Year: 2014

Speedy Octopus Sets Record for Jar Opening

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to review an appeals court ruling that said an Arizona law banning abortions starting at 20 weeks of gestation is unconstitutional, meaning the restrictive state law is struck down. The high court's decision not to hear the state's appeal means that a May 2013 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that invalidated the law, saying it violated "unalterably clear" legal precedents, remains intact. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, signed the bill into law in April 2012. The last time the Supreme Court took up an abortion case was in 2007 when it ruled 5-4 to uphold a federal law that banned a late-term abortion procedure.

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) – Heavy fighting has prevented health workers from getting polio vaccine to an estimated 100,000 Syrian children in the northeastern province of Raqqa, United Nations aid agencies said on Monday, appealing for access. The crippling infectious disease was confirmed in 17 children in Syria in October, the first outbreak there since 1999. A nationwide campaign was launched in November to vaccinate some 2 million Syrian children under five each month until May. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) condemned the halt of the immunization campaign in Raqqa province due to intense fighting in Syria's civil war.

Learn how much evidence is behind these so-called superfoods.        

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Nine women in Sweden have successfully received transplanted wombs donated from relatives in an experimental procedure that has raised some ethical concerns. The women will soon try to become pregnant with their new wombs, the doctor in charge of the pioneering project has revealed.