Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Northeastern states deal with flooding
WAYNE, N.J.
The powerful nor’easter had moved out at sea, but flooding lingered Tuesday in many Northeast communities.
Many places from the mid-Atlantic to New England were still inundated with water, with tens of thousands of people lacking electricity and hundreds still in emergency shelters — some for a fourth day.
At least 11 people died in storm-related accidents, and nearly a half-million people lost power at the peak of the storm. Governors from New Jersey to New Hampshire were seeking federal assistance to help defray cleanup costs.
Prescription drugs worth $70M stolen
HARTFORD, Conn.
Thieves scaled a wall at a pharmaceutical warehouse over the weekend, cut a hole in the roof and rappelled inside to steal about $70 million in antidepressants and other prescription drugs, authorities said Tuesday.
The thieves disabled the alarm at the Eli Lilly & Co. warehouse early Sunday in Enfield, where they spent at least an hour loading pallets of drugs into a waiting vehicle at the warehouse’s loading dock during a wind-whipped rainstorm, police said.
The thieves, whose identities remained unknown Tuesday, made off with enough drugs to fill at least one tractor-trailer, police said. They will probably end up on the black market, experts said.
Doctor: Get rid of bed-sitting ban
LONDON
Britons trying to cheer up their hospitalized friends and relatives often have to do so standing up; sitting on the bed usually isn’t allowed.
In a commentary published today in the British medical journal BMJ, Dr. Iona Heath argues the recommendation is unjustified and denies patients the chance to be close to their loved ones.
British authorities claim the ban on sitting is needed to prevent patients from getting infected by visitors and health-care staff.
Britain’s department of health said bans on sitting and flowers are determined by individual hospitals.
Quake in S. Calif.
LOS ANGELES
Southern Californians were jolted from their sleep before dawn Tuesday as a small but strongly felt earthquake struck beneath Los Angeles’ eastern suburbs.
No damage or injuries were reported, however, and jangled nerves appeared to be the biggest impact of the magnitude-4.4 temblor, which struck at 4:04 a.m.
The quake was centered 10 miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
PepsiCo to end some sales in schools
LOS ANGELES
PepsiCo plans to halt the sale of sugary drinks in schools worldwide by 2012, a move seen by some as a victory in the fight to curtail childhood obesity.
The Purchase, N.Y.-based soda giant, the world’s second-largest soft-drink company behind Coca-Cola Co., said Tuesday that it will pull sweetened, full-calorie drinks from elementary and secondary schools — and instead expand offerings of low-calorie beverages.
Group to Cuba: Free political prisoners
HAVANA
The human-rights group Amnesty international appealed to Cuban President Raul Castro to release political prisoners and scrap laws that restrict fundamental freedoms, using the seventh anniversary of a major crackdown on dissent to call for change.
Amnesty was especially critical of Cuban laws that make vague offenses such as “dangerousness” a jailable crime. Police are allowed to arrest somebody who has committed no crime if they can show the person has a proclivity to be dangerous in the future, Amnesty said.
Combined dispatches