Year: 2014

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks fell on Monday with the S&P 500 posting its biggest three-day drop in two months, as investors bid down Internet stocks and rotated into defensive names to protect against further declines. Internet stocks were among the day's biggest decliners with Amazon.com down 1.6 percent at $317.76 and Yahoo! Inc off 3.5 percent at $33.07. The Global X Social Media ETF which includes Groupon Inc and LinkedIn fell 2.5 percent. The Nasdaq index posted its worst three-day decline since November 2011. …

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People’s chances of getting a new primary care doctor vary depending on their insurance, according to a new study. Researchers calling doctors’ offices and claiming to be a patient with private insurance had about an 85 percent success rate for getting appointments. Their success rate was about 58 percent when they claimed to have Medicaid, the government insurance for the poor. The high success rates for getting an appointment may bode well for the millions of Americans who recently gained insurance through the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), commonly referred to as Obamacare.

By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Texas will carry out the execution of convicted murderer Ramiro Hernandez this week after a U.S. appeals court on Monday ruled that the state does not have to reveal where it gets its lethal injection drug. Texas is set to execute Hernandez, a 44-year-old Mexican native, on Wednesday for breaking into the home of a couple in 1997, beating a man to death and raping his wife. A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit Court said the drug used by Texas was effective and there was no compelling evidence that protections provided by the U.S. Constitution would be violated under current procedures. The 5th Circuit made a similar decision last week when it reversed a stay for another inmate, Tommy Lynn Sells, who was executed last Thursday.

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Teenage girls who eat more colorful fruits and vegetables are less likely to develop benign breast disease as young adults, according to a new study. Benign breast disease, or a group of lumps that can develop during adolescence or young adulthood, is not in itself dangerous. But benign breast disease does increase the risk of breast cancer later in life, the authors of the new study write. Seeing the same association between certain antioxidants and benign breast disease among teen girls as has been seen for breast cancer among adults is exciting, Caroline E. Boeke said.

By Jonathan Allen NEW YORK (Reuters) – The driver of a train that derailed in December in New York City, killing four passengers, had an undiagnosed sleep disorder at the time of the accident, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Monday. William Rockefeller, the engineer at the controls of the Metro-North commuter train that derailed in the Bronx on December 1, suffered from severe sleep apnea, which can cause drowsiness, according to documents published by the safety board on Monday. The documents also included a transcript of Rockefeller's interview with investigators two days after the crash, which provides the fullest account yet of the "hypnotic" state he said overcame him before he realized his train was derailing. "I was dazed, you know, looking straight ahead, almost like mesmerized," Rockefeller told investigators.

Foods such as chickpeas, lentils or peas found to reduce bad cholesterol.