Month: July 2013

By Sam Cage BELFAST (Reuters) – When U.S. President Barack Obama visited Northern Ireland before the G8 summit in June, he hailed its extraordinary progress in the 15 years since a peace agreement to end three decades of what locals call “The Troubles”. On the other side of Belfast the next day, a petrol bomb thrown over a fence dividing Protestant from Catholic communities exploded next to a four-year-old girl playing in the street – just one example of sporadic violence still haunting the British province. The region of 1. …

When it comes to news or political statements, the more powerful the speaker the more we are likely to believe them. Christie Nicholson reports

By Lisa Richwine LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actor Michael J. Fox said he aimed to bring laughs and a dose of reality about day-to-day living with Parkinson's disease to a new NBC comedy loosely based on his life, his first lead role in a television show in 13 years. In the upcoming "The Michael J. Fox Show," the actor plays a father with Parkinson's who returns to work as a local newscaster on an NBC TV station in New York. To his surprise, his fictional family reacts with relief that he will be getting out of the house. …

DUBAI (Reuters) – A Saudi man has died of the coronavirus Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the Saudi Health Ministry said on Saturday, raising to 39 the number of deaths from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom where it first emerged last year. “The Ministry of Health has announced the death of one case, who had been previously announced to be infected with this virus in Asir, may Allah have mercy upon him,” the ministry said in a statement. …

BEIJING (Reuters) – At least 18 more people have been detained in China in connection with a corruption scandal involving British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, state media reported, giving more details on an investigation that has rocked the company. China’s state radio reported late on Friday on its website that police in the central city of Zhengzhou had “recently held, in accordance with the law, 18 GlaxoSmithKline (China) employees and some medical personnel”. It provided no details of the detentions nor say exactly when they happened. …

MIAMI (AP) — For the first time in history, federal health officials said Friday they will ban certain types of Medicare and Medicaid providers in three high-fraud cities from enrolling in the taxpayer-funded programs for the poor as part of an effort to prevent scams.

ATLANTA (AP) — Disappointed health officials say only about half of teenage girls have gotten a controversial vaccine against cervical cancer — a rate that’s changed little in three years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Air Force recruit whose organs were donated to four patients including a kidney recipient who died of rabies had at least two untreated raccoon bites several months before he became sick, and tests confirm his rabies-infected kidney caused the recipient's disease, according to a medical journal report.

ATLANTA (AP) — Another reason to eat breakfast: Skipping it may increase your chances of a heart attack.

CHICAGO (AP) — Falling televisions sent nearly 200,000 U.S. children to the emergency room over 20 years and the injury rate has climbed substantially for these sometimes deadly accidents, a study found.