Month: March 2014

NEW YORK (AP) — A new report suggests hospital infections are not as common as previously thought — but still 1 in 25 patients are infected.

By Randall Palmer OTTAWA (Reuters) – Retired federal workers will pay more of their supplemental health costs under an agreement with the Canadian government intended to align the public sector with the private sector, Treasury Board President Tony Clement said on Wednesday. Retirees' contributions will rise to 50 percent of the cost of their health plan from 25 percent now. The new deal is projected to save C$6.7 billion ($6.0 billion) over six years, less than the C$7.4 billion flagged in the Conservative government's February 11 budget, but it avoids the threat of a court challenge if Ottawa had tried to impose the changes through legislation. There was a low-to-medium legal risk before." The broad lines of the changes had been announced in the federal budget, but agreement had not been reached with the unions and retirees.

By Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) – Australia asked five countries challenging its tobacco policies on Wednesday to stop delaying the progress of their cases at the World Trade Organization and took the unusual step of speeding up one of the complaints against itself. Indonesia, Ukraine, Cuba, Honduras and Dominican Republic have all launched complaints at the world trade body to try to overturn Australia’s “plain packaging” laws on tobacco. Australia hopes the stringent packaging laws will reduce smoking and improve public health, and other countries around the world have said they may follow suit, based on the WTO case, raising the stakes for a speedy resolution. An Australian diplomat told the WTO’s dispute settlement body that the uncertainty of the proceedings and the failure to move towards a settlement was having a “regulatory chilling” effect on other countries thinking of putting their own tobacco rules in place, and said there could be a “human cost” of delays.

By Ranga Sirilal and Shihar Aneez COLOMBO (Reuters) – An international inquiry into alleged Sri Lankan war crimes would allow witnesses to testify after domestic probes failed to carry out credible investigations, the U.N. human rights chief said on Wednesday, on the eve of a resolution that is critical of the Indian Ocean island nation. Sri Lanka is under international pressure to deal with war crimes allegedly committed in the final stage of a 26-year conflict, in which the army defeated separatist Tamil Tiger rebels five years ago. The United States has presented a draft resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate "past abuses and to examine more recent attacks on journalists, human rights defenders, and religious minorities." The vote is scheduled to be held on Thursday at the 47-member-state forum in Geneva. Navi Pillay, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that none of Sri Lanka's various domestic mechanisms to investigate past violations had the independence to be effective or inspire confidence among victims and witnesses.

By Heide Brandes OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) – An Oklahoma judge ruled on Wednesday that the state’s execution procedures were unconstitutional because they do not allow inmates proper access to the courts when it comes to the drugs used in lethal injections. County district court judge Patricia Parrish ruled that the state violated due process protections in the U.S. Constitution by not providing the name of the drug supplier, the combination of chemicals and the dosages used in implementing the death penalty. The judgment comes as more states have trouble obtaining the lethal chemicals used in executions because of restrictions placed on their sale by drugmakers. The Oklahoma case was brought by lawyers for two inmates, Clayton Lockett and Charles Warner, who were due to be executed this month but their sentences were pushed back until April because the state said it could not obtain the drugs it has used for years in its lethal cocktail.

A low-carb diet can lead to weight loss and maintenance because they tend to be … low-carb diet has typically failed because they were simply restricting foods that they loved … And a vegetarian diet is not necessarily healthy either.