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Vladimir Putin helped release rare, orphaned Amur tigers into the wild on Thursday, the latest of several events apparently meant to portray the Russian president as an outdoorsman with a strong interest in wildlife conservation. _0"> Russian TV footage showed Putin, dressed in jeans and a leather jacket, tugging on a rope to help open a gate and let the tigers - two males and a female - lope off into the wooded taiga of the remote Amur region in eastern Siberia. The males were found as cubs in 2012, presumably orphaned when poachers killed their mothers, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which helped organize what it called the largest release of rehabilitated Amur tigers ever.   true       It said there are some 360 tigers in the wilds of class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Russia , down from more than 400 at the turn of the century, and that poaching, logging, wildfires and shrinkage in the population of the hoofed animals they prey upon post

Costa Rica's social security system has agreed to extend medical benefits to same-sex couples, in a fresh step toward equal rights for gays and lesbians in Latin America. _0"> The board of directors of the country's social security system, known as the Caja, voted unanimously to extend the benefits on Thursday night. It now has three months to implement a framework to recognize same-sex couples for class="mandelbrot_refrag"> health insurance and hospital visitation rights. Costa Rica, a retirement haven for a growing number of U.S. citizens, has not legalized gay marriage or civil unions. A bill on gay civil unions has been pending in the National Assembly for years.   true       New center-left President Luis Guillermo Solis, who hoisted the gay pride flag at the presidential palace in an act of solidarity on May 16, says he wants to grant the gay and lesbian community more rights. But he does not support gay marriage. (Reporting by Zach Dyer; Ed

It was just a routine birthday for Jeralean Talley on Friday – a visit to the doctor in the morning, birthday cake in the afternoon for the Michigan resident. Except that Talley, who turned 115 on Friday, is believed to be the oldest person in the United States and the second-oldest in the world, according to Gerontology Research Group, which validates ages of the world's longest-living people. Talley, who lives in the Detroit suburb of Inkster, credits her faith for her longevity. "It's the Lord. Everything is in his hands," she said in an interview at the one-story brick home she shares with her daughter Thelma Holloway, 76.   true       She now uses a walker, but Talley bowled until she was 104. She never smoked or drank alcohol and her only surgery was to have her tonsils removed, she said. "I feel fine," Talley said. Talley is not impressed by the attention from the public and news media she gets now on her birthday. "I'm sick of it,&qu

Nissan Motor Co is looking to give its Infiniti premium brand a design makeover that will dilute its Japanese roots and flaunt a more "passionate" Latin feel. The bold initiative aims to rev up an upscale brand that has struggled to establish itself in a competitive global market for premium class="mandelbrot_refrag"> autos . Launched a quarter of a century ago in the United States with an emphasis on its Japanese aesthetics, Infiniti sold about 180,000 cars globally in the year to end-March - about a tenth of rival Audi's sales. Now seeking to attract Chinese car buyers and more genuinely compete with established global premium brands such as Daimler's Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen's Audi, Infiniti is quietly scaling back its Japanese roots and "going global", says the brand's chief Johan de Nysschen.   true       To stand apart from "cold and clinical"-looking German rivals, Infiniti aims to be "a seductive provocat

On March 14 last year, an Israeli woman and her three daughters were hurt in a car wreck on the road between the Jewish settlement of Ariel and the Palestinian village of Hares in the occupied West Bank. Five village boys were arrested and accused of throwing stones at cars and causing the crash. The incident has become emblematic for both sides of the decades-old conflict between neighbors who despise each other - and shows how young lives on both those sides can be reduced to ruins.   true       A three-year old Israeli girl in the car was paralyzed and suffered brain damage. The jailed teens, all aged 16 at the time of the incident, face possible life sentences for attempted murder. Israelis fed up with frequent such attacks have rallied around the case. The boys' families say they threw no stones and that the settlers convinced the mother to blame the crash on them out of spite. "Shame on you! You have your children, now give me back mine," said 17-year-old sus

(This May 13, 2014 story was refiled to correct the final words in quote in last paragraph and adds how Reuters received a copy of Umanets' video statement) A Mark Rothko painting vandalized at London's Tate Modern gallery 18 months ago went back on public view on Tuesday after the first-ever effort to strip graffiti ink off a major artwork without damaging the layers of paintwork.   true       Rothko's "Black on Maroon" was attacked in October 2012 by an aspiring artist who scrawled "Vladimir Umanets '12, A Potential Piece of Yellowism" in a lower corner. One of the Seagram Murals commissioned for the Four Seasons restaurant in 1958, the painting was valued at five million to nine million pounds by class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Sotheby's . Rothko donated it to the Tate in 1970. A Polish national called Wlodzimierz Umaniec, also known as Vladimir Umanets, claimed the graffiti was a creative act to promote his artistic movement, Y

