US unveils larger tobacco warnings with images
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
NEW YORK: US health officials issued a proposal on Wednesday for larger tobacco warning labels, including “graphic health warnings” depicting the effects of smoking, to be required on all cigarette packages in 2012.
A requirement for larger warnings on cigarette packages was included in a June 2009 law putting the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry under the control of the US Food and Drug Administration.
The rule...
Haiti capital battles arrival of cholera
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Aid groups fought Wednesday to halt the spread of cholera in Haiti’s teeming capital, where makeshift camps crammed with earthquake survivors are ripe ground for the epidemic to take hold.
The outbreak erupted in the Artibonite River valley in central Haiti in mid-October and initially seemed to have been contained, but the toll from the chronic diarrheal disease has since soared to 643 dead and just...
Obama administration to target Internet privacy: report
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON: The United States is preparing to boost efforts to police Internet privacy, with a push for new laws and a new office to manage the effort, the Wall Street Journal said Friday.
President Barack Obama’s Commerce Department is preparing a report on the strategy that will be released in the coming weeks, the Journal said.
Obama’s administration, in a break from previous governments that relied on...
Haiti cholera death toll soars as election nears
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti’s cholera toll rose above 900 on Sunday, including dozens of deaths in the teeming capital, as the outbreak showed no sign of abating just two weeks ahead of presidential elections.
Health Ministry officials reported more than 120 new deaths since the previous toll, as authorities and international aid agencies struggled to contain the latest crisis afflicting the desperately poor Caribbean nation.
Nearly...
More heart disease for stressed working women
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
NEW YORK: Women with stressful jobs that offer little room for decision making or creativity have an increased risk of suffering a heart attack — and this is even worse than stressing over losing a job, according to a study.
The link between heart disease and job stress has long been well-established for men, but it wasn’t clear if this held true for women as well, said Michelle Asha Albert, a heart doctor at...
Study suggests mammograms under 50 if family risk
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
LONDON: Women in their 40s with a moderately high family risk of breast cancer should get yearly mammograms, a new British study suggests.
Though such testing is standard in the US for that age group with a family history, women in Europe who have an intermediate family risk are not always offered screening if they are under 50.
British researchers followed 6,710 women under 50 who had a moderate breast cancer risk –...
What if airport screeners checked your square root?
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON: What if airport screeners looked at would-be passengers and instead of assessing the color of their skin, asked: “What’s the square root of your likelihood of being a terrorist?”
Such is the world imagined by an American computer scientist who argues that racial profiling to root out potential terrorists is actually less effective than random searches, but says some simple math could offer a better...
The fabled tiger’s struggle against extinction
Posted by admin on Dec 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment
SAINT PETERSBURG: The mighty tiger’s struggle against extinction has received little international notice until becoming the focus of a historic 13-state summit that opens in Russia’s imperial capital Sunday.
The fabled beast’s numbers have dwindled precipitously over the last century, plunging from 100,000 to just 3,200 today.
They have fallen victim to poachers who skin the majestic animals, selling their...
South Africa’s ‘Facebook’ captivates young users
Posted by admin on Nov 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment
JOHANNESBURG: While South Africa’s teachers were on strike in September, volunteers used South Africa’s largest social network to help students prepare for exams.
Which means they did not turn to Facebook or Twitter, but to MXit – the brainchild of Namibian-born software developer Herman Heunus.
Rather than using computers, MXit connects members through cell phones, allowing them to exchange instant messages...
Last year’s moonshot splashed up lots of water
Posted by admin on Nov 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment
LOS ANGELES: When NASA blasted a hole in the moon last year in search of water, scientists figured there would be a splash. They just didn’t know how big.
Now new results from the Hollywood-esque moonshot reveal lots of water in a crater where the sun never shines – 41 gallons of ice and vapor.
That may not sound like much – it’s what a typical washing machine uses for a load – but it’s almost...
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