Year: 2014

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Philip Seymour Hoffman suffered from a chronic medical condition that required ongoing treatment. An admitted drug addict who first sought professional help more than two decades ago, Hoffman apparently succumbed to his illness with an overdose despite a return to rehab last March.

By Patricia Reaney and Marina Lopes NEW YORK (Reuters) – Authorities were conducting an autopsy on the body of acclaimed stage and film actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who was found dead in his Manhattan apartment on Sunday of an apparent drug overdose, an official said on Monday. Hoffman, considered by many to be one of the finest actors of his generation, was discovered in the bathroom of his Greenwich Village apartment with a syringe in his arm. "We're conducting the examination in the cause of the manner of death," said Julia Bolcer, spokeswoman for the New York City Medical Examiner. …

By Lacey Johnson GEORGETOWN, Delaware (Reuters) – The 12-year-old stepdaughter of a prominent Delaware pediatrician and best-selling author charged with waterboarding her as a form of punishment testified on Monday that the incidents made her fear for her life. The girl, who was 11 when the accusations first surfaced, took the witness stand for the first time in the trial of Dr. Melvin Morse, a best-selling author on near-death experiences who is charged with endangering the welfare of a child, reckless endangerment and conspiracy. Morse, 60, who heads the Institute for the Scientific Study of Consciousness and has appeared on "Oprah" and "Good Morning America," was arrested in 2012 after his stepdaughter told authorities she had been waterboarded on at least four occasions. During four hours of testimony at Sussex County Superior Court, the girl, who has not been publicly identified because she is a minor, said Morse would hold her head in the sink and "run water up my nose so I couldn't breathe." "I would try to scream, but I couldn't," she said.

CHICAGO (AP) — Could too much sugar be deadly? The biggest study of its kind suggests the answer is yes, at least when it comes to fatal heart problems.

By Nate Raymond and Joseph Ax NEW YORK (Reuters) – Mathew Martoma sought out a "canary in the coal mine" to give him inside information on drug companies, a federal prosecutor said on Monday, urging jurors to convict the former SAC Capital Advisors portfolio manager of insider trading. Martoma, 39, built up contacts with doctors involved in a clinical trial of an Alzheimer's drug, which paid off in a "dramatic way" when one of them told him the final results, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Ingoglia said. But Martoma's defense lawyer, Richard Strassberg, told jurors the entire case came down to the unreliable testimony of a single doctor who cooperated with the government in the hopes of avoiding prison. Martoma, Strassberg added, was the victim of a "rush to judgment" by investigators whose true target was Steven A. Cohen, the founder of SAC Capital, who has not been criminally charged.

KFC parent Yum Brands Inc on Monday reaffirmed its 2014 profit and said a resurgent bird flu in China had not hurt national sales in its top market. Shares of Yum jumped 4.7 percent to $69.26 in after-hours trading. Many analysts had worried that the recent return of bird flu, which helped hammer demand for chicken in China last year, would hit Yum's business hard. "We're not seeing any impact on national sales from bird flu in China," Yum spokesman Jonathan Blum told Reuters.

Researchers found the fecal immunochemical test (FIT) is able to detect 79 percent of colorectal cancers without making people change their diets or stop taking their medications, as some other screening tests require. “It’s more user friendly for the patient,” Dr. Jeffrey Lee told Reuters Health. Lee, from the University of California, San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research, led the analysis. Colon cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

(Reuters) – A new strain of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, or PEDv, has been identified in samples taken from Illinois and Missouri, a top veterinarian at Iowa State University said on Monday. “We found that there is a variant out there that appears to be quite different than the original,” Rodger Main, the head veterinarian of Iowa State University’s veterinary diagnostic lab, told Reuters on Monday. PEDv, a highly contagious and potentially fatal pig virus, causes diarrhea, vomiting and severe dehydration.

By Chuck Mikolajczak NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks slumped on Monday, with the S&P 500 suffering its worst drop since June, after weaker-than-expected data on the factory sector in the world's largest economy provided investors with the latest reason to move away from riskier assets. "Nothing is preserved today – once the market started selling off, that was that," said Keith Bliss, senior vice-president at Cuttone & Co in New York.

By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Most U.S. adults are eating too much sugar and that’s linked to an increased risk of dying from heart disease, according to a new government study. What’s more, participants who got more than the recommended amount of calories from added sugar were more likely to die of heart disease, compared to those who typically got less added sugar. “We know cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S.,” Quanhe Yang told Reuters Health. “There are a lot of risk factors for cardiovascular disease.