Flu leads Boston to declare emergency

Flu leads Boston to declare emergency

BOSTON

Boston declared a public health emergency Wednesday as flu season struck in earnest, and the state reported 18 flu-related deaths so far.

The city is working with health care centers to offer free flu vaccines and hopes to set up places where people can get vaccinated. The city said there have been four flu-related deaths, all elderly residents, since the unofficial start of the flu season Oct. 1.

“The best thing you can do to protect yourself and your family is to get the flu shot,” said Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

Massachusetts was one of 29 states reporting high levels of “influenza-like illness,” according to the most recent weekly flu advisory issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cabinet changes

WASHINGTON

The composition of President Barack Obama’s second-term Cabinet became clearer Wednesday, with Labor Secretary Hilda Solis resigning and three other members of the president’s team deciding to stay on amid concerns about diversity in Obama’s inner circle.

Solis, a former California congresswoman and one of the highest-ranking Hispanics in the Cabinet, said she was departing. She was the nation’s first Hispanic labor secretary.

A White House official said three Cabinet members — Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki — would stay on as the second term begins. It would ensure diversity among the president’s leadership team — Holder is black, Sebelius is a woman and Shinseki is of Japanese-American descent.

Hamas university offers Hebrew class

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip

Hamas’ flagship university in Gaza has a new diploma to offer — Hebrew, the official language of its arch-foe Israel.

Gaza’s Hamas rulers say they want to produce qualified teachers as the government gradually introduces Hebrew studies in its high schools. The aim is simple: It wants Palestinians in Gaza to learn their enemy’s language.

“As Jews are occupying our lands, we have to understand their language,” said Education Ministry official Somayia Nakhala.

Hamas does not recognize Israel, is officially pledged to its destruction and has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, rocket strikes and other attacks.

No charges in float-train crash

MIDLAND, Texas

A grand jury on Wednesday declined to indict the driver of a float involved in a train collision that killed four U.S. military veterans in a West Texas parade.

Dale Andrew Hayden, the driver of the truck pulling the float, will not face charges stemming from the Nov. 15 accident that killed four veterans who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sixteen other people were injured.

Deal reached in breast-cancer suit

BOSTON

Four sisters who claimed their breast cancer was caused by a drug their mother took during pregnancy in the 1950s reached a settlement Wednesday with Eli Lilly and Co. in the first of scores of similar claims around the country to go to trial.

Neither Eli Lilly nor lawyers for the women would disclose the financial terms of the settlement, which was announced on the second day of testimony during a federal trial in Boston.

A total of 51 women, including the Melnick sisters, filed lawsuits in Boston against more than a dozen companies that made or marketed a synthetic estrogen known as DES.

Associated Press