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 Beijing's bid to move polluting firms watched warily in nearby regions
 By David Stanway BEIJING (Reuters) - China's capital has ordered more than 50 companies to shut down this year in an effort to cut pollution but pushing factories out could raise objections in surrounding areas reluctant to host Beijing's polluters. Smog-shrouded Beijing and the surrounding province of Hebei have become a front in a "war against pollution" declared by Premier Li Keqiang last month. But experts say efforts to cut coal consumption and industrial output in big cities like Beijing is likely to put pressure on other regions to endure more pollution to keep the economy growing, with overall coal consumption expected to rise by a quarter from 2011 to 2015. "Moving Beijing's plants to Hebei isn't the best way," said Yang Fuqiang, a former government researcher and senior energy and environment adviser with the Natural Resources Defense Council, a U.S.-based think-tank.
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Toronto Mayor Ford opens re-election bid with 'cut the gravy' vow
 By Cameron French TORONTO (Reuters) - Toronto Mayor Rob Ford launched his re-election campaign on Friday, acknowledging the crack-cocaine scandal that has made him a topic of water cooler talk across North America, but also happy to trade on his notoriety. Ford, whose authority was reduced last year by a city council fed up with his antics, took over a massive convention center in Toronto's west end for the event, hawking bobble-head dolls to raise funds ahead of the election on October 27. First elected mayor in 2010 on a cost-cutting platform, Ford has become indisputably the most famous leader in the city's history, and continues to poll relatively strongly in spite of a scandal that prompted staffers to desert him and has cost him nearly all of his allies on city council.
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Obama: 8 million signed up for health care
 WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight million people have signed up for health care through new insurance exchanges and the proportion of younger applicants has increased, President Barack Obama said Thursday. The enrollments exceeded expectations and offered new hope to Democrats who are defending the law ahead of the midterm elections.
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As opposition grows, China defends plans for petrochemical plants
 By Chen Aizhu BEIJING (Reuters) - China has launched an intense media campaign to defend the safety of producing a chemical used to make polyester fiber, as public opposition to new petrochemical plants threatens to disrupt expansion plans by state energy giants such as Sinopec Corp. Choking smog and environmental degradation in many parts of China is angering an increasingly educated and affluent urban class and after a series of health scares and accidents there is deepening public skepticism of the safety of industries ranging from food to energy. Illustrating this distrust, hundreds of residents in the southern Chinese city of Maoming demonstrated this month against plans to build a petrochemical plant to produce paraxylene, known as PX, a chemical used in making polyester fiber and plastics. The plant is backed by the local government and China's biggest refiner, state-controlled Sinopec Corp. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of PX and polyester, vital for the country's textile industry, which generated $290 billion of overseas sales, or 13 percent of China's total exports last year, according to customs data.
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Compensation battle rages four years after BP's U.S. oil spill
Four years after the Deepwater Horizon spill, oil is still washing up on the long sandy beaches of Grand Isle, Louisiana, and some islanders are fed up with hearing from BP that the crisis is over. Jules Melancon, the last remaining oyster fisherman on an island dotted with colorful houses on stilts, says he has not found a single oyster alive in his leases in the area since the leak and relies on an onshore oyster nursery to make a living. The British oil major has paid out billions of dollars in compensation under a settlement experts say is unprecedented in its breadth. Some claimants are satisfied, but others are irate that BP is now challenging aspects of the settlement.
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3 High-Tech Diets That Work
Experts say that dieters who include apps in their weight-loss efforts score greater success than those who don't. We asked three Health readers to each test a leading digital diet and report back.
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Whoopi Goldberg debuts as marijuana columnist
 Oscar-winning actress, comedienne and talk-show host Whoopi Goldberg sang the praises of marijuana inhaled through a pocket vaporizer on Thursday as she made her debut as an online pot columnist. In fact, her name is Sippy." wrote Goldberg, 58, about her pocket vaporizer on "The Cannabist," a pot-friendly website run by the Denver Post newspaper in Colorado. The Rocky Mountain state was the second in the United States, after Washington in the Pacific Northwest, to legalize marijuana for recreational use. But in a country where, at the federal level, marijuana is classified as an illegal drug on a par with heroin, Goldberg said Sippy's compact proportions helps maintain discretion.
