Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Daily News Digest: Reuters Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News

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Wednesday, December 14, 2011 12:23 AM PST
Today's Reuters Health News Headlines - Yahoo! News:
Olympus revises Q1 net loss to 1.4 bln yen from 2.2 bln yen
Tue,13 Dec 2011 10:27 PM PST
Reuters -

photoTOKYO (Reuters) - Olympus said on Wednesday it revised its first-quarter 2011/12 net earnings to a 1.4 billion yen ($17.96 million) loss from a 2.2 billion yen loss. The company is restating its accounts for the past five years as it looks to sort out an accounting scandal, and must report its half-year results by the end of the day to avoid a delisting of its shares on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. ($1=77.97 yen) (Reporting by Mayumi Negishi; Editing by Joseph Radford)


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Olympus' ousted CEO urges action on non-core companies
Tue,13 Dec 2011 09:39 PM PST
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - Olympus Corp's ousted CEO, Michael Woodford, said the scandal-hit company needs to address what it should do with non-core companies. Woodford was addressing a meeting of ruling Democratic Party of Japan lawmakers in Tokyo discussing ways to tighten up corporate governance in Japan. Woodford, who was fired by the company two months ago and immediately blew the whistle on questionable acquisition deals at the centre of its accounting problems, is waging a campaign to be reinstated. He arrived in Japan on Tuesday evening and will leave on Saturday. ... Full Story
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Olympus: Assets exceeded liabilities in 7 years to March 2009
Tue,13 Dec 2011 08:45 PM PST
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - Olympus Corp said on Wednesday that its assets exceeded its liabilities in the seven financial years to March 2009, in a restatement of accounts as it moved to sort out an accounting scandal. The company, however, revised down its net asset figures for the financial years ended in March 2007, 2008 and 2009. More restatements are expected later in the day. Auditors approved the figures with qualifications. The company is restating accounts for the past several years and is due to announce results for the six months to September 30 later on Wednesday. ... Full Story
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Chinese fume over honor to tobacco academic
Tue,13 Dec 2011 08:12 PM PST
Reuters - BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese health officials and commentators have assailed one of the country's most prestigious academic bodies for recruiting a scientist who specialized in refining low-tar cigarettes -- at a time when the government has said it is fighting smoking. Xie Jianping, 52, who works for a research institute of the state-owned China National Tobacco Corporation, has been called the "Killer Academician" and "Tobacco Academician" on Chinese Internet sites after he was elected to the Chinese Academy of Engineering, an honorary body that also advises the government. ... Full Story
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Kids won't eat veggies? Try rewards, a study says
Tue,13 Dec 2011 06:37 PM PST
Reuters -

photo(Reuters) - If your preschoolers turn up their noses at carrots or celery, a small reward like a sticker for taking even a taste may help get them to eat previously shunned foods, a U.K. study said. Though it might seem obvious that a reward could tempt young children to eat their vegetables, the idea is actually controversial, researchers wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. ...


