2 babies die, 29 sickened from bad vaccines in south Mexico

Mexico's public health system has suspended infant vaccines and mounted an investigation after two babies died and 29 were sickened in an impoverished community in southern Mexico.

Six of the 29 babies are in grave condition after receiving vaccinations for tuberculosis, rotovirus and Hepatitis B, which are generally administered between 0 and 6 months, according to a national schedule. The cause of the adverse reactions is not known, the Mexican Institute for Social Security said Sunday.

The institute said it stopped vaccines nationwide on Saturday as a precaution.

The Rev. Marcelo Perez, a Roman Catholic priest, told The Associated Press that families of the babies said they became sick within hours. The adverse reactions started Friday and the babies were being treated in a hospital in Simojovel, Chiapas, where 93 percent of the people live in poverty, 69 percent in extreme poverty, according to government statistics.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/2-babies-die-29-sickened-from-bad-vaccines-in-6254645.php

Bottled water flies off shelves as fizzy drinks go flat

Bay Bridge revelations are 'game changers,’ panel chief says

Source: SFGate

The head of the panel overseeing the new Bay Bridge eastern span acknowledged Monday that revelations of possible saltwater flooding at the base of the landmark tower and anchor-rod failure “are game changers,” as he and his colleagues approved spending up to $4 million in toll payers’ money to find out how bad the problems are.

“We need to get to the bottom of the situation at the tower — if we’ve got problems, we need to fix them,” said Steve Heminger, executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and chairman of the three-member bridge oversight panel that also includes the heads of Caltrans and the state Transportation Commission.

The panel voted for spending the money one week after one of the tower’s 400-plus anchor rods failed a key test — suggesting it may have corroded from exposure to water and fractured — and after tests showed significant levels of corrosive chloride in some of the sleeves holding the 25-foot-long steel rods at the base of the tower.

“In my view, those are game changers,” Heminger said at the panel’s meeting Monday in Oakland.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Bridge-woes-are-game-changers-official-6256914.php

2 babies die, 29 sickened from bad vaccines in south Mexico

Source: AP

Mexico's public health system has suspended infant vaccines and mounted an investigation after two babies died and 29 were sickened in an impoverished community in southern Mexico.

Six of the 29 babies are in grave condition after receiving vaccinations for tuberculosis, rotovirus and Hepatitis B, which are generally administered between 0 and 6 months, according to a national schedule. The cause of the adverse reactions is not known, the Mexican Institute for Social Security said Sunday.

The institute said it stopped vaccines nationwide on Saturday as a precaution.

The Rev. Marcelo Perez, a Roman Catholic priest, told The Associated Press that families of the babies said they became sick within hours. The adverse reactions started Friday and the babies were being treated in a hospital in Simojovel, Chiapas, where 93 percent of the people live in poverty, 69 percent in extreme poverty, according to government statistics.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/medical/article/2-babies-die-29-sickened-from-bad-vaccines-in-6254645.php

Syria crisis: Turkey and Saudi Arabia shock Western countries by supporting Anti-Assad jihadists

Turkey and Saudi Arabia are actively supporting a hardline coalition of Islamist rebels against Bashar al-Assad’s regime that includes al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, in a move that has alarmed Western governments.

The two countries are focusing their backing for the Syrian rebels on the combined Jaish al-Fatah, or the Army of Conquest, a command structure for jihadist groups in Syria that includes Jabhat al-Nusra, an extremist rival to Isis which shares many of its aspirations for a fundamentalist caliphate.

The decision by the two leading allies of the West to back a group in which al-Nusra plays a leading role has alarmed Western governments and is at odds with the US, which is firmly opposed to arming and funding jihadist extremists in Syria’s long-running civil war.

It threatens to trump Washington’s own attempt to train pro-Western opposition fighters, announced by President Barack Obama a year ago but finally launched only last week. The number of fighters involved is small and, crucially, the State Department insists that they would take the field against Isis and not against the regime.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-crisis-turkey-and-saudi-arabia-shock-western-countries-by-supporting-antiassad-jihadists-10242747.html

Sheldon Adelson faces new scrutiny as documents challenge his testimony

Sheldon Adelson, the multibillionaire casino magnate and key Republican party donor, spent four combative days in a Las Vegas court this week defending his gambling empire from accusations of bribery and ties to organised crime.

