Cops: Mom checked medical website after son was shot

Cops: Mom checked medical website after son was shot

SANTA FE, Texas

A Southeast Texas woman is facing a felony charge for allegedly delaying hospital treatment of her teenage son’s gunshot wound until she researched treatment options online.

The incident happened Tuesday evening at the family’s home in Santa Fe, about 30 miles southeast of Houston. Police say a friend of the 14-year-old son was playing with a handgun and pointed it at him when it went off, wounding the boy in the thigh.

Police say the boy and his mother, Deborah Tagle, delayed seeking hospital treatment for hours until she researched gunshot wounds on the WebMD website. He’s now stable condition at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

Fundraising draws scrutiny

WASHINGTON

A fundraising push by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is drawing criticism from a key Senate Republican who questions whether she has a conflict of interest.

HHS spokesman Jason Young confirms that Sebelius in recent weeks has asked various charitable foundations, businesses executives, churches and doctors to donate money to nonprofit organizations, such as Enroll America, that are helping to implement President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul.

The administration recently announced it would be directing $200 million to states, private groups and local health centers so that they can hire workers who can help consumers choose the insurance plan best for them. The fundraising pitches appear to be another step along those lines.

But Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said that soliciting money from health care executives is absurd.

“Moving forward, I will be seeking more information from the administration about these actions to help better understand whether there are conflicts of interest and if it violated federal law,” Hatch said.

Woman rescued after 17 days in Bangladesh ruins

SAVAR, Bangladesh

For 17 days, the seamstress lay trapped in a dark basement pocket beneath thousands of tons of wreckage as temperatures outside climbed into the mid-90s. She rationed food and water. She banged a pipe to attract attention. She was fast losing hope of ever making it out alive.

In the ruins of the collapsed eight-story garment factory building above her, the frantic rescue operation had long ago ended. It had turned instead into a grim search for the decaying bodies of the more than 1,000 people killed in the world’s worst garment industry disaster.

“No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I’d see the daylight again,” the seamstress, Reshma Begum, told Somoy TV from her hospital bed after her astonishing rescue on Friday

Historic election could shatter Pakistan’s politics

ISLAMABAD

Despite a bloody campaign marred by Taliban attacks, Pakistan has historic elections today pitting a former cricket star against a two-time prime minister once exiled by the army and an incumbent blamed for power blackouts and inflation.

The vote marks the first time in Pakistan’s 65-year history that a civilian government has completed its full term and handed over power in democratic elections. Previous governments have been toppled by military coups or sacked by presidents allied with the powerful army.

Associated Press