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| Factbox: What's changed in Cuba's new foreign investment law Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 12:53 PM PDT (Reuters) - Cuba's National Assembly on Saturday unanimously approved a new foreign investment law that the communist-run country hopes will attract badly needed capital, improve growth and create jobs. Accompanying regulations, which may differ from previous rules, will not be published for 90 days. Following are some differences between the current and the new law, and a summary of what remains unchanged. ... Full Story | Top |
| Senegal shuts land border with Guinea to prevent Ebola spreading Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 11:54 AM PDT By Daniel Flynn and Saliou Samb DAKAR/CONAKRY (Reuters) - Senegal closed its land border with Guinea on Saturday to try to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus, which Guinean authorities say is suspected of killing 70 people in what would be the deadliest outbreak in seven years. The discovery of 11 people suspected to have died of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia in recent days has stirred concern that one of the most lethal infectious diseases known to man could spread in a poor corner of West Africa, where health systems are ill-equipped to cope. Senegal's Interior Ministry said it had closed the land border with Guinea in the southern region of Kolda and the southeastern region of Kedougou. Full Story | Top |
| Cuba approves law aimed at attracting foreign investment Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 11:31 AM PDT  By Daniel Trotta HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's National Assembly passed a new foreign investment law on Saturday that aims to bring badly needed capital to the communist economy by offering steep tax cuts and promising a climate of investment security. Analysts and Cuban-based diplomats have expressed skepticism over the law, uncertain whether the one-party state has undergone a genuine change of heart and truly wants to attract foreign investors on international terms. Areas such as agriculture, infrastructure, sugar, nickel mining, building renovation and real estate development are considered ripe for investment. Cuba needs to attract $2 billion to $2.5 billion in foreign direct investment per year to reach its economic growth target of 7 percent, minister for foreign trade and investment Rodrigo Malmierca said on Cuban state television on Friday night. Full Story | Top |
| Amgen drug lowers cholesterol up to 66 percent in pivotal studies Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 11:02 AM PDT By Bill Berkrot and Ransdell Pierson WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amgen Inc's drug from a high profile new class of experimental medicines lowered "bad" LDL cholesterol by 55 percent to 66 percent compared with a placebo in a trio of late-stage clinical trials, according to data presented on Saturday. Amgen had previously said the drug, evolocumab, met the main goals of five late-stage trials involving some 4,000 patients by significantly outperforming placebo or another cholesterol medicine in a variety of patient populations. "We're seeing excellent efficacy and the safety profile appears no different than placebo, so you can't get better than that," Dr. Michael Koren, one of the lead investigators on two of the evolocumab studies, said in a telephone interview. Full Story | Top |
| Renal denervation fails to lower blood pressure in critical test Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:40 AM PDT By Gene Emery and Bill Berkrot PROVIDENCE, RI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Patients treated by renal artery denervation were no more likely to see their blood pressure decline than those who received a fake therapy in a major clinical trial, calling into question a therapy used in more than 80 countries to treat hypertension that doesn't respond to drugs. The study was considered a key test of the intervention in which nerve connections between the heart and kidney were disrupted in an effort to lower blood pressure as prior trials did not include a blinded control group for efficacy comparison. Because earlier tests of the technique did not involve treating some patients with sham therapy, "placebo effect may well explain all or most of the blood pressure differences" in two key trials, known as SYMPLICITY HTM-1 and HTN-2. Boston Scientific Corp and St. Jude Medical Inc also make renal denervation equipment. Full Story | Top |
| Aftershocks rattle California following 5.1 earthquake, 50 displaced Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:15 AM PDT More than 100 aftershocks have been reported across Southern California following a 5.1 magnitude earthquake that rattled suburban Los Angeles and at least temporarily displaced about 50 people but caused no serious structural damage, seismologists said on Saturday. No injuries were reported from the Friday quake centered outside La Habra, about 20 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, but the temblor displaced at least 50 people in Fullerton, about 5 miles from the epicenter, because of minor damage, Fullerton Police Lieutenant Mike Chlebowski said. But the Los Angeles Fire Department said it had called off its "earthquake mode." "Fortunately no significant damage occurred in the 470 square mile (756 square km) jurisdiction," the department said. Full Story | Top |
| Gilead says has discounted hepatitis C drug for some health plans Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:13 AM PDT Gilead Sciences Inc, under fire for pricing a new hepatitis C drug at $1,000 a pill, has discount agreements with a number of health insurers, a company executive said in an interview. The medication, Sovaldi, has a list price of $84,000 for a 12-week course of therapy and is seen as a breakthrough in the treatment of the serious liver disease. On March 20, Democratic lawmakers led by California Representative Henry Waxman asked Gilead to explain the price tag, and a meeting with the company is scheduled for next week. Health insurers and state Medicaid programs for the poor are pushing for further discounts, fearing a multibillion-dollar pricetag from treating most hepatitis C sufferers with Sovaldi and similar new medicines likely to be approved in coming years. Full Story | Top |
| Obama ends four-nation trip in diplomatic limbo over Ukraine Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 09:08 AM PDT  By Steve Holland and Jeff Mason RIYADH (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama ended a four-nation foreign trip on Saturday in the same situation as he began it - facing great uncertainty about a diplomatic way out of the Ukraine crisis. His diplomatic consultations in The Hague, Brussels and Rome over the past week all resulted in a strong show of unity between the United States and Europe that Russia must face consequences should it move against southern or eastern Ukraine. But it remains an open question whether the European allies would be able to stomach the kind of crippling sanctions required to significantly undermine Russia's economy since some of their own economies would be jolted as well. A late-night phone call on Friday between Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the possibility that Moscow might be willing to negotiate a diplomatic outcome. Full Story | Top |
