Sunday, October 26, 2008
TV anchorwoman dies days after brutal attack
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — An Arkansas television anchorwoman died Saturday, several days after she didn’t answer her wake-up call and was found beaten in her home, hospital officials said.
Anne Pressly, 26, died at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Margaret Preston said.
In a statement released by the hospital, Pressly’s parents, Guy and Patti Cannady, asked for privacy as they grieved.
Pressly was beaten around the head, face and neck. She had been unable to communicate with her family or police while being kept sedated in the intensive care unit.
The anchor’s death came only a day after a doctor said he was encouraged that her vital signs were stable while she remained in critical condition.
She was discovered Monday morning a half-hour before she was to appear on ABC affiliate KATV’s “Daybreak” program. Her mother went to her home after she didn’t answer her regular wake-up call.
Rotavirus vaccine reduces infection
WASHINGTON — A vaccine against rotavirus, the leading cause of diarrhea in infants, has led to a dramatic drop in hospitalization and emergency room visits since it came on the market two years ago, doctors reported Saturday.
A bonus: the vaccine seems to be preventing illness even in unvaccinated children by cutting the number of infections in the community that kids can pick up and spread.
Before the vaccine, more than 200,000 U.S. children were taken to emergency rooms and more than 55,000 were hospitalized each year with rotavirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea, mostly from January through May. Worldwide, the virus kills 1,600 young children each day.
7 killer whales missing
SEATTLE — Seven Puget Sound killer whales are missing and presumed dead in what could be the biggest decline among the sound’s orcas in nearly a decade, say scientists who carefully track the endangered animals.
Though the official census won’t be completed until December, the total number of live “southern resident” orcas now stands at 83.
Among those missing since last year’s count are the nearly century-old leader of one of the three southern resident pods, and two young females who recently bore calves. The loss of the seven whales would be the biggest decline among the Puget Sound orcas since 1999, when the center also tracked a decline of seven whales.
Low numbers of chinook salmon, a prime food for these whales, may be a factor in the unusual number of deaths this year.
Female robs 3 banks
COLUMBUS — Police and the FBI say a female robber has hit three Ohio banks in one week — a rare short-term streak of robberies and even rarer for a woman criminal.
Authorities say the woman handed a note to a teller at a credit union in the Columbus area Thursday saying she had a gun and wanted a lot of cash.
Investigators say the same woman robbed two banks earlier in the week, both in the Columbus area.
FBI Special Agent Harry Trombitas says three bank robberies by the same person in a week is rare for anyone, male or female.
Trombitas says several investigators recall the same woman robbing a bank in Columbus in January 2006.
The FBI says only 6 percent of the more than 7,000 bank robberies reported nationally last year were committed by women.
Sunnis angry over raid
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s largest Sunni party said Saturday that it has suspended official contacts with American military personnel and civilians after the killing of a man near Fallujah.
The Iraqi Islamic Party accused the raid of having a “hidden political motive” in an indication of rising tensions in Anbar province ahead of provincial elections, due to be held by the end of January.
The U.S. military said U.S.-backed Iraqi soldiers arrested a wanted insurgent leader suspected of training roadside bomb cells in an operation Friday that killed an armed man who opened fire on the troops.
The IIP alleged that a senior member of the party was killed in his bed and five others were arrested during the raid.
Associated Press