Month: October 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama claimed "full responsibility" Wednesday for fixing his administration's much-maligned health insurance website as a new concern surfaced: a government memo pointing to security worries, laid out just days before the launch.

By Curtis Skinner NEW YORK (Reuters) – The New York City Council voted to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco to 21, the highest in the country, in hopes of reducing smoking among the city’s young adults. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an anti-smoking crusader, was expected to sign the bill, which would become law 180 days later.

By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jet dropped a 500-pound bomb this week, hitting a tank at Edwards Air Force Base in California and marking the first time the new warplane has fired a laser-guided weapon, the Pentagon said Wednesday. An F-35 B-model jet released the Guided Bomb Unit-12 (GBU-12) Paveway II bomb from its internal weapons bay while flying at around 25,000 feet, successfully smashing into a tank parked on the ground, the Pentagon's F-35 program office said in a statement. It took 35 seconds to hit the target. "This guided weapons delivery test of a GBU-12 marks the first time the F-35 truly became a weapon system," said Marine Corps Major Richard Rusnok, the pilot who flew the plane during the weapons test Tuesday.

Instead, the core components of the Mediterranean diet are olive oil, leafy greens, eggs, fruit and nuts, legumes, fermented dairy products, seafood, a small …

Billionaire candy heiress Jacqueline Badger Mars faces trial on a charge of reckless driving in an accident that killed an elderly woman, authorities said on Wednesday. Mars, 74, was driving a Porsche SUV on October 4 when it crossed into an oncoming lane of traffic and struck a minivan in Aldie, Virginia, according to the Loudoun County sheriff. A passenger in the backseat of the minivan, Irene Ellisor, 86, died at the scene. The people in the minivan were visiting from Texas and in Virginia for a wedding.

By Steve Gorman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A tropical mosquito known to carry potentially fatal diseases such as dengue and yellow fever has been detected in California, raising concerns among public health officials and prompting intense efforts to eradicate the insect. No illnesses associated with the mosquito, known by the scientific name Aedes aegypti, have been reported since it first appeared in California’s Central Valley in June, and none of the specimens trapped and tested has been found to be infected. “If it gets established, it’s going to change the way we live in California,” Tim Phillips, manager of the Fresno Mosquito and Vector Control District, which identified some of the first small invaders, said on Wednesday. How Aedes aegypti was introduced to the California remains a mystery.

A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday reinstated part of a legal fight by AstraZeneca over a patent protecting its Pulmicort Respules asthma drug, months after the court temporarily halted competitors from distributing generic versions. The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reverses an earlier decision that generic drugmakers -including Apotex Inc, Sandoz Inc and Watson Laboratories Inc -had not infringed an AstraZeneca patent relating to the drug.