Ohio court upholds health overhaul

Ohio court upholds health overhaul

cincinnati

In the first ruling by a federal appeals court on President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, a panel in Cincinnati handed the administration a victory Wednesday by agreeing that the government can require a minimum amount of insurance for Americans.

A Republican-appointed judge joined with a Democratic appointee for the 2-1 majority in another milestone for Obama’s hotly debated signature domestic initiative — the first time a Republican federal court appointee has affirmed the merits of the law.

Plane deployed, will monitor air over fire

los alamos, n.m.

The government sent a plane equipped with radiation monitors over the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory Wednesday as a 110-square-mile wildfire burned at its doorstep, putting thousands of scientific experiments on hold for days.

Lab authorities described the monitoring as a precaution, and they, along with outside experts on nuclear engineering, expressed confidence that the blaze would not scatter radioactive material, as some in surrounding communities feared.

France airlifted weapons to Libyans

paris

France acknowledged Wednesday that it airlifted weapons to Libyan civilians fighting Moammar Gadhafi’s forces in a besieged mountain region south of Tripoli, becoming the first NATO country to do so in a major escalation in the international campaign.

The bold move was likely to draw criticism from countries leery of the allied use of force in Libya’s civil war — like China and Russia — and crossed a threshold in hopes of a breakthrough in the protracted NATO-led mission.

Panel: Don’t use drug to treat breast cancer

silver spring, md.

A panel of cancer experts has ruled for a second time that Avastin, the best-selling cancer drug in the world, should no longer be used in breast cancer patients, clearing the way for the government to remove its endorsement from the drug.

The unprecedented vote Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration advisory panel comes less than a year after the same panel reached the same conclusion.

The six members of the FDA oncology drug panel voted unanimously that Avastin is ineffective, unsafe and should have its approval for breast cancer withdrawn.

Brightest, earliest quasar discovered

los angeles

A team of European astronomers, glimpsing back in time to when the universe was just a youngster, says it has detected the most distant and earliest quasar yet.

Light from this brilliant, starlike object took nearly 13 billion years to reach Earth, meaning the quasar existed when the universe was only 770 million years old — a kid by cosmic standards. The discovery ranks as the brightest object ever found.

To scientists’ surprise, the black hole powering this quasar was 2 billion times more massive than the sun.

Report: Ex-Taiwan president indicted

taipei, taiwan

Taiwanese media say former President Lee Teng-hui has been indicted on a charge of embezzling from a state fund.

The semiofficial Central News Agency said today that Lee and his top aide, Liu Tai-ying, were indicted on charges of embezzling $7.79 million from a secret diplomatic fund.

Lee served as president between 1988 and 2000.

Associated Press