Coffee Cuts Biliary Duct Risk

By Nancy Walsh, Staff Writer, MedPage Today

Published: May 21, 2013

Reviewed by Robert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

For best viewing, click the bottom right corner for full screen.

Action Points

• Note that this study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
• Coffee consumption helped protect against the autoimmune liver disease known as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a disorder of the bile ducts that causes inflammation and obstruction and that can lead to transplantation or death.
• Point out that coffee consumption was not a protective factor for primary biliary cirrhosis.

ORLANDO -- Coffee consumption helped protect against the autoimmune liver disease known as primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), a disorder of the bile ducts that causes inflammation and obstruction and that can lead to transplantation or death, a researcher said here.

The risk of developing PSC was almost cut in half in individuals who were current coffee drinkers compared with those who never drank coffee (OR 0.56, 95% CI 0.38-0.84), reported Craig Lammert, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and colleagues.

"Coffee has been shown to be associated with total and cause-specific mortality, with decreases of 10% and 13% for men and women, respectively, among those who drank two to three cups per day. It has also been shown to improve outcomes for liver disorders including hepatocellular carcinoma," Lammert said at Digestive Disease Week.

Primary sclerosing cholangitis and a related autoimmune liver disorder, primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) are both characterized by biliary cirrhosis and cholestasis, but differ in autoantigens and accompanying disorders such as ulcerative colitis.

However, both result from complex interactions between genes and the environment, Lammert said.
Despite the recognized benefits of coffee on chronic liver disease, a detailed evaluation of effects in PSC and PBC has been lacking.

So Lammert and colleagues analyzed data from the Mayo Clinic's large cohorts of these patients, which included 724 individuals with PBC and 619 with PSC. They also recruited 652 controls without liver involvement for a case-control study.

Current consumption of coffee was similar for the PBC group and controls, with 77% in each group, compared with 67% of the PSC group, which was a statistically significant difference (P<0.05).
Similarly, 24% of the PSC group were not and had never been coffee drinkers, compared with 16% of both PBC and control groups (P<0.05).

The number of cups of coffee consumed each month was lower in PSC patients, who averaged about 47 cups, while PBC cases and controls drank 67 cups per month (P<0.05).
On a multivariate analysis with adjustment for age, sex, and smoking, the odds ratios for the percentage of life spent drinking coffee was reduced (0.90, 95% CI 0.86 to 0.96, P<0.05) as was the likelihood for fewer cups per month (OR 0.93, 95% CI 0.89 to 0.96, P<0.05).

"This supports coffee as one potentially modifiable, dose-dependent risk factor that could reduce the risk of PSC but not PBC. The diseases are similar but have many genetic, clinical, and biological differences," Lammert explained.

"Further understanding of the gene-environment interactions in these diseases could help reveal the underlying pathogenesis," he added.

There are a number of proposals that attempt to explain the effects of coffee in these conditions, including the presence of compounds known as dipterenes, Lammert said.

"These compounds mitigate a lot of downstream biologic effects, which include anti-angiogenesis and self-proliferation, and ultimately fibrosis progression as has been seen in a mouse model. We think these dipterenes may be mitigating these effects," he said in an interview with MedPage Today.
These data need to be replicated in independent cohorts, and longitudinal studies will be needed to further examine effects on disease progression and outcomes, he concluded.

Ruins of Lost City May Lurk Deep in Honduras Rain Forest

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer

Date: 15 May 2013 Time: 08:51 AM ET

 

 

Lidar technology allows researchers to strip away the green forest canopy and reveals features beneath, including this mysterious mound that may be a sign of ancient civilization in the Honduras rainforest. CREDIT: UTL Scientific, LLC View full size image

New images of a possible lost city hidden by Honduran rain forests show what might be the building foundations and mounds of Ciudad Blanca, a never-confirmed legendary metropolis.
Archaeologists and filmmakers Steven Elkins and Bill Benenson announced last year that they had discovered possible ruins in Honduras' Mosquitia region using lidar, or light detection and ranging. Essentially, slow-flying planes send constant laser pulses groundward as they pass over the rain forest, imaging the topography below the thick forest canopy.
What the archaeologists found — and what the new images reveal — are features that could be ancient ruins, including canals, roads, building foundations and terraced agricultural land. The University of Houston archaeologists who led the expedition will reveal their new images and discuss them today (May 15) at the American Geophysical Union Meeting of the Americas in Cancun.

 

Ciudad Blanca, or "The White City," has been a legend since the days of the conquistadors, who believed the Mosquitia rain forests hid a metropolis full of gold and searched for it in the 1500s. Throughout the 1900s, archaeologists documented mounds and other signs of ancient civilization in the Mosquitias region, but the shining golden city of legend has yet to make an appearance.

Whether or not the lidar-weilding archaeologists have discovered the same city the conquistadors were looking for is up for debate, but the images suggest some signs of an ancient lost civilization.
"We use lidar to pinpoint where human structures are by looking for linear shapes and rectangles," Colorado State University research Stephen Leisz, who uses lidar in Mexico, said in a statement. "Nature doesn't work in straight lines."

The archaeologists plan to get their feet on the ground this year to investigate the mysterious features seen in the new images.

Redskins Owner Dan Snyder on Name Debate: ‘We’ll Never Change the Name’

May 9, 2013 6:40 PM

Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder. (Credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

 

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – “We’ll never change the name. It’s simple. NEVER.”
That’s what Redskins owner Daniel Snyder told USA Today Sports Thursday, with the added caveat, “you can use caps.”

Snyder putting his foot down, so to speak, may be what it takes to bring some finality to a debate that’s raged on all offseason over the offensive nature of the team name ‘Redskins.’

This is an issue that’s been picked apart from every angle, put back together, then dissected again from what seems like the moment Washington was eliminated from the playoffs, and as Snyder said, “we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season.”

