Cancer vaccine painful

Cancer vaccine painful

ATLANTA — The groundbreaking vaccine that prevents cervical cancer in girls is gaining a reputation as the most painful of childhood shots, health experts say. Health officials have touted the Gardasil vaccine as an important new protection against a cancer-causing sexually transmitted virus. In recent months, they’ve also noted reports of pain and fainting from the shot. During its first year of use, reports of girls fainting from vaccinations climbed, but it’s not clear whether the pain of the cervical cancer vaccine was the reason for the reaction. Officials at Merck & Co., which makes the vaccine, acknowledge it stings. They attribute it partly to the viruslike particles in the shot.

Car bombing in Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey — Suspected Kurdish rebels detonated a car bomb Thursday near a bus carrying soldiers in a Kurdish-dominated city in southeastern Turkey, killing five people and wounding 67. Thirty soldiers were among the wounded in the attack. The attack appeared to be in retaliation for three airstrikes by Turkish warplanes against shelters of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq last month.

Developments in Iraq

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Emissaries of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr met Thursday with officials from his chief rival’s party in an effort to cement a tenuous peace agreement the two signed in October after violent clashes between their followers. It was at least the second formal overture al-Sadr has made to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim and his Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest Shiite political party, in less than a week. Peace between the two — who each control powerful militias — is seen as key to preventing the outbreak of widespread fighting in oil-rich southern Iraq. The U.S. military, meanwhile, announced the deaths of three of its soldiers. Two were killed and a third wounded in a small arms attack Thursday in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. A soldier was killed the previous day in south Baghdad when his dismounted patrol hit a roadside bomb, the military said.

Denies assassination role

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Pervez Musharraf vehemently denied Thursday that Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies were behind Benazir Bhutto’s killing, and implied she was partly at fault. Despite threats by militants, Bhutto poked her head out of the sunroof of her vehicle to greet supporters at an election rally, Musharraf said. He conceded there were shortcomings in Pakistan’s investigation into the assassination but rejected accusations of a lapse in security for the former prime minister. The president acknowledged that his decision to seek help from Scotland Yard to investigate the killing was partly to reassure people at home and abroad that there was no government involvement.

Fla. escapes deep freeze

TAMPA, Fla. — Flurries fell across the Sunshine State on Thursday, but it appeared that growers were spared the deep freeze they feared would devastate the nation’s citrus supply. Meanwhile, California was preparing for a trio of storms expected to unleash heavy rain and snow through the weekend. Virtually everywhere east of the Mississippi River, people woke up to below freezing temperatures. Upstate New York had single-digit readings and wind chills well below zero. The coldest reading in Maine was 33 below near the St. Pamphile border crossing with Canada. Detroit was at 6. Ohio saw 9 degrees at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, 8 in Youngstown and 7 in Dayton.

Shuttle launch delayed

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA on Thursday delayed the flight of space shuttle Atlantis until late January or, more likely, February to replace a suspect connector in the fuel tank. The connector is believed to be responsible for back-to-back launch postponements last month. Deputy shuttle program manager John Shannon said the mission to the international space station is off until at least Jan. 24. “Everything has to go exactly right for us to make the 24th,” he said. Shannon said it’s more likely that the launch will move into February. The shuttle almost certainly would have to wait until a Russian cargo ship is launched Feb. 7 and docks two days later.

Union reprimands Leno

NEW YORK — The striking writers union told member Jay Leno on Thursday that he violated its rules by penning and delivering punch lines in his first “Tonight” show monologue in two months on NBC the night before. The union did not immediately say what, if anything, it intended to do about it. The scolding came despite Leno’s own public support for the union, including delivering doughnuts to a picket line. Leno also paid his employees’ salaries — except for the writers — while he was off the air, and “Tonight” writers were pointedly absent from a picket line outside his studio Wednesday.

Associated Press