| Daylight saving time linked to heart attacks: study Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 07:39 AM PDT By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Switching over to daylight saving time, and losing one hour of sleep, raised the risk of having a heart attack the following Monday by 25 percent, compared to other Mondays during the year, according to a new U.S. study released on Saturday. By contrast, heart attack risk fell 21 percent later in the year, on the Tuesday after the clock was returned to standard time, and people got an extra hour's sleep. The not-so-subtle impact of moving the clock forward and backward was seen in a comparison of hospital admissions from a database of non-federal Michigan hospitals. It examined admissions before the start of daylight saving time and the Monday immediately after, for four consecutive years. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine aid bill delayed a few more days in U.S. Congress Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 07:22 AM PDT  By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers overwhelmingly approved aid to Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, but the measure will not become law until at least next week, congressional aides said on Friday. The House of Representatives left for the weekend without approving a final version of the legislation. After weeks of partisan wrangling over what should be contained in the legislation, the Senate and House on Thursday quickly passed separate, and largely similar, bills to help stabilize Ukraine's weak economy and punish those involved for Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. As the measures passed, congressional leaders reached an agreement for the Republican-controlled House to approve the Democratic-led Senate bill and send it to President Barack Obama to sign into law before the end of the week. Full Story | Top |
| Ukraine's Klitschko pulls out of election, backs 'Chocolate King' Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 06:41 AM PDT  By Alessandra Prentice KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's presidential election effectively became a two-horse race on Saturday after boxer-turned-politician Vitaly Klitschko pulled out and threw his weight behind confectionary oligarch Petro Poroshenko. Klitschko's withdrawal sets up a May 25 contest between the man known as the 'Chocolate King' and former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Several opinions polls already had him in the lead even before he said he would run to succeed ousted president Viktor Yanukovich. Speaking on Saturday, Poroshenko said the political forces that brought down Yanukovich must stick together to tackle the huge economic and security challenges facing Ukraine. Full Story | Top |
| Diet drinks raise heart concern in postmenopausal women Saturday, Mar 29, 2014 05:33 AM PDT By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Diet drinks may increase the risk of heart attacks, stroke and other heart problems in postmenopausal women, according to an informal study that could take some fizz out of enjoyment of the popular beverages. Compared to women who never or seldom consume diet drinks, those who drank two or more a day were 30 percent more likely to suffer a cardiovascular event and 50 percent more likely to die from related disease, researchers found. The findings were gleaned from an analysis of diet drink intake and consequences among almost 60,000 participants in the Women's Health Initiative, a long-running U.S. observational study of cardiovascular health trends among postmenopausal women. "Our findings are in line with and extend data from previous studies showing an association between diet drinks and metabolic syndrome," said Dr. Ankur Vyas of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, lead investigator of the study. Full Story | Top |
| Oil sector withholding info on rail cargoes: U.S. regulator Friday, Mar 28, 2014 04:19 PM PDT By Patrick Rucker WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. transport regulators on Friday scolded the oil industry for not sharing important information on the kinds of rail shipments that have been involved in a number of fiery train derailments. The American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade group that represents oil industry companies, disputed the accusations. In letters to regulators and testimony to lawmakers, leaders of trade groups like the API have said since January that they will share results of their tests on fuel from North Dakota's booming Bakken oil patch, where the derailed trains were loaded. But the Department of Transportation said the industry has dragged its feet in cooperating with regulators who are trying to understand why several recent derailments of freight trains carrying crude oil also resulted in explosions. Full Story | Top |
| Hagel, ahead of China trip, urges military restraint in cyberspace Friday, Mar 28, 2014 02:51 PM PDT  By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, pushing for openness ahead of a trip to China, said on Friday in an unusual live broadcast from a secretive base the Pentagon would exercise restraint in using the military in cyberspace and urged other nations to do so as well. In his first remarks on cyber security since becoming defense secretary last year, Hagel told a retirement ceremony for Cyber Command chief General Keith Alexander that the Pentagon sought to be "open and transparent" about its cyber capabilities and intentions with both allies and competitors. "The United States does not seek to militarize cyberspace," Hagel he told an audience at Fort Meade, Maryland, the home of Cyber Command and the NSA signals spy service. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. to stress support for Central Asia after Crimea Friday, Mar 28, 2014 02:12 PM PDT By David Brunnstrom WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior U.S. official will travel to two countries in Central Asia next week to emphasize U.S. support for the independence of post-Soviet states after Russia's annexation of Crimea. Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal, Washington's point person for South and Central Asia, will visit Kazakhstan from March 31 to April 2 and Kyrgyzstan from April 2-4. "In both countries Assistant Secretary Biswal will re-affirm the U.S. commitment to continued engagement and partnership with the countries of the region for stability and prosperity," the State Department said in a statement. A State Department official added that would "affirm our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of both countries and for all post-Soviet states." The U.S. visit will come two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine, another former Soviet state. Full Story | Top |
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