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Casual pot use causes brain abnormalities in the young: study
 (This story from April 15 corrects name of researcher to Breiter, instead of Beiter, throughout story) By Alex Dobuzinskis (Reuters) - Young, casual marijuana smokers experience potentially harmful changes to their brains, with the drug altering regions of the mind related to motivation and emotion, researchers found. The study to be published on Wednesday in the Journal of Neuroscience differs from many other pot-related research projects that are focused on chronic, heavy users of cannabis. The collaborative effort between Northwestern University's medical school, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School showed a direct correlation between the number of times users smoked and abnormalities in the brain. "What we're seeing is changes in people who are 18 to 25 in core brain regions that you never, ever want to fool around with," said co-senior study author Dr. Hans Breiter, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University.
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USDA will require reporting of killer piglet virus PEDv
By Ros Krasny WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In an expected move, the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday announced new measures to combat the spread of disease in the U.S. pig population. The agency said it would require reporting of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv), which has killed millions of piglets over the past year, and the Swine Delta Coronavirus. USDA will also require tracking movements of pigs, vehicles, other equipment leaving affected premises. "USDA has been working closely with the pork industry and our state and federal partners to solve this problem.
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Flavored cigars appeal to youth: study
 By Kathryn Doyle NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Young people are smoking fewer cigarettes these days, but their cigar use is rising, which may partly be due to the popularity of flavored cigars, according to a new study. "The cigar market is the most heavily flavored of all tobacco products," said Cristine D. Delnevo, who led the research. "For decades, tobacco industry internal documents have highlighted that flavors appeal to youth and young people." Delnevo, who directs the Center for Tobacco Surveillance & Evaluation Research at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick, and colleagues from the National Institutes of Health investigated recent market and survey data on flavored cigar use among young people. Delnevo and her coauthors analyzed an annual survey of drug and alcohol use among Americans ages 12 and up.
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'Nanoglue' headed for hospital operating rooms
 Thanks to the progress of nanomedicine, stitches could soon become a thing of the past, giving way to nanoglue. Developed last December by a team of researchers from the Soft Materials and Chemistry Laboratory (ESPCI/CNRS) and the Laboratory for Vascular Translational Science (Paris Diderot University) in France, the solution was the subject of a publication in the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie dated April 16. The researchers were able to test the nanoglue procedure alongside current conventional methods for sealing deep wounds or repairing cuts to an organ, and the results lived up to expectations. The nanoglue method resulted in minimal scarring, an absence of necrosis or inflammation, and rapid healing of the wound.
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Steer clear of flu with vigorous exercise
 Whether it's running, mountain biking or competitive sports, the benefits of exercise go far beyond promoting heart health. According to a recent British study, vigorous exercise could even help you to avoid catching the flu next winter. Intense physical activity appears to stimulate the immune system, according to a study carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and presented at National Science and Engineering Week, which took place in the UK last month. Around 4,800 people took part in the survey this year, answering questions on their exercise habits among other lifestyle factors.
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Lack of insurance tied to more emergency surgery: study
By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The type of insurance people have is tied to their risk of needing emergency aorta surgery, according to a new study. Compared to people with private insurance, people without insurance were more likely to need emergency surgery on their aorta, the largest artery that supplies blood to every part of the body. Hughes is the study's senior author from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
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Exclusive: Biogen prices hemophilia drug on par with older therapies
 Biogen Idec Inc is pricing its newly approved long-acting hemophilia drug, Alprolix, to cost U.S. patients, and insurers, about the same per year as older, less convenient therapies whose price can reach about $300,000 annually. The move could pressure rivals such as Pfizer Inc to lower prices for existing hemophilia treatments, which provide patients with life-saving infusions of a blood clotting agent, according to doctors and industry analysts. Biogen last month won U.S. and Canadian approval for Alprolix to treat hemophilia B, the more rare form of the condition that affects about 4,000 people in the United States and about 25,000 worldwide. "We think we have priced (Alprolix) to create parity with existing therapies on an annual cost of therapy basis," Tony Kingsley, Biogen's head of global commercial operations, told Reuters in a telephone interview.
