Nation & World Digest || Patient got AIDS from new kindney

Patient got AIDS from new kidney

ATLANTA

A transplant patient contracted AIDS from the kidney of a living donor, in the first documented case of its kind in the U.S. since screening for HIV began in the mid-1980s.

It turns out the donor had unprotected gay sex in the 11 weeks between the time he tested negative and the time the surgery took place in 2009.

In a report Thursday on the New York City case, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that organ donors have repeat HIV tests a week before surgery.

“The most sensitive test needs to be done as close as possible to the time of transplant,” said Dr. Colin Shepard, who oversees tracking of HIV cases for the New York City Health Department.

House votes to end funding for NPR

WASHINGTON

The House on Thursday voted to end federal funding to National Public Radio. Republican supporters said it made good fiscal sense, and Democratic opponents called it an ideological attack that would deprive local stations of access to programs such as “Car Talk” and “All Things Considered.”

The bill, passed 228-192 along mainly partisan lines, would bar federal funding of NPR and prohibit local public stations from using federal money to pay NPR dues and buy its programs. The prospects of support in the Democratic-controlled Senate are slim. Seven Republicans broke ranks to vote against the bill.

Italians mark 150th anniversary

ROME

Italy marked the 150th anniversary of its national unity with a public holiday Thursday, joyful celebrations in cities such as Rome and Turin and not a few reminders of how fractured the country still is in some ways.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi was booed at one ceremony. Politicians in the wealthy north questioned whether workers and students should have been given the day off. And some people in Italy’s poor and crime-ridden south said they were tired of being regarded as second-class citizens.

Berlusconi’s conservative government declared March 17 a one-time national holiday to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the day Victor Emanuel II became the first king of a united Italy, after centuries of rivalry among city-states or foreign occupation along the peninsula.

NY spot-checks buses after crash

ALBANY, N.Y.

Days after a fatal tour-bus crash in the Bronx, New York on Thursday started a statewide tour-bus inspection that sidelined eight drivers for various violations, including logbook infractions, from the 36 vehicles inspected.

New York State Police and the state Department of Transportation issued eight tickets as part of the enhanced commercial-vehicle inspection effort at stops in northern New York, on Long Island and in the Catskills.

The inspections began as Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office released motor-vehicle data to investigators regarding the bus driver involved in the crash that killed 15 people last weekend.

Senate OKs 3-week spending measure

WASHINGTON

Congress approved an additional $6 billion in spending cuts Thursday, passing legislation to keep the government running through April 8 and allow time for talks on a larger package of reductions demanded by Republicans.

The measure brought the total of cuts to $10 billion since Republicans took control of the House in January on a promise to rein in the federal government. It cleared the Senate on Thursday on 87-13 vote one day after passing the House.

Associated Press