He’s remained silent on the polarizing issue up until now, as spokespersons from either side – sanctioned and unsanctioned – have exchanged blows over a name that’s been a staple in the nation’s capital since 1937.

The name was even brought to federal court in an effort to rid the name ‘Redskins’ of being trademarked.

Here’s what Snyder told USA Today in full:

“We will never change the name of the team. As a lifelong Redskins fan, and I think that the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what it’s all about and what it means, so we feel pretty fortunate to be just working on next season.
“We’ll never change the name. It’s that simple. NEVER — you can use caps.
“I think the best way is to just not comment on that type of stuff,” Snyder said in response to a question about Amanda Blackhorse, a Navajo woman leading the charge for the team to lose its federal trademark. “I don’t know her.”

Up until now, general manager Bruce Allen had been the only Redskins official to weigh in on the debate publicly, when he took a similar stance back in February.

Replacement names have ranged from reasonable to absurd, like when D.C. councilmember Joe Grosso suggested the team change its name to “Redtails,” an offering which was largely laughed at.

And until May 2, there hadn’t been a national poll conducted in recent years to reflect the opinion of a large sample of people, leaving opinion to decide the political correctness of the nickname.
It’s settled then. At least until the next person brings it up

The Next Pandemic: Not if, but When

By DAVID QUAMMEN

 

TERRIBLE new forms of infectious disease make headlines, but not at the start. Every pandemic begins small. Early indicators can be subtle and ambiguous. When the Next Big One arrives, spreading across oceans and continents like the sweep of nightfall, causing illness and fear, killing thousands or maybe millions of people, it will be signaled first by quiet, puzzling reports from faraway places — reports to which disease scientists and public health officials, but few of the rest of us, pay close attention. Such reports have been coming in recent months from two countries, China and Saudi Arabia.

      

You may have seen the news about H7N9, a new strain of avian flu claiming victims in Shanghai and other Chinese locales. Influenzas always draw notice, and always deserve it, because of their great potential to catch hold, spread fast, circle the world and kill lots of people. But even if you’ve been tracking that bird-flu story, you may not have noticed the little items about a “novel coronavirus” on the Arabian Peninsula.

      

This came into view last September, when the Saudi Ministry of Health announced that such a virus — new to science and medicine — had been detected in three patients, two of whom had already died. By the end of the year, a total of nine cases had been confirmed, with five fatalities. As of Thursday, there have been 18 deaths, 33 cases total, including one patient now hospitalized in France after a trip to the United Arab Emirates. Those numbers are tiny by the standards of global pandemics, but here’s one that’s huge: the case fatality rate is 55 percent. The thing seems to be almost as lethal as Ebola.

      

Coronaviruses are a genus of bugs that cause respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, sometimes mild and sometimes fierce, in humans, other mammals and birds. They became infamous by association in 2003 because the agent for severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, is a coronavirus. That one emerged suddenly in southern China, passed from person to person and from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, then went swiftly onward by airplane to Toronto, Singapore and elsewhere. Eventually it sickened about 8,000 people, of whom nearly 10 percent died. If not for fast scientific work to identify the virus and rigorous public health measures to contain it, the total case count and death toll could have been much higher.

      

One authority at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an expert on nasty viruses, told me that the SARS outbreak was the scariest such episode he’d ever seen. That cautionary experience is one reason this novel coronavirus in the Middle East has attracted such concern.

      

Another reason is that coronaviruses as a group are very changeable, very protean, because of their high rates of mutation and their proclivity for recombination: when the viruses replicate, their genetic material is continually being inaccurately copied — and when two virus strains infect a single host cell, it is often intermixed. Such rich genetic variation gives them what one expert has called an “intrinsic evolvability,” a capacity to adapt quickly to new circumstances within new hosts.

But hold on. I said that the SARS virus “emerged” in southern China, and that raises the question: emerged from where? Every new disease outbreak starts as a mystery, and among the first things to be solved is the question of source.

      

In most cases, the answer is wildlife. Sixty percent of our infectious diseases fall within this category, caused by viruses or other microbes known as zoonoses. A zoonosis is an animal infection transmissible to humans. Another bit of special lingo: reservoir host. That’s the animal species in which the zoonotic bug resides endemically, inconspicuously, over time. Some unsuspecting person comes in contact with an infected monkey, ape, rodent or wild goose — or maybe just with a domestic duck that has fed around the same pond as the wild goose — and a virus achieves transcendence, passing from one species of host into another. The disease experts call that event a spillover.

      

Researchers have established that the SARS virus emerged from a bat. The virus may have passed through an intermediate species — another animal, perhaps infected by cage-to-cage contact in one of the crowded live-animal markets of the region — before getting into a person. And while SARS hasn’t recurred, we can assume that the virus still abides in southern China within its reservoir hosts: one or more kinds of bat.

      

Bats, though wondrous and necessary animals, do seem to be disproportionately implicated as reservoir hosts of new zoonotic viruses: Marburg, Hendra, Nipah, Menangle and others. Bats gather in huge, sociable aggregations and have long life spans, circumstances that may be especially hospitable to viruses. And they fly. Traveling nightly to feed, shifting occasionally from one communal roost to another, they carry their infections widely and spread them to one another.

As for the novel coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, its reservoir host is still undiscovered. But you can be confident that scientific sleuths are on the case and that they will look closely at Arabian bats, including those that visit the productive date-palm groves at the oases of Al Ahsa, near the Persian Gulf.

      

What can we do? The first obligation is informed awareness. Early reports arrive from afar, seeming exotic and peripheral, but don’t be fooled. One emergent virus, sooner or later, will be the Next Big One. It may show up first in China, in Congo or Bangladesh, or maybe on the Arabian Peninsula; but it will globalize. Most people on earth nowadays live within 24 hours’ travel time of Saudi Arabia. And in October, when millions of people journey to Mecca for the hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage, the lines of connections among humans everywhere will be that much shorter.