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Ex-auditor to give qualified approval to statement: report
Tue,13 Dec 2011 06:05 PM PST
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - Olympus' former auditor KPMG AZSA LLC will give a qualified approval to three years of financial statements ending in March 2009, saying it could not completely confirm money flows, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday. The Nikkei also said Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC, which became the camera and endoscope maker's auditor after KPMG AZSA, will approve all statements made from the financial year ending in March 2010. Olympus must publish its second-quarter results by Wednesday in order to keep its stock market listing and avoid being cut off from capital markets. ... Full Story
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Express Scripts in contract dispute with WellPoint
Tue,13 Dec 2011 05:43 PM PST
Reuters - (Reuters) - Pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts Inc and its client WellPoint Inc said on Tuesday they are involved in a contract dispute and that they are trying to settle it through negotiation. Express Scripts said WellPoint, the No. 2 U.S. health insurer by market value, had raised the issues leading to the dispute. Shares of Express scripts fell 3.5 percent after hours, while WellPoint stock rose 2 percent. Officials from both companies declined to provide details and said there is no assurance the matters will be settled without litigation. ... Full Story
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Orangutans shed light on obesity in people
Tue,13 Dec 2011 04:54 PM PST
Reuters - CHICAGO (Reuters) - In lush times, orangutans on the island of Borneo gorge themselves on forest fruits, packing on extra pounds in preparation for leaner years, when they live off leaves and bark and their own stored fat. This behavior of overeating is all too common in humans, but rarely seen in nonhuman primates, and studying it may offer some clues about obesity and eating disorders in people, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. ... Full Story
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Orangutans shed light on obesity in people
Tue,13 Dec 2011 04:53 PM PST
Reuters - CHICAGO (Reuters) - In lush times, orangutans on the island of Borneo gorge themselves on forest fruits, packing on extra pounds in preparation for leaner years, when they live off leaves and bark and their own stored fat. This behavior of overeating is all too common in humans, but rarely seen in nonhuman primates, and studying it may offer some clues about obesity and eating disorders in people, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. ... Full Story
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GSK and university link to find Huntingdon's drug
Tue,13 Dec 2011 04:08 PM PST
Reuters - LONDON (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline is linking up with scientists at the University of Dundee to find a treatment for Huntingdon's disease, marking a further push by Britain's biggest drugmaker into the rare diseases area. The project, still years away from producing a finished drug, will build on the discovery by Dundee's Susann Schweiger of a mechanism that controls production of a disease-causing protein involved in the inherited brain disorder. Patients with Huntington's typically develop symptoms between the ages of 30 and 50. ... Full Story
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Olympus ex-auditor to give qualified approval to statement
Tue,13 Dec 2011 03:58 PM PST
Reuters - TOKYO (Reuters) - Olympus' former auditor KPMG AZSA LLC will give a qualified approval to three years of financial statements ending in March 2009, saying it could not completely confirm money flows, the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday. The Nikkei also said Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC, which became the camera and endoscope maker's auditor after KPMG AZSA, will approve all statements made from the financial year ending in March 2010. Olympus must publish its second-quarter results by Wednesday in order to keep its stock market listing and avoid being cut off from capital markets. ... Full Story
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States tough on abortion face legal costs
Tue,13 Dec 2011 03:13 PM PST
Reuters - CHICAGO/COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Bill Graber is not a fan of Roe v. Wade because the Ohio construction worker thinks the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion went too far. But Graber is not happy about Ohio lawmakers pushing a law that would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be heard, because he worries the state will spend millions of dollars defending it. "This is a gamble," said Graber at Ohio state senate hearings last week on the "heartbeat" bill, which would ban abortion at as early as six weeks. ... Full Story
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Rare birth defects tied to mom's painkiller use
Tue,13 Dec 2011 03:10 PM PST
Reuters - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women who take over-the-counter painkillers during early pregnancy have a slightly higher risk of having babies with certain rare birth defects, according to a new study. For instance, babies were three times as likely to be born with no eyes, or with abnormally small eyeballs that often cause blindness, if their mothers had taken aspirin or naproxen (sold as Aleve). The babies' risk of amniotic band syndrome, a condition that causes various malformations such as clubfoot, was also three times higher among women who had used painkillers during their pregnancy. ... Full Story
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Medtronic settles U.S. probe over doctor kickbacks
Tue,13 Dec 2011 02:36 PM PST
Reuters - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Medtronic Inc has agreed to pay $23.5 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to doctors to encourage them to use its pacemakers and defibrillators, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday. The company was accused of seeking physicians to participate in studies and registries and paying doctors fees of between $1,000 to $2,000 per patient for information and data collected as long as they used Medtronic's devices, according to the Justice Department. ... Full Story
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Spending bill in jeopardy as lawmakers bicker
Tue,13 Dec 2011 02:35 PM PST
Reuters -

photoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bill that would keep the U.S. government operating beyond the weekend appeared in trouble on Tuesday as lawmakers bickered over whether they had resolved policy issues such as abortion funding and travel to Cuba. The bill has been caught up in a year-end fight between Republicans and Democrats over taxes and spending that has left Americans watching a familiar scene unfold - both parties trying to outmaneuver the other to score points ahead of the 2012 elections. ...


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