Month: March 2015

Officials are investigating how a deadly bacteria escaped from Tulane University’s National Primate Research Center in Louisiana.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. stocks advanced on Monday to push the Nasdaq above the 5,000 mark for the first time in fifteen years, as a round of mixed data pointed to a slowly accelerating economy.

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By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters) – Teenagers in North Carolina who try to buy electronic cigarettes online are likely to succeed even though selling the devices to minors is illegal in the state, researchers reported on Monday. A 2013 North Carolina law required that online e-cigarette sellers verify customers' ages with a government database at the point of order. While 41 states ban e-cigarette sales to minors, "they tend to focus on face-to-face sales," imposing fewer or no restrictions for online sales, said Camille Gourdet, a health policy researcher at the University of Illinois at Chicago who was not involved in the study. North Carolina is one of the few states that address remote sales, she said, and vendors shipping to minors there could be charged with a class 2 misdemeanor.

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By Lisa Rapaport (Reuters Health) – Peanuts may reduce the risk of death from heart disease, a large study found, suggesting that the health benefits of this low-cost nut may be similar to pricier options like almonds and pistachios. While previous studies have linked nut consumption to a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure, the earlier research focused mostly on wealthier white people in the U.S. and Europe. "We can now tell people that peanuts are just as good as more expensive tree nuts, and that the benefit isn't just for white, upper class people, it's for everybody," said senior study author Dr. Xiao-Ou Shu, a professor of epidemiology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, in a phone interview. They looked at how many grams of peanuts (including peanut butter) and other nuts participants ate on an average day and sorted them into five groups ranging from a low of less than 0.95 grams to a high of at least 18.45 grams.

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By Kizito Makoye DAR ES SALAAM (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Tanzanian police banned a demonstration on Monday to protest against attacks and murders of albinos, fuelling concerns that authorities are not committed to ending violence against albinos whose body parts are highly valued in witchcraft. The protest, organized by the Tanzania Albinism Society, initially received police approval amid growing anger over the lack of protection for albinos in the wake of the recent abduction and suspected killing of two albino children. A one-year-old boy, Yohana Bahati, was snatched from his home in Tanzania’s northwestern Geita region last month. United Nations officials estimate about 75 albinos have been killed in the east African nation since 2000 and have voiced fears of rising attacks ahead of an election this year as aspiring politicians seek good luck charms from witch doctors.
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