      

We can’t detach ourselves from emerging pathogens either by distance or lack of interest. The planet is too small. We’re like the light heavyweight boxer Billy Conn, stepping into the ring with Joe Louis in 1946: we can run, but we can’t hide.

      

David Quammen, a contributing writer for National Geographic, is the author, most recently, of “Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic.”

San Francisco sues Monster for marketing energy drink to kids

Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

 

NEW YORKA fight between Monster Beverage and San Francisco's city attorney is intensifying. The city attorney is filing a lawsuit against Monster Beverage Corp, the maker of Monster Energy Drinks, accusing the company of marketing to young children.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera said Monday that Monster markets it highly caffeinated drinks to children as young as 6 years old, despite scientific findings that such products can cause health problems including severe cardiac events.

The lawsuit comes after Monster last week sued Herrera over his demands that it reduce the caffeine levels in its drinks and stop marketing to minors.

On Monday, Herrera noted that his office had been working with Monster in "good faith to negotiate voluntary changes" when the company abruptly filed its lawsuit.

"Our lawsuit is not a reaction to their lawsuit," Herrera said in an interview. "We were proceeding on this path in the event that we would be unable to come to a resolution."

Monster said in a statement Monday that that the issues raised by Herrera are matters that are entrusted to the regulatory authority of the FDA. It said Herrera's demands on Monster are pre-empted by federal law

FDA investigating alleged Monster Energy drink related deaths

 

The lawsuits reflect a breakdown in talks that started in October, when Herrera's office first began investigating energy drinks. The industry, which includes Red Bull, 5-Hour Energy shots and PepsiCo's Amp, had been enjoying enormous growth for years, but recently has come under intensifying scrutiny.

New York's attorney general has subpoenaed energy drink makers including Monster about how the drinks are made and marketed, and Democratic Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut have repeatedly called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to look into the safety of the drinks.

Monster has been in the spotlight since October 2012, when the parents of 14-year-old Anais Fournier of Hagerstown, Md. sued the company after their daughter went into cardiac arrest after drinking two of popular energy drinks in 24 hours.

The FDA said in Oct. 2012 it was investigating five deaths and one heart attack linked to Monster Energy Drinks dating back to 2004. One can contains about 240 milligrams of caffeine.
The company denied its drink's role in the girl's death in March, with company lawyer Daniel Callahan telling the Associated Press at the time that physicians hired to review the girl's case determined she died from natural causes, brought on by pre-existing heart conditions.
The FDA has also been reviewing adverse events linked to 5-hour-Energy drinks.
Although some coffees may contain more caffeine than Monster's energy drinks, Herrera has noted that coffee is typically served hot and consumed more slowly than energy drinks. In his lawsuit citing a violation of California law, he noted that Monster's website uses children as young as six years old to promote its brand.

Pediatricians wrote this February in Pediatrics in Review that consuming energy drinks can cause insomnia, rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, anxiety and obesity. The review noted that mixing these drinks with alcohol can be especially risky to one's health.

The review's authors said marketing to adolescents and young adults can lead more young people to think mixing an energy drink with alcohol is okay, but the authors noted drinking just one caffeinated energy drink mixed with alcohol can be the same as drinking a bottle of wine and several cups of coffee.

Ladies, Are You Smearing Toxic Metals On Your Lips Every Day?

A new study finds potentially harmful levels of heavy metals in commonly used lipsticks and glosses.

By Shaunacy FerroPosted 05.02.2013

Metal Mouth jerine via Flickr

 

A new study from the University of California, Berkeley and the Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice might make us rethink sexy red lips. According to the paper published online today in Environmental Health Perspectives, many lipsticks actually contain toxic metals.

Since the 1990s, reports of lead traces in lipsticks have caused periodic alarm and even spawned rumors that you could detect lead levels with the help of a gold ring. This study analyzed metal content in 32 lipsticks and lip glosses commonly used by a sample of young women in ACRJ's Youth Program and found that many contained levels of heavy metals, that, though small, could become problematic with regular exposure.

It's essentially impossible to wear a lip product without ingesting small amounts. Based on previous data, the researchers estimated that with average use (applying it twice a day), wearing lipstick involves ingesting about 24 mg of the product per day, and up to 87 mg with high use. Acceptable daily intakes for the metals were calculated based on existing public health standards like EPA drinking water standards.

The U.S. doesn't currently have content standards for metals in cosmetics, but the European Union has banned any level of cadmium, chromium (both established carcinogens) or lead in makeup products as part of its Cosmetics Directive.

The results of the preliminary study showed all of the products contained manganese, and most contained high levels of titanium and aluminum. High levels of manganese have also been linked with neurological disorders, though it's an essential nutrient found in nuts, whole grains and pineapples. Average use of 10 of the 32 products would lead to more than the acceptable daily intake of chromium.

Many also contained lead, though study author S. Katharine Hammon told USA Today that "lead is not the metal of most concern."

The researchers detected lead in 75 percent of the lipwear. However, even at high use the estimated intake was lower than the acceptable daily intake. In 2011, fears over potential lead content in lipsticks led the FDA to examine 400 products on the market, finding that the products had acceptably low levels of lead. The agency does not consider the levels of lead ingested through lipstick to be dangerous, and doesn't set limits on acceptable lead levels in cosmetics, though there are maximum levels specified for certain color additives.

There weren't any observed links between metal content and brand, color or cost. The tested products ranged in price from a little more than $5 to $24. No product names were revealed, though other studies, including the FDA's, have revealed data related to specific brands.

