Life

Diabetes complications show significant decline in past two decades

By Gene Emery NEW YORK Wed Apr 16, 2014 5:05pm EDT (Reuters Health) – Diabetes is becoming increasingly common in the United States, but the risks of complications from the blood sugar disease have declined since 1990, according to a new study. Better preventive care for adults with diabetes contributed to a 68 percent drop in their risk of heart attacks and a 64 percent drop in deaths from high blood sugar. The risks of […]

Kitchens could be sources of drug-resistant bacteria

By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:37pm EDT (Reuters Health) – Cutting boards used to prepare raw poultry may be an important source of drug-resistant bacteria in hospital kitchens and private homes, according to a new study. The more bacteria are exposed to antibiotics, the higher the chance they will develop resistance to the drugs. Unnecessary exposure can happen in humans who take antibiotic drugs they don’t need, like for the common […]

Dengue outbreak at Australian detention centre sparks fresh concerns

By Matt Siegel SYDNEY Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:26pm EDT (Reuters) – An outbreak of dengue fever at an Australian refugee detention center in the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru sparked calls on Thursday for greater oversight at the facility, which has been criticized by rights groups and the United Nations. Australian Immigration Minister Scott Morrison’s office said that medical officers at the center had confirmed three cases of the potentially fatal tropical disease, […]

California makes it harder for insurers to deny autism treatment

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, California Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:24pm EDT (Reuters) – California on Wednesday made it harder for health insurers to deny or delay coverage of key interventions for children with autism, the latest in an ongoing series of actions by U.S. states to help families obtain the expensive therapies. In tightening its rules on covering behavioral intervention for children with autism, California is tackling a problem encountered by numerous states seeking to […]

Deaths due to Ebola in Guinea drop; outbreak nearly under control, says health ministry

(Reuters) – The number of deaths caused by Ebola has slowed dramatically in Guinea and the outbreak is nearly under control, the country’s health ministry said on Tuesday. The spread of Ebola from a remote corner of Guinea to the capital and into neighboring Liberia has killed about 130 people and spread panic across West African nations struggling with weak healthcare systems and porous borders. While Guinea claimed progress in containing the virus, U.S. experts […]

Meteor Shower To Light Up The Sky On April 21- 22

  Astronomers said that if the weather on Monday, (April 21, 2014) cooperates, stargazers can look forward to a meteor shower. According to PAGASA acting administrator Vicente Malano , the Lyrids meteor shower may peak from April 21 to before dawn of April 22. “The shower typically generates a dozen meteors per hour under optimal conditions with a brief maximum that lasts for less than a day. The shower’s peak this year will be in progress on […]

Google to buy drone-maker Titan Aerospace

By Alexei Oreskovic Mon Apr 14, 2014 3:19pm EDT (Reuters) – Google Inc has acquired solar-powered drone maker Titan Aerospace as the Web search giant ramps up plans to deliver wireless Internet access to remote parts of the world. Titan Chief Executive Vern Raburn declined to provide information on the price of the deal, which he said closed on Monday morning. The 20-person company will remain in New Mexico for the foreseeable future, Raburn said, […]

Tips for Save Driving

Driving Tips With the long weekend just around the corner, many of us are dreaming of going on a road trip – whether to reunite with beloved relatives or to explore new locations. Of course one of the sure-fire ways to ruin our holiday break is to be involved in a road mishap, so we must be extra careful in our driving, especially when we have our friends and family together with us in the […]

IPCC climate report from Berlin finds UN emissions target not out of reach

A UN panel believes the world could meet a maximum target for global warming if it significantly cuts annual emissions by 2050. According to a report, however, few nations are doing enough to meet the stated goal. Annual emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases must drop 40-70 percent by 2050 to keep the global temperature rise below the 2-degree Celsius (3.6-degree F), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced in a report released […]

Tsunami warning for Solomon Islands lifted

A tsunami warning has cancelled the region surrounding the Solomon Islands. The alert followed a 7.6-magnitude earthquake. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center dropped its alert for the Solomon Islands on Sunday, roughly two hours after it had originally issued a tsunami warning for the region, including Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. In a bulletin posted on its website, the center warned of dangerous sailing conditions even though the threat of a tsunami had […]

Act fast to curb global warming, or extract CO2 from air: U.N.

The study, drawing on the work of more than 1,000 experts, said a shift from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy such as wind, solar or nuclear power was affordable and would shave only about 0.06 percentage point a year off world economic growth. “We have a window of opportunity for the next decade, and maximum the next two decades” to act at moderate costs, said Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of a Berlin meeting of the Intergovernmental […]

‘Heartbleed’ computer bug threat spreads to firewalls and beyond

(Reuters) – Hackers could crack email systems, security firewalls and possibly mobile phones through the “Heartbleed” computer bug, according to security experts who warned on Thursday that the risks extended beyond just Internet Web servers. The widespread bug surfaced late on Monday, when it was disclosed that a pernicious flaw in a widely used Web encryption program known as OpenSSL opened hundreds of thousands of websites to data theft. Developers rushed out patches to fix […]