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Mobile phone use 'linked to tumour' By Nic Fleming Last Updated: 2:08am GMT 25/01/2007 Long-term users of mobile phones are significantly more likely to develop a certain type of brain tumour on the side of the head where they hold their handsets, according to new research. The results seem to suggest health risks in people who have regularly used mobiles for over 10 years A large-scale study found that those who had regularly used mobiles for longer than 10 years were almost 40 per cent more likely to develop nervous system tumours called gliomas near to where they hold their...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The U.S. military said on Monday 93 rebels were killed and 57 captured in a 10-day operation against al Qaeda-linked insurgents northeast of Baghdad. In an unusually detailed video news conference broadcast to journalists in Baghdad from Diyala province, Colonel David Sutherland said Iraqi troops had fought well in the operation and were improving their capabilities every day. He said 25 weapons caches, including around 1,200 Katyusha rockets, had been found during operations dating back to November in the area around a remote village called Turki. Sutherland said U.S. and Iraqi forces had gradually isolated the insurgents...

Psoriasis linked to tripled risk of heart attack 21:00 10 October 2006 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi Patients with the common inflammatory skin condition psoriasis have a tripled risk of heart attack, a new study has revealed. The study’s researchers speculate that the systemic inflammation seen in psoriasis might weaken the cardiovascular system, thereby increasing the chance of such heart problems. Psoriasis is an inflammatory system disorder that affects around 2% of people in the US and is characterised by sore, scaly patches of red skin. Recent studies suggest that genetic mutations and lifestyle factors such as stress and smoking...

New strain of hospital bug linked to 49 deaths By Caroline Davies (Filed: 02/10/2006) A virulent strain of a superbug has been linked to at least 49 deaths in three Leicester hospitals this year, the local NHS trust has revealed. Figures released by the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust said the superbug clostridium difficile (C Diff) was probably responsible for the deaths of 28 patients, and possibly contributed to the deaths of a further 21 found to be infected. Another 29 cases have been referred to the coroner. The superbug, a common cause of diarrhoea, is carried without side...

WASHINGTON - Where you live, combined with race and income, plays a huge role in the nation's health disparities, differences so stark that a report issued Monday contends it's as if there are eight separate Americas instead of one. Asian-American women living in Bergen County, N.J., lead the nation in longevity, typically reaching their 91st birthdays. Worst off are American Indian men in swaths of South Dakota, who die around age 58 — three decades sooner. Millions of the worst-off Americans have life expectancies typical of developing countries, concluded Dr. Christopher Murray of the Harvard School of Public Health. Asian-American...

Risky Legacy: African DNA linked to prostate cancer Ben Harder The high rate of prostate cancer among African American men may result in large part from a newly identified stretch of DNA passed down from their African ancestors. A black man's odds of developing prostate cancer by age 55 are more than twice those of a white man. The racial discrepancy is less pronounced when the disease appears later. Researchers have suspected for years that genetic factors account for part of the racial difference in risk. Most African Americans have both African and European forebears, so their chromosomes are mosaics...

Egypt Bombings Linked to Earlier Attacks Wednesday April 26, 2006 11:31 PM By WILLA THAYER Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Two suicide attackers targeting international peacekeepers and police blew themselves up Wednesday, two days after nearly simultaneous bombings killed at least 21 people at a resort in the Sinai Peninula. Egyptian Interior Minister Habib el-Adly said all the blasts this week were linked to terror attacks against Sinai resorts last year and in 2004. ``The information we have indicates that (the perpetrators) are Sinai Bedouin, and the latest operations are linked to the previous attacks,'' el-Adly told state...

Europe's chill linked to disease By Kate Ravilious Bubonic plague may have wiped out over a third of Europe's population Europe's "Little Ice Age" may have been triggered by the 14th Century Black Death plague, according to a new study. Pollen and leaf data support the idea that millions of trees sprang up on abandoned farmland, soaking up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This would have had the effect of cooling the climate, a team from Utrecht University, Netherlands, says. The Little Ice Age was a period of some 300 years when Europe experienced a dip in average temperatures. Dr...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are short for their age may perform more poorly on tests of intelligence than their taller peers, a new study suggests. The findings, say researchers, imply that some environmental factors may negatively affect both early childhood height and mental development. What those factors are is uncertain, but a stressful home life is one possibility, according to Dr. Scott Montgomery of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, the study's lead author. "Childhood stress can slow growth significantly," he told Reuters Health, pointing to evidence that children's growth can be impaired when parents divorce or...

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain said on Thursday it had arrested a Moroccan man suspected of heading two al Qaeda-linked cells and helping men involved in the 2004 Madrid bombings flee the country. In an Interior Ministry statement, the man was named as Omar Nakhcha, the alleged ring-leader of two cells believed to have recruited Islamist fighters for Iraq. The units were dismantled by police earlier this week and 20 people were arrested. Nakhcha, 23, was arrested in the northeastern province of Barcelona. Larbi Ben Sellam, a suspected Islamist militant arrested in June last year, told police that Nakhcha helped three...