The study's authors conclude more research is needed to evaluate the health risks of metals in lipsticks. They suggest that we should be regulating toxic metals in cosmetics, as the European Union already does. “Some of the toxic metals are occurring at levels that could possibly have an effect in the long term," Hammond said in a press statement

US Suicide Rate Rose Sharply Among Middle-Aged

 

 

 By MIKE STOBBE AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK May 2, 2013 (AP)

The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans climbed a startling 28 percent in a decade, a period that included the recession and the mortgage crisis, the government reported Thursday.
The trend was most pronounced among white men and women in that age group. Their suicide rate jumped 40 percent between 1999 and 2010.

But the rates in younger and older people held steady. And there was little change among middle-aged blacks, Hispanics and most other racial and ethnic groups.

Why did so many middle-aged whites — that is, those who are 35 to 64 years old — take their own lives?

One theory suggests the recession caused more emotional trauma in whites, who tend not to have the same kind of church support and extended families that blacks and Hispanics do.

The economy was in recession from the end of 2007 until mid-2009. Even well afterward, polls showed most Americans remained worried about weak hiring, a depressed housing market and other problems.

Pat Smith, violence-prevention program coordinator for the Michigan Department of Community Health, said the recession — which hit manufacturing-heavy states particularly hard — may have pushed already-troubled people over the brink. Being unable to find a job or settling for one with lower pay or prestige could add "that final weight to a whole chain of events," she said.

Another theory notes that white baby boomers have always had higher rates of depression and suicide, and that has held true as they've hit middle age. During the 1999-2010 period, suicide went from the eighth leading cause of death among middle-aged Americans to the fourth, behind cancer, heart disease and accidents.

"Some of us think we're facing an upsurge as this generation moves into later life," said Dr. Eric Caine, a suicide researcher at the University of Rochester.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report, which was based on death certificates. People ages 35 to 64 account for about 57 percent of suicides.

The report contained surprising information about how middle-aged people kill themselves: During the period studied, hangings overtook drug overdoses in that age group, becoming the No. 2 manner of suicide. But guns remained far in the lead and were the instrument of death in nearly half of all suicides among the middle-aged in 2010.

The CDC does not collect gun ownership statistics and did not attempt to correlate suicide rates with gun ownership.

For the entire U.S. population, there were 38,350 suicides in 2010, making it the nation's 10th leading cause of death, the CDC said. The overall national suicide rate climbed from 12 suicides per 100,000 people in 1999 to 14 per 100,000 in 2010. That was a 15 percent increase.

For the middle-aged, the rate jumped from about 14 per 100,000 to nearly 18 — a 28 percent increase. Among whites in that age group, it spiked from about 16 to 22.

Suicide prevention efforts have tended to concentrate on teenagers and the elderly, but research over the past several years has begun to focus on the middle-aged. The new CDC report is being called the first to show how the trend is playing out nationally and to look in depth at the racial and geographic breakdown.

The suicide rate registered a statistically significant increase in 39 out of 50 states. The West and the South had the highest suicide rates. It's not clear why, but one factor may be cultural differences in willingness to seek help during tough times, said Thomas Simon, one of the authors of the CDC report.

Also, it may be more difficult to find counseling and mental health services in certain places, he added.

FDA to investigate Wrigley’s caffeinated gum and other foods with added caffeine

E-mail | Print | Comments () 04/30/2013 6:17 PM

By Deborah Kotz, Globe Staff

Alert Energy gum ad that ran in newspapers

Wrigley’s launched a caffeinated gum this week called Alert Energy, adding to the numerous foods and beverages now containing added caffeine for “energy”. The US Food and Drug Administration has finally decided to investigate whether all these new caffeinated foods are causing any health hazards.

The agency is “is taking a fresh look at the potential impact that the totality of new and easy sources of caffeine may have on the health of children and adolescents, and if necessary, will take appropriate action,” Michael Taylor, FDA deputy commissioner, said in a statement. “The only time that the FDA explicitly approved the added use of caffeine in a food was for cola and that was in the 1950s.”

Although Alert Energy wasn’t mentioned by name, the FDA cited caffeinated gum as the reason for its investigation.

It’s odd, in my opinion, the FDA decided to speak up only now. The agency declined to protest when caffeinated Cracker Jacks hit the market last November or when caffeine was added to jelly beans, Crystal light, beef jerky, or breakfast cereal.

But FDA spokesperson Shelly Burgess emphasized to me that the agency isn’t singling out Wrigley’s; the agency is going to review any and all products with added caffeine, to see how consumers -- especially kids -- use them in the real world.

Several lawsuits were filed against the manufacturers of highly caffeinated energy drinks after several teens died after drinking them.

Each piece of Wrigley’s new gum has 40 milligrams of caffeine -- equivalent to the amount in one-half cup of coffee -- and there are eight pieces per blister-pack. The Wrigley website said the gum “is an energy product for adults who consume caffeine for energy.”

In a full-page ad in national newspapers, Wrigley offered a free pack of Alert Energy to anyone who purchased a Skinny Salted Caramel Mocha or other large hot -- and presumably caffeinated --beverage at their local 7-Eleven store. Wrigley did not respond to a request for comment on the FDA’s investigation.

Combining various caffeinated products is what most concerns the FDA, as well as physician groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has taken a strong position against caffeinated foods, beverages, and supplements. People can potentially overdose on caffeine if they’re already having several cups of coffee a day along with caffeinated energy drinks, gum, and candy.

Too much caffeine can lead to increased blood pressure, irregular heart beat, and anxiety; in rare cases, excess caffeine has been linked to strokes, heart attacks, and deaths. Children may be particularly vulnerable to caffeine’s effects, and the pediatrics group noted that high amounts have been “linked to a number of harmful health effects in children, including effects on the developing neurologic and cardiovascular systems.”

