Dengue epidemic threatens Caribbean

Dengue epidemic threatens Caribbean

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico

Mosquito-borne dengue fever is reaching epidemic stages across the Caribbean, with dozens of deaths reported and health authorities concerned it could get much worse as the rainy season advances.

The increase in cases is being attributed to warm weather and an unusually early rainy season, which has produced an explosion of mosquitoes. Health officials say the flood of cases is straining the region’s hospitals.

In the Dominican Republic, where at least 27 deaths have been reported, hundreds of health workers and soldiers went door-to-door Saturday to warn about the virus and destroy mosquito breeding areas.

Hospitals in Trinidad are running out of beds, and Puerto Rico is facing what officials say could be its worst dengue outbreak in more than a decade.

1780s champagne found in shipwreck

STOCKHOLM

Now that’s some vintage bubbly.

Divers have discovered what is thought to be the world’s oldest drinkable champagne in a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, one of the finders said Saturday. They tasted the one bottle they’ve brought up so far before they even got back to shore.

Diving instructor Christian Ekstrom said the bottles are believed to be from the 1780s and likely were part of a cargo destined for Russia. The nationality of the sunken ship has not yet been determined.

Roundup of wild horses resumes

RENO, Nev.

Federal land managers have removed about 250 more wild horses from a Nevada range after a judge allowed a controversial roundup of the animals to resume.

U.S. Bureau of Land Management spokesman Doran Sanchez said the roundup in northern Elko County began again shortly after U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks on Friday rescinded a temporary restraining order.

The judge took the action at the request of the agency, which maintained more than 500 horses could die of dehydration in the next week if the roundup didn’t continue.

Horse advocates had sought to halt the roundup, saying it was inhumane to herd the animals by helicopter to trap sites in the high summer temperatures.

Bus falls off cliff in Albania; 14 die

TIRANA, Albania

Fourteen people died and 12 others were injured, many of them seriously, Saturday when a bus fell off a cliff 87 miles north of the capital, Tirana, Albanian authorities said.

Police official Hysni Burgaj said a sudden downpour caused the accident.

Authorities still did not know the total number of bus passengers late Saturday.

FDA cites problems at brain-scan lab

NEW YORK

A respected brain-imaging center run by Columbia University has halted some research after federal officials repeatedly complained that patients were getting drugs that failed purity tests.

The Food and Drug Administration found in a series of inspections that the center had failed to correct manufacturing problems in a lab that makes experimental drugs injected into psychiatric patients to help capture images of brain activity.

In one warning letter, an FDA office in New York described problems dating back to at least 2004. It cited a litany of violations, including a failure to reject batches of medication that didn’t pass required tests. The drugs were for patients undergoing a type of brain scan called positron emission tomography, or PET.

Associated Press