British lawyers linked to $1m payment for favours at US Congress By Philip Sherwell in Washington and David Harrison in London (Filed: 08/01/2006) A British law firm is at the centre of the investigation into America's biggest influence-buying scandal in decades. The London-based solicitors, James & Sarch, channelled $1 million (£565,000) into a conservative United States pressure group linked to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist. The firm, which was dissolved in 2000, made the payment by a single cheque in June 1998 to the US Family Network, a now-defunct organisation that had close ties to the embattled Republican Congressman, Tom...

WASHINGTON - Fallout from the Jack Abramoff scandal continued Friday as more lawmakers said they will donate to charity campaign contributions related to the disgraced lobbyist. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said they plan to donate to charity a total of nearly $30,000 in campaign contributions they received from tribes connected to Abramoff, who pleaded guilty this week to felony charges in a wide-ranging political corruption investigation. Cantwell will be donating nearly $18,000, and Santorum, about $11,000. Sen. Mark Pryor (news, bio, voting record), D-Ark., meanwhile, said he is returning $3,800 in contributions he received from former...

WASHINGTON - Retreating under fire, Republican Sen. Conrad Burns (news, bio, voting record) of Montana said he will return about $150,000 in donations that he received from indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, his clients and associates. Democrats have criticized Burns, who is up for re-election next year, for his connection to the lobbyist at the center of a federal probe that has entangled at least a half dozen lawmakers and Bush administration officials. Earlier this week, a spokesman for Burns said the senator would not return the money because it had already been spent. "The contributions given to my political committees...

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A California man with a criminal history was identified Sunday as the gunman killed in a shootout at a Lake Tahoe casino that also injured a pair of sheriff's deputies. Harvey Ex, 53, of Sunset Beach, Calif., was shot multiple times and pronounced dead at the scene shortly after the Saturday afternoon incident, Douglas County Sheriff Ron Pierini said. A female acquaintance of Ex's reported to Harrah's Tahoe security that she was concerned about Ex's behavior, Pierini said. Security guards found Ex uncooperative and called the sheriff's department. Soon after the two deputies arrived, shooting erupted...

Militants linked to woman suicide bomber held in raids By David Rennie in Brussels (Filed: 01/12/2005) Police in Belgium and France yesterday arrested 15 suspected militants believed to be linked to a Belgian woman who carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq last month. The 38-year-old convert to Islam blew herself up on Nov 9 on the outskirts of Baghdad in what security sources believe was the first suicide attack involving a European woman. More than 200 heavily-armed officers raided addresses in Brussels and three other Belgian cities in the early hours of the morning. They arrested 14 people in...

Posted on Sun, Nov. 13, 2005 Research on ancient writing linked with modern Mideast conflict BY RON GROSSMAN CHICAGO - Professorial colleagues think Ron Tappy has made a landmark breakthrough in our understanding of the world of the Bible. He himself is waiting for the other shoe to drop. This week, Tappy will formally unveil his discovery at the meetings of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Normally a presentation titled "The 2005 Excavation Season at Tel Zayit, with Special Attention to the Tenth Century BCE" would hardly be noticed beyond the scholars who will gather at the Hyatt Penn's...

WASHINGTON - The increase in the number of people without health insurance has occurred largely because of illegal immigration, a study found. Researchers at the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank, analyzed data received from about 2,400 people in Los Angeles County in 2000 and 2001, and applied that information to the nation's undocumented population at large. The number of uninsured adults in the United States grew by about 8.7 million between 1980 and 2000. If the trend for Los Angeles County held true for the rest of the country, about a third of that growth can be attributable to...

Contact: Maria A. Smit smit@cshl.edu 1-516-422-4013 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Transmission of tuberculosis is linked to historical patterns of human migration St. Petersburg, Russia – Genghis Khan and his troops may have unwittingly used more than just brute military force to conquer entire nations and to establish the infamous Mongolian empire. A report in the October issue of Genome Research suggests that Genghis Khan's invasions spanning the continent of Asia during the 13th century may have been a primary vehicle for the dissemination of one of the world's most deadly diseases: tuberculosis. In this study, a team of scientists led...

ST. LOUIS, Aug. 29, 2005 – The Defense Department has been working with both governmental and nongovernmental organizations to promote environmental conservation, because military readiness and conservation are inextricably linked, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said here today. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld addresses the 4th Annual White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation on Aug. 29 in St. Louis. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald, USAF (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Speaking at the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation, Rumsfeld said the DoD takes very seriously its responsibility to protect the natural resources on the 30 million...

Lost teeth linked to dementia By Fiona Govan (Filed: 20/06/2005) Losing teeth at a young age could be an early warning of Alzheimer's in later life, research suggests. A study of identical twins has found a strong link between gum disease marked by teeth loss and the brain disease. Scientists believe early exposure to inflammation, which can accompany gum disease, quadruples the risk of developing the disease in old age. However, inherited genes for Alzheimer's are a much bigger risk factor. Researchers from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, used a Swedish registry of twins to identify 109 "discordant"...