Task Force Recommends HIV Screening For All Adolescents And Adults

 

4/30/2013 9:22 AM ET 

 

Early detection of a disease goes a long way in providing timely treatment. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force is now urging clinicians to screen adolescents and adults aged 15 to 65 years for HIV infection, irrespective of their risk of contracting the disease.

All pregnant women, including those in labor who are untested and whose HIV status is unknown, and people younger than 15 years and older than 65 years if they are at increased risk should also be screened, according to the new guidelines.

The HIV screening tests include the conventional serum test, rapid HIV tests, combination tests (for p24 antigen and HIV antibodies) and qualitative HIV-1 RNA qualitative assay.

The earlier recommendations laid out by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, or USPSTF, in 2005, required that clinicians screen for HIV only those adolescents and adults at increased risk for HIV infection, as well as all pregnant women.

The new recommendations of the task force are based on evidence which showed that initiating the treatment for HIV earlier reduces the risk for AIDS-related events or death substantially and lowers the risk of virus transmission from HIV-positive persons to uninfected heterosexual partners.
In concurrence with CDC's recommendations, the task force also advocates that HIV screening should be voluntary; patients should be informed orally or in writing that HIV testing will be performed unless they decline (opt-out screening), and before HIV testing, patients should receive an explanation of HIV infection and the meaning of positive and negative test results.

Owing to insufficient evidence to determine optimum time intervals for HIV screening, the task force has not recommended the screening intervals. However, the task force considers a 1-time screening of adolescent and adult patients to identify persons who are already HIV-positive, with repeated screening of those who are known to be at risk for HIV infections as a reasonable approach.
The recommendations are published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

U.S. female sailor beats Dubai rapist bus driver into submission

By Jessica Chasmar

-

The Washington Times

Thursday, April 25, 2013

 

An off-duty U.S. navy sailor wrestled a Dubai bus driver to the ground and beat him into submission after he tried to rape her at knifepoint on Jan. 19, a courtroom heard Wednesday.
The woman, 28, was on 24-hour shore leave in Dubai when she was attacked by a bus driver after he picked her up from the Mall of the Emirates shopping center.

---

                                                                                                   

---

“I noticed he did not take the main road and when I asked him he told me not to worry,” she said, according to the Daily Mail.
He then stopped where several other buses were parked and tried to kiss her. After she refused, he pulled out a knife and tried to rape her.
Prosecutors said that she knocked the knife from his hand, broke it in two, bit him in the hand, forced him to the ground and locked him between her thighs, the Daily Mail reports.
The man, known as K S, has been charged with attempted rape, threatening to kill, assault and consuming alcohol illegally, the Daily Mail reports.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/25/us-female-sailor-beats-dubai-rapist-bus-driver-sub/#ixzz2Rr05EjGp
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

American tourists recoving after swimming for 14 hours when ship sinks in Caribbean

Published April 26, 2013

Associated Press

• 
  This Nov. 2009 photo courtesy of Dan Suski shows Kate Suski, right, and her brother Dan while on vacation in San Diego, Ca. The brother and sister are recovering in the eastern Caribbean island of St. Lucia after their ship sank on April 21 during a fishing trip, forcing them to swim almost 14 hours to reach land, according to the siblings. (AP/Dan Suski)
•  

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – The fishing trip off the rugged north coast of St. Lucia was supposed to last all day, but about four hours into the journey, the boat's electric system crackled and popped.
Dan Suski, a 30-year-old business owner and information technology expert from San Francisco, had been wrestling a 200-pound marlin in rough seas with help from his sister, Kate Suski, a 39-year-old architect from Seattle. It was around noon April 21.

He was still trying to reel in the fish when water rushed into the cabin and flooded the engine room, prompting the captain to radio for help as he yelled out their coordinates.

It would be nearly 14 hours and a long, long swim before what was supposed to be a highlight of their sunny vacation would come to an end.

As the waves pounded the boat they had chartered from the local company "Reel Irie," more water flooded in. The captain threw life preservers to the Suskis.

"He said, `Jump out! Jump out!"' Kate Suski recalled in a telephone interview Thursday with The Associated Press.

The Suskis obeyed and jumped into the water with the captain and first mate. Less than five minutes later, the boat sank.

The group was at least eight miles from shore, and waves more than twice their size tossed them.

"The captain was telling us to stay together, and that help was on its way and that we needed to wait," Kate Suski said.

The group waited for about an hour, but no one came.

"I was saying, `Let's swim, let's swim. If they're coming, they will find us. We can't just stay here,"' she recalled.

As they began to swim, the Suskis lost sight of the captain and first mate amid the burgeoning swells. Soon after, they also lost sight of land amid the rain.

"We would just see swells and gray," Dan Suski said.

A plane and a helicopter appeared in the distance and hovered over the area, but no one spotted the siblings.

Several hours went by, and the sun began to set.

"There's this very real understanding that the situation is dire," Kate Suski said. "You come face-to-face with understanding your own mortality ... We both processed the possible ways we might die. Would we drown? Be eaten by a shark?"

"Hypothermia?" Dan Suski asked.

"Would our legs cramp up and make it impossible to swim?" the sister continued.

They swam for 12 to 14 hours, talking as they pushed and shivered their way through the ocean. Dan Suski tried to ignore images of the movie "Open Water" that kept popping into his head and its story of a scuba-diving couple left behind by their group and attacked by sharks. His sister said she also couldn't stop thinking about sharks.

"I thought I was going to vomit I was so scared," she said.

When they finally came within 30 feet of land, they realized they couldn't get out of the water.
"There were sheer cliffs coming into the ocean," she said. "We knew we would get crushed."

Dan Suski thought they should try to reach the rocks anyway, but his sister disagreed.
"We won't survive that," she told him.

They swam until they noticed a spit of sand nearby. When they got to land, they collapsed, barely able to walk. It was past midnight, and they didn't notice any homes in the area.

