The spread of polio to countries previously considered free of the crippling disease is a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said, as the virus once driven to the brink of extinction mounts a comeback.
Pakistan, Cameroon and Syria pose the greatest risk of exporting the virus to other countries, and should ensure that residents have been vaccinated before they travel, the Geneva-based WHO said in a statement today after a meeting of its emergency committee. It’s only the second time the United Nations agency has declared a public health emergency of international concern, after the 2009 influenza pandemic.
Polio Declared Emergency as Conflicts Fuel Virus Spread
Supreme Court upholds prayer at government meetings
The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the centuries-old tradition of offering prayers at government meetings.
The 5-4 decision avoided two alternatives that the justices clearly sought to avoid: having government leaders parse prayers, or outlawing them altogether. It was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, with the court's conservatives agreeing and its liberals dissenting.
It was a narrow victory for the Town of Greece, N.Y., which was taken to court by two women who argued that a plethora of overtly Christian prayers at town board meetings violated their rights.
U.S. Youths sue U.S. government over climate inaction
Young people across the country are suing several government agencies for failing to develop a climate change recovery plan, conduct that amounts to a violation of their constitutional rights, says their lawyer Julia Olson.
Their futures are at stake, say the young plaintiffs.
“Climate change is the biggest issue of our time,” said 13-year-old Xiuhtezcatl Roske-Martinez, a member of nonprofit Kids vs. Global Warming, a plaintiff in the suit.
“It’s not every day you see young people getting involved politically but the climate crisis is changing all that. Every generation from here on out is going to be affected by climate change,” added Roske-Martinez, who also founded environmental nonprofit Earth Matters and organized successful actions in his hometown of Boulder, Colo.
9 Ringling Brothers acrobats hurt in platform fall at Rhode Island show
Nine acrobats were seriously injured Sunday after falling from an aerial platform during a circus performance, a safety official said. The accident happened at around 11:45 a.m. during the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus' Legends show at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence.
Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said the acrobats fell 25 to 40 feet, but officials and inspectors haven't yet determined what caused the accident.
He says, "Obviously, something went wrong."
Stephen Hawking: Dismissing artificial intelligence would be a mistake
Stephen Hawking, in an article inspired by the new Johnny Depp flick Transcendence, said it would be the "worst mistake in history" to dismiss the threat of artificial intelligence.
In a paper he co-wrote with University at California, Berkeley computer-science professor Stuart Russell, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology physics professors Max Tegmark and Frank Wilczek, Hawking said cited several achievements in the field of artificial intelligence, including self-driving cars, Siri and the computer that won Jeopardy!
"Such achievements will probably pale against what the coming decades will bring," the article in Britain's Independent said.
Texas judge lightly sentences admitted rapist, says 14-year-old he assaulted not ‘the victim she claimed to be'
Advocates for sexual assault victims are furious with a Texas judge who said a raped 14-year-old "wasn't the victim she claimed to be," even after her attacker admitted to the crime.
Jeanine Howard, a Dallas County district judge, has drawn further criticism for her light sentence last week — a five-year probation — against the rapist in the 2011 assault.
The now 20-year-old Sir Young will be labeled a sex offender for life, but Howard did not issue standard sex offender restrictions, such as ordering him to refrain from pornography or undergoing sex offender treatment, the Dallas Morning News reported.
The 800-Pound Gorilla Of The Christian Right
The Alliance Defending Freedom wants to take America back to the 3rd century. Literally. On the website for its legal fellowship program, the organization explains that it “seeks to recover the robust Christendomic theology of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries.”
“This is catholic, universal orthodoxy and it is desperately crucial for cultural renewal,” the explanation goes on. “Christians must strive to build glorious cultural cathedrals, rather than shanty tin sheds.”
While the Arizona-based organization has not made much progress in its mission of restoring the religious sentiments of the Byzantine Era, it has built a massive “legal ministry,” relying on 21st century attorneys and an eight-figure annual budget to reshape American law and society.
Lynchburg, Va., oil train derailment illustrates threat to rivers
As Pat Calvert steers a small motorboat over the James River, it’s impossible to not notice the smell of motor oil, and it’s not coming from the boat.
Two days after a CSX train derailed and put three tank cars full of crude oil into the river, Calvert, who keeps tabs on the Upper James River for the James River Association, is only beginning to survey the spill’s impact. Wednesday’s derailment spared the town from catastrophe, but not the river.
First Case of Deadly MERS Infection Found in U.S.
A deadly virus from the Middle East has been found in the U.S. for the first time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The patient, an American health-care provider who visited Saudi Arabia, flew from Riyadh to London to Chicago on April 24, and then took a bus to Indiana. The patient fell ill on April 27 and was admitted to a hospital the next day, federal officials said today. The CDC is now trying to determine who may have come into contact with the patient.
Now isolated, the patient is being “well cared for,” said Anne Schuchat, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a briefing today. Schuchat would not say where the person is being treated or provide personal details such as age or gender.
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