Agency: 2014 on track to being hottest year

Agency: 2014 on track to being hottest year

LIMA, PERU

With temperature data showing 2014 tied for the hottest year on record, the U.N. weather agency Wednesday rejected claims that global warming has paused.

The World Meteorological Organization said the global average temperature in January-October was 1.03 Fahrenheit above average, the same as in record hot year 2010.

The ocean temperature set a record in the nine-month period, while land temperatures were the fourth or fifth highest since record-keeping began in the 19th century, the WMO said in a report released at U.N. climate talks in Lima and at its headquarters in Geneva.

Pregnant women to get better drug info

WASHINGTON

Pregnant and worried about your medication? The Food and Drug Administration is revamping confusing labels on prescription drugs to make it easier to understand which are safe to use.

Women who are pregnant or breastfeeding often agonize over whether a drug needed for their own health might hurt their baby or even if the woman’s changing body requires a higher or lower dose.

There are more than 6 million pregnancies in the U.S. every year, and the FDA says women take an average of three to five prescription drugs during pregnancy.

DOD sex-assault reports rise by 8%

WASHINGTON

The number of sexual assaults reported by military service members increased 8 percent in 2014, but details set for release today and a new anonymous survey suggest victims are becoming far more willing to come forward and seek help or file complaints than in years past, officials told The Associated Press.

The officials said there were nearly 6,000 victims of reported assaults in 2014, compared with a little more than 5,500 last year. The Pentagon changed its method of accounting for the assaults this year, and now each victim counts for one report.

Using last year’s accounting methods, there were roughly 5,400 sexual assaults reported as of the end of the 2014 fiscal year on Sept. 30, compared with a little more than 5,000 last year.

CDC: Flu shots may not match viruses

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are warning that the flu shots distributed this year may not be a good match for the viruses that are actually circulating in the U.S.

Only 48 percent of the 85 samples of H3N2 influenza viruses that have been tested since Oct. 1 are closely related to the A/Texas/50/2012 strain that was picked for the flu vaccine distributed in North America, according to the agency.

The CDC warned doctors about the situation Wednesday and advised them to give their patients antiviral medications such as Tamiflu and Relenza if necessary, according to a Reuters report.

Vigil for missing man

WEST CHESTER, Pa.

Hundreds of candles lit up the night during a vigil Wednesday for a college student last seen leaving a bar in Philadelphia on Thanksgiving morning.

Friends and family of 21-year-old Shane Montgomery stood and prayed outside the student union building on the suburban campus of West Chester University, where he is a senior.

Montgomery was last seen leaving Kildare’s Irish Pub at 2 a.m. Nov. 28. His mother, Karen Montgomery, said Wednesday there are no leads in his disappearance. The FBI joined in the investigation with the Philadelphia Police Department over the weekend.

Combined dispatches