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Clock ticking for states to adopt health exchanges
 CHICAGO (AP) — For the more than 30 states that defaulted to the federal government under President Barack Obama's health care law, time may be running out to decide whether to create their own state-run insurance exchanges.
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Top Hollande aide quits in conflict of interest row
 By Julien Ponthus and Nicholas Vinocur CLERMONT-FERRAND, France (Reuters) - A senior adviser to French President Francois Hollande quit on Friday over accusations of past conflict of interest linked to his work for pharmaceutical firms, adding to pressure on the unpopular Socialist leader weeks before European elections. Aquilino Morelle, Hollande's chief communications adviser, speechwriter and a main political strategist, has denied investigative website Mediapart's report that he had failed to obtain clearance for lobbying work when he was an employee of the public health inspectorate. The furore deals another blow to Hollande after heavy losses for his party in town hall elections at the end of March. Hollande, speaking during a visit to Clermont Ferrand in central France, said his aide had "taken the only option open to him".
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AbbVie urges U.S. court to avoid gay rights issue in HIV drug case
An Abbott Laboratories spinoff urged a federal appeals court to revisit a ruling in a case against GlaxoSmithKline Plc, but without disturbing landmark constitutional protections for gays and lesbians. In a brief filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday, AbbVie Inc said the full court should review an initial three-judge decision that found a gay man was improperly excluded from jury service due to his sexual orientation. The court in reaching that conclusion in January ordered a new trial for GlaxoSmithKline Plc against AbbVie, which contended Thursday that the 9th Circuit's ruling needed review due to its potential to affect "thousands of jury trials." But AbbVie said it is not asking for the court to reconsider a holding that heightened the constitutional protections judges in several Western states must now apply when evaluating laws that curtail gay rights.
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Supreme Court denies Teva stay in Copaxone patent fight
 By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts on Friday denied a request by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd to stay a lower-court ruling in a patent case that favored the developers of generic versions of Teva's top-selling multiple sclerosis drug. The decision could help pave the way for generic competitors of Teva's Copaxone drug to go on the market as soon as next month. Teva had sought to prevent the lower-court ruling from going into effect while the Supreme Court considers its appeal in the patent fight. At issue is a July 2013 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in favor of two teams developing cheaper generic forms of Copaxone: one comprising Novartis AG's Sandoz Inc and Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc, and the other comprising Mylan Inc and Natco Pharma Ltd. In his decision on Friday, Roberts, in a brief opinion, wrote that he was not convinced Teva had shown the "likelihood of irreparable harm" if the application was denied, because if Teva wins the Supreme Court case it can seek damages from the generic companies for past infringement on its patents.
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Yoga may help women ease PTSD symptoms
By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women enrolled in a small study reported a reduction in symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a series of yoga classes. However, women in a comparison group that didn't take the classes also reported a similar decline in symptoms, researchers found. "The yoga group did well - they improved in their PTSD symptoms - and our control group actually did well, which we didn't expect," Karen Mitchell told Reuters Health. Mitchell, from the National Center for PTSD at the VA Boston Healthcare System, led the new study.
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APNewsBreak: Medicaid paid $12M for Illinois dead
CHICAGO (AP) — The Illinois Medicaid program paid an estimated $12 million for medical services for people listed as deceased in other state records, according to an internal state government memo.
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Gunmen kidnap two Pakistani U.N. staff members from Karachi
By Syed Raza Hassan ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Gunmen have kidnapped two men working for the U.N. Children's Fund from Pakistan's southern city of Karachi, police said Saturday. A spokeswoman for the U.N. Children's Fund, also known as UNICEF, was not available to comment. The port city of Karachi is Pakistan's financial heart and home to 18 million people. Many neighborhoods are considered Taliban strongholds, including the area of Shorab Goth, which is near where the men were taken.