By the time the hearing was over, Adelson had argued with the judge, contradicted the evidence of his own executives and frustrated his lawyers by revealing more information than he was required to in response to simple yes or no questions. But most importantly, far from laying the allegations against his Las Vegas Sands conglomerate to rest, the billionaire’s answers threw up yet more questions which he is likely to have to return to court to answer.

On the court docket, the case is merely a wrongful dismissal suit. The former CEO of Adelson’s highly profitable casinos in the Chinese enclave of Macau, Steven Jacobs, is suing because he claims to have been sacked for trying to break links to organised crime groups, the triads, and for attempting to halt alleged influence peddling with Chinese officials.

But the extent of what is at stake for Adelson was evident in the form of the Nevada gaming board official monitoring the case from the public gallery.

Adelson accused Jacobs of “squealing like a pig to the government” and of blackmail in taking his accusations to the US authorities. They include the allegation that Las Vegas Sands paid what amounted to bribes intended to influence the Macau authorities and the government in Beijing and that the casino did business with a notorious triad leader.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/09/sheldon-adelson-macau-testimony-las-vegas-sands

Robot Revolution - New machine could one day replace anesthesiologists

The new machine that could one day replace anesthesiologists sat quietly next to a hospital gurney occupied by Nancy Youssef-Ringle. She was nervous. In a few minutes, a machine — not a doctor — would sedate the 59-year-old for a colon cancer screening called a colonoscopy.

But she had done her research. She had even asked a family friend, an anesthesiologist, what he thought of the device. He was blunt: “That’s going to replace me.”

One day, maybe. For now, the Sedasys anesthesiology machine is only getting started, the leading lip of an automation wave that could transform hospitals just as technology changed automobile factories. But this machine doesn’t seek to replace only hospital shift workers. It’s targeting one of the best-paid medical specialties, making it all the more intriguing — or alarming, depending on your point of view.

Today, just four U.S. hospitals are using the machines, including here at ProMedica Toledo Hospital. Device maker Johnson & Johnson only recently deployed the first-of-its-kind machine despite winning U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 2013. The rollout has been deliberately cautious for a device that hints at the future of health care, when machines take on tasks once assumed beyond their reach.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/new-machine-could-one-day-replace-anesthesiologists/2015/05/11/92e8a42c-f424-11e4-b2f3-af5479e6bbdd_story.html

Missing cat discovered 49 days later trapped alive in shipping container on other side of Australia

A cat who went missing in Darwin, Northern Territory for seven weeks has been discovered trapped—but still very much alive—in a shipping container in Brisbane, Queensland.

“I got call from my former neighbour, ‘Hi, this is Jason, we’ve found your cat in our container,’” the cat’s owner Rebecca Schilling said.

The shipping container had been used to transport the belongings of Ms Schilling’s former neighbour Jason King interstate.

The container was sealed on February 20, 2015, transported via the VLine transport services and reopened on April 10.


Read more at http://www.9news.com.au/national/2015/05/07/15/17/missing-cat-discovered-49-days-later-trapped-alive-in-shipping-container-on-other-side-of-australia#TxTMrjqOVUPJLgeu.99

'ATTACK THE MESSENGER' — Seymour Hersh defends his blockbuster bin Laden story

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh is pushing back against critics of his controversial story claiming the White House lied about key details of the Osama bin Laden raid.

Soon after the story was published in the London Review of Books on Sunday night, former CIA officials and national-security experts slammed Hersh's reporting, with CNN's Peter Bergen calling the piece "a farrago of nonsense."

And the White House blasted the story as full of inaccuracies and "baseless."

When reached at home by Business Insider on Monday afternoon, Hersh addressed some of the criticisms of his reporting, which have centered around his reliance on anonymous sources and an apparent lack of documentary evidence for his claims.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/seymour-hersh-defends-his-blockbuster-bin-laden-story-2015-5#ixzz3ZsZVFioz

Warren Critique Deepens Trade Spat Between Obama, Democrats