"Dan said the first priority was to stay warm," she recalled.

They hiked inland and lay side by side, pulling up grass and brush to cover themselves and stay warm. Kate Suski had only her bikini on, having shed her sundress to swim better. Dan Suski had gotten rid of his shorts, having recalled a saying when he was a kid that "the best-dressed corpses wear cotton."

They heard a stream nearby but decided to wait until daylight to determine whether the water was safe to drink.

As the sun came up, they began to hike through thick brush, picking up bitter mangoes along the way and stopping to eat green bananas.

"It was probably the best and worst banana I've ever had," Dan Suski recalled.

Some three hours later, they spotted a young farm worker walking with his white dog. He fed them crackers, gave them water and waited until police arrived, the Suskis said.

"We asked if he knew anything about the captain and mate," Kate Suski said. "He said he had seen the news the night before and they hadn't been found at that time. I think we felt a sense of tragedy that we weren't prepared for."

The Suskis were hospitalized and received IV fluids, with doctors concerned they couldn't draw blood from Kate Suski's arm because she was so dehydrated. They also learned that the captain and mate were rescued after spending nearly 23 hours in the water, noting that their relatives called and took care of them after the ordeal.

St. Lucia's tourism minister called it a miracle, and the island's maritime affairs unit is investigating exactly what caused the ship to sink. Marine Police Sgt. Finley Leonce said they have already interviewed the captain, and that police did not suspect foul play or any criminal activity in the sinking of the ship.

A man who answered the phone Thursday at the "Reel Irie" company declined to comment except to say that he's grateful everyone is safe. He said both the captain and first mate were standing next to him but that they weren't ready to talk about the incident.

The brother and sister said they don't blame anyone for the shipwreck.

"We are so grateful to be alive right now," Kate Suski said. "Nothing can sort of puncture that bubble."

Upon returning to their hotel in St. Lucia earlier this week, the Suskis were upgraded to a suite as they recover from cuts on their feet, severe tendonitis in their ankles from swimming and abrasions from the lifejackets.

"It's really been amazing," Dan Suski said. "It's a moving experience for me."

On Saturday, they plan to fly back to the U.S. to meet their father in Miami.

Once a night owl, Kate Suski no longer minds getting up early for flights, or for any other reason.
"Since this ordeal, I've been waking up at dawn every morning," she said. "I've never looked forward to the sunrise so much in my life."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/26/american-tourists-recoving-after-swimming-for-14-hours-when-ship-sinks-in/?intcmp=trending#ixzz2RZWDNJaQ

April 2013 Last updated at 20:17 ET
Woodstock icon Richie Havens dies at 72

 

Richie Havens was famous for his distinctive guitar and singing style

Richie Havens, the folk singer who opened the legendary 1969 Woodstock rock festival, has died of a heart attack at 72.

He died at his home in Jersey City, New Jersey, his agent, Roots Agency, told Reuters.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, the musician was famous for his distinctive guitar and singing style.

Recalling Woodstock, Havens once said: "Everything in my life, and so many others', is attached to that train.''

His improvised version of the gospel song Motherless Child evolved into Freedom at the festival and became an anthem of the 1960s hippy generation.

The Woodstock concert film captured his performance for posterity.
Tributes

Havens in 2008 in Paris

More recently, the soundtrack of Quentin Tarantino's award-winning slavery-era film Django Unchained featured Havens singing a version of Freedom.

Tributes to the singer have come in, with his contemporary and fellow singer Stephen Stills saying Havens "could never be replicated".

Havens underwent kidney surgery in 2010 and he never recovered enough to perform concerts as he had in his heyday.

He released more than 25 albums, and other songs he recorded include versions of Bob Dylan's Just Like a Woman and the Beatles' Here Comes the Sun.

In 1993, he performed at US President Bill Clinton's inauguration.

His family said a public memorial would be announced later and asked for privacy in the meantime.

Beyond his music, those who have met Havens will remember his gentle and compassionate nature, his light humour and his powerful presence”

 

'Gifted'

"Beyond his music, those who have met Havens will remember his gentle and compassionate nature, his light humour and his powerful presence," they said in a statement.

Roots Agency said Havens had been "gifted with one of the most recognisable voices in popular music".

"His fiery, poignant, soulful singing style has remained unique and ageless," it added.

Havens moved to Greenwich Village in New York City at the age of 20 to perform poetry, imbibe folk music and learn how to play the guitar.

Stills said he remembered hanging out with him in the Village.

"Richie Havens was one of the nicest, most generous and pure individuals I have ever met,'' he said in a statement.

The celebrated performance by Havens at Woodstock

"When I was a young sprite in Greenwich Village, we used to have breakfast together at the diner on 6th Avenue next to The Waverly Theatre.
Turning point
"He was very wise in the ways of our calling. He always caught fire every time he played.''

Woodstock proved the turning point in Havens' career, thanks in part to the scheduling chaos at the festival that featured headliners such as Jimi Hendrix, The Who and Janis Joplin,

Havens, originally scheduled to go on fifth, got bumped up because of travel delays. His performance continued for three hours because the next act had not shown up.

New Jersey hoarder found dead, mummified inside own apartment

Published April 18, 2013

Associated Press

 

NEW MILFORD, N.J. – Two months after being reported missing, a New Milford woman was found dead in her trash-strewn apartment, her mummified body hidden beneath clothing and debris that had apparently concealed her presence during earlier searches, authorities said.

Alice Klee, 68, was found on her bedroom floor Friday by her landlord, who was there to open a window after getting court permission to clean out the apartment, said Police Chief Frank Papapietro.
"It was by chance that he caught her hair sticking out under the debris," Papapietro said Monday.

The medical examiner's office determined the woman died of natural causes, the chief said.

