Cell phone-cancer link inconclusive

Cell phone-cancer link inconclusive

GENEVA

Cell-phone users worried about getting brain cancer aren’t off the hook yet.

A major international study into the link between cell-phone use and two types of brain cancer has proved inconclusive, according to a report due to be published in a medical journal Tuesday.

A 10-year survey of almost 13,000 participants found most cell-phone use didn’t increase the risk of developing meningioma — a common and frequently benign tumor — or glioma — a rarer but deadlier form of cancer.

District rehires all staff members

CENTRAL FALLS, R.I.

A school district that gained the support of President Barack Obama for promoting accountability after it fired all its teachers from a struggling school announced Sunday it had reached an agreement with the union to return all the current staffers to their jobs.

The two sides said a transformation plan for Central Falls High School for the coming school year would allow the 87 teachers, guidance counselors, librarians and other staffers who were to lose their jobs at the end of this year to return without having to reapply. More than 700 people already had applied for the positions.

Thai unrest spreads

BANGKOK

Anti-government unrest boiling over in downtown Bangkok spread to other areas of the capital and Thailand on Sunday as the military defended its use of force in a crackdown that has left 30 civilians dead in four days. Thai leaders flatly rejected protesters’ demands that the United Nations intercede to end the chaos.

Leaders of the protesters, who have dubbed themselves Red Shirts, said they wanted talks mediated by the United Nations, provided the government agreed to an immediate cease-fire and pulled its troops back.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn, however, said a pause was unnecessary since troops were “not using weapons to crack down on civilians.”

Mich. woman wins Miss USA title

LAS VEGAS

A 24-year-old brunette from Michigan has beaten out four blondes and 46 other women for the 2010 Miss USA title after nearly stumbling in her evening gown.

Rima Fakih of Dearborn, Mich., won the pageant Sunday night after swimsuit, evening-gown and interview competitions at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

Volcanic-ash cloud closes airports

LONDON

Europe’s busiest airport closed early this morning as a dense cloud of volcanic ash drifts across England from Iceland, aviation authorities said.

The airspace over London’s Heathrow Airport closed at 1 a.m. today, Britain’s National Air Traffic Service said in a statement late Sunday.

The restrictions affecting Heathrow — as well as Gatwick, Stansted, and London City airports — will be in place until at least 7 a.m. today, the aviation authority said.

Fla. beach-goers warned of currents

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.

At the end of a weekend in which two people died and another was missing in heavy South Florida surf, lifeguards continued to pull swimmers from the grip of powerful rip currents Sunday, while cautioning beach-goers to stay close to shore.

Confirmed dead this weekend were a vacationing Albany, Ga., couple who got caught up in rough surf Saturday off south Palm Beach.

Presumed missing is a young man who, his friends told authorities, disappeared about 6:30 p.m. Saturday while swimming off Fort Lauderdale beach.

Combined dispatches