Iranian official issues warning

Iranian official issues warning

TEHRAN, Iran

Iran’s foreign minister said Saturday that Tehran would be able to return to its nuclear activities if the West withdraws from a pact that is to be finalized in June.

Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, said on a talk show on state-run TV that Iran has the power to take “corresponding action” and “will be able to return” its nuclear program to the same level if the other side fails to honor the agreement.

“All parties to the agreement can stop their actions [fulfillment of their commitments] in case of violation of the agreement by the other party,” Zarif said.

Indiana begins needle exchange in HIV outbreak

AUSTIN, Ind.

Health officials in Indiana began a needle-exchange program Saturday in a county where an HIV outbreak among intravenous drug users has grown to nearly 90 cases.

Scott County’s needle-exchange program was created through an emergency executive order signed by Republican Gov. Mike Pence in an attempt to curb the state’s largest-ever HIV outbreak. Pence’s 30-day order temporarily suspended Indiana’s ban on such programs, but only for the southeastern Indiana county that’s about 30 miles north of Louisville, Ky.

“While [Pence] has been clear that he does not support needle exchange as anti-drug policy on an ongoing basis, he’s been equally clear about his concern over this outbreak, and has taken a critical step to end this outbreak by allowing this needle exchange to occur,” said state Health Commissioner Jerome Adams, the News and Tribune reported.

Two dead after flooding in Kentucky

Two women died in Kentucky after flash floods, torrential rains and thunderstorms that swept through the Bluegrass State and caused more than 160 rescues in Louisville.

One woman died Friday after her car was swept off a highway during a flash flood around 10 a.m., Kentucky State Police said. Her car was pushed off the road and into a nearby creek in Lee County, about 140 miles southeast of Louisville.

A woman died in Powell County and her husband was injured when a tree limb fell on their tent during a storm, according to Officer Rufus Craven of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Drug-resistant stomach bug

International travelers are returning to the U.S. with potentially deadly cargo — a multidrug-resistant form of the stomach bug shigella that defies a long list of antibiotics, including the first-choice drug: Cipro.

Most forms of shigella have some degree of antibiotic resistance, and the newly discovered form is the worst, experts said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found cases turning up individually and in clusters.

Dr. Aaron Glatt, a Long Island specialist in infectious diseases and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said shigella causes a relatively common diarrheal disease called shigellosis.

Shigella is a fecal bacterium, Glatt added, and shigellosis can occur after ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacteria.

Combined dispatches