Family members, New Milford police and other agencies including animal control had searched Klee's apartment multiple times during the past two months, he said.

Papapietro, who had also visited the apartment the first time police went there, said so much debris was piled up, officers could not make their way fully inside.

"Clothes, garbage, trash, cat feces, cat urine, it was just horrendous," Papapietro said.

Klee lived alone in the cramped apartment with her cats. Animal control had to set up traps to find some of the cats among the debris, the chief said. One was found dead.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/18/new-jersey-hoarder-found-dead-mummified-in-own-apartment/?intcmp=obnetwork#ixzz2RCNW2YJJ

Arabs Brutally Attack American Jew In Venice

 

• 

New Year’s Day in the gondola-laden city of Venice brought with it a vicious attack of a young America Yeshiva student by 15 Arab youths.

The student was visiting his family for the holidays and nearly lost his life. The victim remains unnamed for fear of his family’s safety.

The attackers used various weapons and only fled once onlookers started to shout at them- yelling that police and paramedics were on the way.

It is believed that if the bystanders didn’t intervene, the student would either have permanent damage or would have lost his life. Many Jewish leaders are blaming the Italian politicians. Observatory researcher Stefano Gatti is quoted saying:

“Italian pundits and politicians such as Silvio Berlusconi, Beppe Grillo or Piergiorgio Odifreddi are now writing discriminatory posts and telling racist jokes. Making certain issues seem normal, even funny, is one of the root causes of the rise in anti-Semitic episodes in Italy.”

It is sad to see that such racial violence in still prominent in the world we live in today. This is only one of many recent attacks on the Jewish people. With all that is going on in Israel these days, it is unlikely that these acts of hate will stop.

Stephen Guy Hardin: With Police in Schools, More Children in CourtMich...

Stephen Guy Hardin: With Police in Schools, More Children in CourtMich...: With Police in Schools, More Children in Court Michael Stravato for The New York Times Craig Davis, an officer at E. L. Furr High Scho...

Stephen Guy Hardin: Demographics Favor the GOP — Unless They Blow ItFr...

Stephen Guy Hardin: Demographics Favor the GOP — Unless They Blow ItFr...: Demographics Favor the GOP — Unless They Blow It Fri, Apr 05 2013 00:00:00 E A15_ISSUES By M. STANTON EVANS , Investor's Busi...

Judge Orders F.D.A. to Make Morning-After Pill Available Over the Counter for All Ages

A federal judge has ruled that the Unites States government must make the most common morning-after pill available over the counter for all ages, instead of requiring a prescription for girls 16 and under.

The decision, on a fraught and politically controversial subject, comes after a decade-long fight over who should have access to the pill and under what circumstances, and it counteracts an unprecedented move by the Obama administration’s Health and Human Services secretary who in 2011 overruled a recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration to make the pill available for all ages without a prescription.

Scott Brown not ruling out run for office in N.H.

Former senator notes ties to New Hampshire

Scott Brown watched a traditional drum ritual of the Pequot tribe Nashua, N.H., Thursday evening. (AP)

By Travis Andersen

Globe Staff / April 4, 2013         

 

aying “I don’t think I’m done with politics,” former Senator Scott Brown stressed his ties to New Hampshire following a speech in Nashua on Thursday and refused to rule out a run for elective office in the Granite State.

 

Brown, speaking to reporters after delivering the keynote speech at a dinner to mark the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, noted that he owns a home in New Hampshire, has “been a taxpayer” there for 20 years, and has relatives who live in the state.

When asked directly if he would rule out a run for office in New Hampshire, Brown — who lost his reelection bid in Massachusetts in November to current Senator Elizabeth Warren — left his options open.

“I’m not going to rule out anything right now, because I really haven’t thought a heck of a lot about it,” said Brown. The Wrentham resident dashed the hopes of many of the Republican faithful in Massachusetts when he passed on the special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State John F. Kerry.

When a reporter said Thursday that “it would be Senator Shaheen’s seat” in New Hampshire, a reference to Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen— who is up for reelection next year — Brown repeated a mantra that inspired supporters during his upset victory in the 2010 special Senate election in the Bay State.

“It’s the people’s seat,” he said.

That line became a rallying cry in his stunning victory over Attorney General Martha Coakley to fill the Senate seat that was long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy and considered a lock to remain in Democratic hands that year.

But Brown stopped short of making any bold pronouncements in Nashua.

“Listen, I know Jeanne,” Brown said. “Certainly, it’s not something I’ve been spending any time really focusing on. I was asked to speak, I’ve been asked to speak at five or six other events coming up. I’m going to come and spend time here as I do every year. And I’m not sure what I'm going to do politically yet.

“I’m just recharging the batteries.”

A spokesman for Brown declined to comment on Thursday, and Brown did not return calls seeking comment.

Jennifer Horn, chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party, said in an e-mail that she had no information about Brown’s future plans.

“However, I would say that NH Republicans represent a broad spectrum of ideas and I am sure that if Sen.Brown chose to run here voters would listen to what he has to say and give him an honest chance,” Horn wrote.

But Clare Kelly, executive director of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, was less sanguine.

“We suspect the voters in New Hampshire will reject a candidate that has a record of voting with Wall Street and against the middle class, just as they did in Massachusetts last November,” she said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Massachusetts GOP declined to comment.

Brown has remained largely out of public view since leaving office in January. He recently accepted a job at the Boston law firm of Nixon Peabody and is working as a Fox News contributor.

He rejected the notion on Thursday that his affiliation with the conservative network might hurt his standing with moderate voters.

“That’s why they hired me, it’s because I am a moderate,” Brown said. “They don’t have a moderate voice in the news media today on any station.”

He also touted his moderate voting record in Washington, calling himself “the least partisan senator” during his tenure who bucked the GOP leadership on nearly half of his votes.