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Obamacare enrollees urged to change passwords over Heartbleed bug
 By Chris Francescani NEW YORK (Reuters) - Americans with accounts on President Barack Obama's health insurance enrollment website, HealthCare.gov, were advised that their passwords had been reset to guard against the "Heartbleed" bug, in a message posted on the site on Saturday. The warning marks the latest fallout from the widespread security bug, which surfaced this month and allows hackers to steal data online without a trace. Companies from Amazon.com Inc to Google Inc. have been forced to take steps to protect against Heartbleed. HealthCare.gov, a health insurance exchange for the 36 states that opted out of creating their own state insurance exchanges, was created under Obama's signature health care law, the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
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On Easter, Pope calls for end to war, condemns waste exacerbating hunger
 By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis, in his Easter address before a huge crowd, on Sunday denounced the "immense wastefulness" in the world while many go hungry and called for an end to conflicts in Syria, Ukraine and Africa. "We ask you, Lord Jesus, to put an end to all war and every conflict, whether great or small, ancient or recent," he said in his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message. Francis, marking the second Easter season of his pontificate, celebrated a Mass to an overflowing crowd of at least 150,000 in St. Peter's Square and beyond.
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Pfizer considers $100 billion bid for AstraZeneca: report
 U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has approached British rival AstraZeneca to propose a 60 billion pound ($101 billion) takeover, Britain's Sunday Times reported. The paper cited senior investment bankers and industry sources saying that informal conversations about a deal had taken place between the two but that no talks were currently under way after AstraZeneca resisted the approach. Pfizer and AstraZeneca both declined to comment on the report to Reuters. AstraZeneca, Britain's second-biggest pharmaceuticals group, has been frequently touted as a potential takeover target as it wrestles with patents expiring on a number of best-selling drugs, leaving future growth uncertain.
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Saudi Arabia announces jump in new cases of deadly MERS virus
By Angus McDowall RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia confirmed 20 new cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS)on Saturday and Sunday, adding up to 49 infections in six days, a sudden increase of a disease that kills about a third of the people infected and has no cure. MERS, a SARS-like novel coronavirus that emerged in Saudi Arabia two years ago, has infected 244 people in the kingdom, of whom 76 have died, the Health Ministry said on its website. He said he did not know why there had been a surge of cases in Jeddah but said it might be part of a seasonal pattern since there was also a big rise in infections last April and May. Another cluster of cases has been detected in the United Arab Emirates and a Malaysian who was recently in the Gulf has been confirmed as infected, his country said. MERS has no vaccine or anti-viral treatment, but international and Saudi health authorities say the disease, which originated in camels, does not transmit easily between people and may simply die out.
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Sleeping California teen killed when car plows into apartment
(Reuters) - A 16-year-old girl asleep in her bed was killed early Sunday when a suspected drunk driver careened into an apartment building in southern California, law enforcement officials said. The crash occurred at 3:15 a.m. local time in Palmdale, which is located about 63 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. Robert Rodriguez, 20, of Palmdale, was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol and was charged at the Palmdale Sheriff's Station with vehicular manslaughter, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. "The driver was at a high rate of speed and either tried to turn or lost control, impacted the curb and went into the apartment building," Sergeant David Sauer of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.
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Study: Half of jailed NYC youths have brain injury
NEW YORK (AP) — About half of all 16- to 18-year-olds coming into New York City's jails say they had a traumatic brain injury before being incarcerated, most caused by assaults, according to a new study that's the latest in a growing body of research documenting head trauma among young offenders.
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Health care site flagged in Heartbleed review
 WASHINGTON (AP) — People who have accounts on the enrollment website for President Barack Obama's signature health care law are being told to change their passwords following an administration-wide review of the government's vulnerability to the confounding Heartbleed Internet security flaw.
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New brain maps released
Two brain map studies released Wednesday in the journal Nature describe the brain in different ways. 
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