Month: December 2012

Obama firm on "fiscal cliff" amid Republican disarray

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U.S. President Obama meets with members of the National Governors Association Executive Committee in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama held his ground on the "fiscal cliff" on Tuesday, insisting on higher tax rates for the wealthiest Americans, while Republicans showed increasing disarray over how far they should go to compromise with Obama's demands. With less than a month left to confront the budget cuts and tax increases that will begin taking effect in January unless Congress acts, Obama dangled the possibility of lowering tax rates as part of a broad U.S. tax code revamp in 2013. …

French men not producing as much sperm

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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – When it comes to sperm counts, French men aren’t what they used to be, according to a new study. Researchers found that between 1989 and 2005, the number of sperm in one milliliter of the average 35-year-old Frenchman’s semen fell from about 74 million to about 50 million – a decrease of roughly 32 percent. …

Disability expected to rise as more premature babies survive

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LONDON (Reuters) – Little progress has been made in improving the long-term health of extremely premature babies, and with pre-term births on the rise across Europe, rates of serious disability are likely to increase, doctors said on Wednesday. A decade of advances in medicine mean more babies born at between 22 and 26 weeks gestation manage to survive, but rates of severe health complications remain as high as they were in 1995, according to research by neonatal specialists in Britain. …

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Chelsea’s hypotension drug fails to prove efficacy past week one

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(Reuters) – Chelsea Therapeutics Inc said its experimental hypotension drug met the main goal of a study by significantly reducing dizziness in patients at week one, but results beyond that period were not statistically significant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to approve the drug, Northera, in March, and asked for data that proved it was effective over two to three months. The company’s shares, which have lost about two-thirds of its value so far this year, fell 22 percent to $1.40 in extended trading after closing at $1.79 on Tuesday on the Nasdaq. …

Baxter to buy Sweden’s Gambro for $4 billion

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(Reuters) – Baxter International Inc said on Tuesday it would buy privately held Swedish kidney dialysis product company Gambro AB for about $4 billion, a tie-up that would make it No. 2 in the dialysis market. Baxter, whose shares fell nearly 1 percent, will finance the acquisition with cash and debt. The deal marks Baxter’s biggest acquisition since Chief Executive Robert Parkinson took the helm in 2004. Baxter manufactures kidney dialysis equipment, drug infusion pumps and blood therapy products. …

Judge allows California gay conversion therapy ban to take effect

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A gay couple hug as they celebrate their one-year wedding anniversary in West Hollywood, California.SACRAMENTO (Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday cleared the way for a landmark California law that bars a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality in children and teenagers to take effect in January. California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the ban into law in September, making the nation's most populous state the first to ban so-called conversion therapy among youths. U.S. …

Republicans block U.N. treaty to protect people with disabilities

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican lawmakers on Tuesday blocked a treaty to protect people with disabilities from discrimination despite a passionate plea from former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, who was severely wounded in World War Two. The Senate voted 61-38 to pass the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, falling short of the 66 votes needed to ratify the treaty. …

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