voided to recoup the money allegedly paid to Leinada and to be awarded damages for the alleged fraud. Full Story | Top |
| China's war on smog will be won or lost in polluted Hebei Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 02:13 PM PDT By David Stanway BEIJING (Reuters) - China's war on pollution is only a few weeks old, but the battle lines are already being drawn between Beijing and Hebei, the province most synonymous with dirty air. A succession of Hebei officials used the annual session of parliament in Beijing this month to urge the central government to boost subsidies to help with job losses and other costs from mandated cuts in industrial production across the country. One local official said Hebei was taking on too much of the burden. The pleas came after Premier Li Keqiang, in his opening address to parliament on March 5, declared war on pollution in an attempt to head off growing anger over the quality of China's air, water and soil. Full Story | Top |
| Ancient rheumatism drug reduces recurring inflammation around heart Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 12:49 PM PDT A drug that was used in the time of the pharaohs for rheumatism has proven highly effective in treating recurrent bouts of pericarditis, an inflammation of the sac surrounding the heart, according to findings of a new clinical trial. The ancient medicine, colchicine, which has also been used for centuries as an anti-inflammatory agent for acute gout, was tested against placebo in a 240-patient pericarditis trial. The rate of recurring pericarditis was nearly halved for those taking colchicine compared with placebo, according to data presented on Sunday at the annual scientific sessions of the American College of Cardiology in Washington. The condition, which causes sharp chest pain, recurred in 42.5 percent of those taking dummy pills, compared with 21.6 percent of those who got colchicine. Full Story | Top |
| Libyan parliament passes law to organize new elections Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 12:02 PM PDT  Last month, the General National Congress (GNC) assembly agreed to hold early elections, in an apparent effort to assuage ordinary Libyans angry over political chaos in the country nearly three years after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. It is now up to the elections commission to set a date. Full Story | Top |
| Saudi dynasty moves to forestall succession crisis Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 09:29 AM PDT  By Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's appointment of Prince Muqrin as deputy crown prince is a first step towards addressing its biggest dynastic challenge for 50 years and forestalling a possible succession crisis in the world's top oil exporter. The ruling al-Saud family is fast approaching the moment when it must decide how to jump down a generation from a line of brothers born to the country's founder King Abdulaziz to their sons and nephews, a process fraught with difficulty. There should be clarity and there should be a correct approach to succession," said Khaled al-Maeena, editor at large of Saudi Gazette, an English-language daily. Although any jostling for power among the 40-odd branches of King Abdulaziz's descendents is kept carefully hidden behind the ornate doors of royal palaces, Saudis with royal connections say some members of the family worry about being sidelined. Full Story | Top |
| Glaxo heart drug that failed trial shows potential benefit Sunday, Mar 30, 2014 08:34 AM PDT  By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new type of heart drug being developed by GlaxoSmithKline, which failed the main goal of a Phase III study of patients with chronic but well-treated heart disease, showed signs of potential benefit, the trial's co-leader said. "I'm convinced there is a signal here of efficacy and the drug is safe," said Dr. Harvey White, co-chair of the large, Glaxo-sponsored international study, who presented the findings. The real test of darapladib is likely to come from a second, late-stage study in far less stable patients who received the medicine within 30 days of a heart attack. Glaxo had previously said darapladib did no better than a placebo in decreasing the risk of a combination of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke in the trial called Stability. Full Story | Top |
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