Hollywood Actor Goes Full Libertarian On Mayor Bloomberg, Slams ‘Terrible’ Nanny Statism

 

Apr. 4, 2013 10:44amBecket Adams

 

Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons (“The Mission,” “Die Hard With a Vengeance,” “Brideshead Revisited”) on Wednesday savaged New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s attempts to coerce people into healthier lifestyles, comparing the mayor’s policies to a “nanny state.”

 

“I’m a complete libertarian. I think it’s very, very dangerous. I really mean that. I think the smoking ban is a tip of an iceberg of society — the leaders of society telling us how to be,” he said during an interview on HuppPost Live

 

“I think it’s not their business. I think it is their business to tell us to care for and respect each other and each other’s happiness and each other’s health, and we are responsible enough to do that,” he adds.

 

He continued:

I think it’s terrible, it’s the tip of the iceberg, because it’s an attitude, it’s an attitude where the governors think “we know what’s best for people, and they’re so stupid that they would only not do it if we ban it.”

And personally, I think about smoking tobacco — it suits some people, it doesn’t suit other people. A lot of people who are bored and unhappy smoke cigarettes. Of course if you’re bored and unhappy, you’ll die early. So that’s why those two things add up.

Breaking his line of thought for a moment, he paused to clean his back teeth.

 

“I have a grandmother of a friend of mine in Greece, who grew tobacco all her life, that’s what they did, in northern Greece, they grew tobacco,” he continued.

 

“She died at 103, she smoked from the age of 13. So it suits some people, it doesn’t suit others. But I think, when governors tell us how we can behave and how we can’t, I don’t believe it’s the way to go.”

George Sanders, Arizona Man, Gets Probation In Mercy Killing

By BRIAN SKOLOFF 03/30/13 04:12 AM ET EDT

George Sanders, center, is joined by his attorney Janey Henze Cook, right, outside a Phoenix courtroom, Friday, March 29, 2013. The 86-year-old, who carried out a mercy killing by shooting his ailing wife and high school sweetheart in the head, was sentenced Friday to probation after an emotional hearing where family members tearfully spoke on his behalf. (AP Photo/Brian Skoloff)

PHOENIX -- There was no doubt 86-year-old George Sanders killed his ailing wife. Yet everyone in the small Arizona courtroom – the prosecutor, the judge and even the couple's family members – agreed it was a time for compassion, not punishment.

"My grandfather lived to love my grandmother, to serve and to make her feel as happy as he could every moment of their life," Sanders' grandson, Grant, told the judge, describing the couple's life together as "a beautiful love story."

"I truly believe that the pain had become too much for my grandmother to bear," he said, while Sanders looked on during the sentencing hearing Friday and occasionally wiped his eyes with a tissue as relatives pleaded tearfully for mercy.

Sanders was arrested last fall after he says his wife, Virginia, 81, begged him to kill her. He was initially charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a deal with prosecutors. Still, he faced a sentence of up to 12 years.

His wife, whose family called her Ginger, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1969, and was forced into a wheelchair soon after. She and Sanders, a World War II veteran, moved from Washington state in the 1970s for Arizona's warm, dry climate.

George Sanders became her sole caregiver. He cooked for her, cleaned the house, did laundry, put on her makeup and would take her to the beauty salon where he'd hold her hands up so she could get her nails done.

Eventually, though, his own health deteriorated. He had a pacemaker put in, and Virginia was diagnosed with gangrene on her foot. She was set to be admitted to a hospital, then likely a nursing home where she would spend the remainder of her life.

"It was just the last straw," Sanders told a detective during his interrogation shortly after the shooting at the couple's home in a retirement community outside Phoenix. "She didn't want to go to that hospital ... start cutting her toes off."

He said his wife begged him to kill her. "I said, `I can't do it honey,'" he told the detective. "She says, `Yes you can.'"

Sanders then got his revolver and wrapped a towel around it so the bullet wouldn't go into the kitchen. "She says, `Is this going to hurt?' and I said, `You won't feel a thing,'" he said.

"She was saying, `Do it. Do it. Do it.' And I just let it go," Sanders added.

In court Friday, as Sanders awaited his fate, his son told the judge the family never wanted him to be prosecuted.

"I want the court to know that I loved my mother dearly," Steve Sanders said. "But I would also like the court to know that I equally love my father."

Breaking down at times in tears, he explained how his parent's spent 62 years together, and his father took care of his mother day in and day out.

"I fully believe that the doctor's visits, the appointments, the medical phone calls and the awaiting hospital bed led to the decision that my parents made together," he said. "I do not fault my father.

"A lot of people have hero figures in their life, LeBron James ... some world class figures ... but I have to tell you my lifelong hero is my dad," he told the judge, sobbing.

George Sanders, wearing khakis and a white sport coat, spoke for only a minute about his deep love for his wife.

"Your honor, I met Ginger when she was 15 years old and I've loved her since she was 15 years old. I loved her when she was 81 years old," he said, trembling.

"It was a blessing, and I was happy to take care of her,"

Sanders continued. "I am sorry for all the grief and pain and sorrow I've caused people."

Prosecutor Blaine Gadow also asked the judge not to sentence Sanders to prison, instead recommending probation.
  "The family very much loved their mother," Gadow said, noting the "very unique, difficult circumstances of this case."

"I don't know where our society is going to go with cases like this, judge," he added. "At this point in time, what Mr. Sanders did was a crime." However, he said, "No one in the courtroom has forgotten the victim in this case."

As family members took their seats and Sanders stood trembling at the podium in the courtroom, Judge John Ditsworth spoke softly, staring at the defendant from just a few feet away then sentenced him to two years of unsupervised probation.

Ditsworth said his decision "tempers justice with mercy."

"It is very clear that he will never forget that his actions ended the life of his wife," Ditsworth said.