AIDS drug roll-out boosts South African life expectancy

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa has achieved a “stunning” increase in life expectancy in the last three years due to a government push to roll out antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) to people with HIV/AIDS, researchers said on Thursday.The average South African is now likely to live to the age of 60, a study in the Lancet medical journal said, compared with just 56.5 in 2009 when President Jacob Zuma...

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Dollar-Less Iranians Discover Virtual Currency

Under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies, dollars are hard to come by in Iran. The rial fell from 20,160 against the greenback on the street market in August to 36,500 rials to the dollar in October. It’s settled, for now, around 27,000. The central bank’s fixed official rate is 12,260. Yet there’s one currency in Iran that has kept its value and can be used to purchase goods from abroad:...

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Myanmar cracks down on mine protest; dozens hurt

MONYWA, Myanmar (AP) — Security forces used water cannons and other riot gear Thursday to clear protesters from a copper mine in in northwestern Myanmar, wounding villagers and Buddhist monks just hours before opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was to visit the area to hear their grievances.The crackdown at the Letpadaung mine near the town of Monywa risks becoming a public relations and political...

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X Factor judge Louis Walsh settles defamation case

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Television personality and pop music producer Louis Walsh on Wednesday settled a 500,000 euro ($ 640,000) defamation case against News Group Newspapers in Ireland.The deal came after Walsh, best known for his role as a judge on the hit television show “The X Factor”, sued the group for publishing a story last year based on false allegations that he had groped a man in a Dublin night...

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FDA advisory panel backs efficacy of J&J TB drug

(Reuters) – An advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday voted that data suggest an experimental Johnson & Johnson drug for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis is effective, the drugmaker said.The medicine, called bedaquiline, is a member of a new class of drugs that target adenosine triphosphate synthase, an enzyme the tuberculosis bacterium needs to generate its energy.J&J...

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France Veers to Left With Threat to Nationalize a Mill

France’s threat to nationalize a steel mill to prevent job losses is shaping up as a public relations disaster for the government—with potential collateral damage to the European steel industry as well.President François Hollande’s Socialist government says it may take temporary control of the Hayange-Florange plant in Lorraine to prevent its owner, ArcelorMittal (MT), from eliminating about 630 of...

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US rabbi says jailed American in good health

HAVANA (AP) — A prominent New York rabbi and physician visited an American subcontractor serving a long jail term in Cuba and said the man is in good health, despite his family’s concerns about a growth on his right shoulder.Rabbi Elie Abadie, who is also a gastroenterologist, told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview following Tuesday’s 2 1/2-hour visit at a military hospital in Havana...

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Exclusive: Banks offer to help Sony offload battery unit – sources

TOKYO (Reuters) – Sony Corp has been approached by at least three investment banks offering to sell its battery business as the struggling Japanese group looks to offload non-core assets and focus on reviving its consumer electronics business, banking sources said.Selling the unit, which employs 2,700 people and had sales last year of $ 1.74 billion, would help Sony cut costs and generate cash as...

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In elf ears and wizard hats, ‘Hobbit’ fans rejoice

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Wearing elf ears and wizard hats, sitting atop their dad’s shoulders or peering from balconies, tens of thousands of New Zealanders watched their favorite “Hobbit” actors walk the red carpet Wednesday at the film trilogy’s hometown premiere.An Air New Zealand plane freshly painted with “Hobbit” characters flew low over Wellington’s Embassy Theatre, eliciting roars of...

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Salary growth lagging for primary care doctors

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Despite rising spending on health care in the United States, primary care doctors don’t seem to be reaping the rewards on their paychecks, a new study suggests.The findings could have implications for what some predictions say will be a primary care shortage in some parts of the country in the coming years.Researchers found that since the late 1980s, the average doctor‘s...

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