The maker of the Ambassador has halted production of the iconic car, long the choice of Indian officialdom, citing weak demand and a lack of funds and casting doubt on the future of a vehicle that has looked essentially the same for nearly six decades. Hindustan Motors Ltd said in a statement it had suspended work at its Uttarpara plant, outside the eastern city of Kolkata, until further notice. Modeled on Britain's Morris Oxford, the Ambassador was the first car to be made in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> India , according to the company, and was once a status symbol.   true       But it began losing its dominance in the mid-1980s when Maruti Suzuki introduced its low-priced 800 hatchback. It lost further cachet and market share when global automakers began setting up shop in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> India in the mid-1990s, offering models with contemporary designs and technology. The Ambassador has remained the choice of a dwindling share of bur

People who engage in plenty of light movement have a lower risk of developing a disability and losing their capacity to care for themselves, a new study suggests. The study included middle-aged and older adults who had knee osteoarthritis or were at high risk of developing the condition. It focused specifically on low-intensity exercise, like strolling through a shopping mall or walking around the living room during television commercials.   true       “This study shows that even light movement is beneficial,” lead author Dorothy Dunlop told Reuters Health. “We’re asking the couch potato to get off the couch for two hours a day,” said Dunlop, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “You can get up when the commercials come on. You can walk around your block.” Although public health officials and doctors sing the praises of moderate-intensity and vigorous exercise, the benefits of low-intensity activity remain unclear, the authors write in the

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday it planned to file for approvals of more than 30 major products by the end of 2016 as the diversified healthcare company looks to restore growth to a medical device and diagnostics division that has been overshadowed by its drugs class="mandelbrot_refrag"> business in recent years. J&J said it was positioned for growth through new products recently launched and those in its pipeline and would place significant focus on fast-growing emerging class="mandelbrot_refrag"> markets , particularly class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Russia . "We are capitalizing on our established footprint to grow and expand our overall class="mandelbrot_refrag"> business (in class="mandelbrot_refrag"> China )," Chief Financial Officer Dominic Caruso said during a device business review for analysts

Superbugs resistant to drugs pose a serious worldwide threat and demand a response on the same scale as efforts to combat climate change, infectious disease specialists said on Thursday. Warning that a world without effective antibiotics would be "deadly", with routine surgery, treatments for cancer and diabetes and organ transplants becoming impossible, the experts said the international response had been far too weak. "We have needed to take action against the development of antimicrobial resistance for more than 20 years. Despite repeated warnings, the international response has been feeble," said Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust medical charity.   true       The World Health Organisation had missed opportunities to take the lead, and very little progress had been made, he said, resulting in the emergence of strains of infections, including tuberculosis, malaria, pneumonia and gonorrhea, that resist all known drugs. "We need a new independ

Reviewers on the online restaurant and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> business rating site, class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Yelp , helped New York City health officials find hundreds of unreported cases of possible food borne illnesses, health officials reported on Thursday. _0"> Researchers involved in a pilot project between the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Columbia University and class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Yelp trawled the site for reviews that included words like "sick," "vomit," "diarrhea" and "food poisoning," between July 2012 and March 2013. Roughly 294,000 Yelp reviews were analyzed, and researchers found 468 posts that were consistent with cases of recent food borne illnesses. Only 15 of those cases had been independently reported to the health department.   true       "The results suggest that online restaurant reviews might help to identify unreported outbr

Two U.S. food companies this week issued voluntary recalls of walnuts and hummus dips sold at major retailers after listeria was detected in a sampling of the products, the Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday. The recalls come weeks after Wal-Mart settled lawsuits with the families of 23 people who died from a 2011 listeria outbreak linked to cantaloupe grown at a Colorado farm and sold by the retailer. St. Louis-based Sherman Produce Co said it would begin recalling 241 cases of bulk walnuts, after a recent routine sampling of the product purchased by stores in Missouri and Illinois revealed traces of listeria, the FDA said in a statement.   true       Massachusetts prepared foods manufacturer Lansal Inc, commonly known as Hot Mama's Foods, said it would voluntarily pull hummus and dip products sold at Target, Trader Joe's and other retailers, the administration said. Lansal launched the recall of about 14,860 pounds of hummus after a single 10-ounce container

May is National Stroke Awareness Month, and experts are using the time to teach Americans about the risk factors and warning signs. “The public is dangerously uninformed about what stroke is, and what the signs and symptoms of stroke are, as well as the risk factors,” Jim Baranski, C.E.O. of the National Stroke Association, told Reuters Health. Stroke is a brain attack, occurring when vital blood flow and oxygen to the brain are cut off or greatly reduced. The National Stroke Association suggests using the word FAST to help recognize the signs of a stroke. F stands for Face: ask the person to smile, and see whether one side of the face droops. A stands for Arms: if both arms are raised, does one drift to the side? S stands for Speech: is it slurred, or strange? And T stands for Time: don’t waste time before calling 911 if someone has started to show any of these signs.   true       The American Stroke Association says that during a stroke, “Time lost is brain lost.” An estima

The heaviest users of cell phones may be at higher than average risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor, according to a recent French study. But for most people, it’s still not clear if there’s added risk, the authors say. Plus, the devices and the way people use them keeps evolving so that more research is needed going forward, they add.   true       This isn’t the first study to point to a tumor risk with heavy cell phone use, said Dr. L. Dade Lunsford, a distinguished professor of neurosurgery specializing in brain tumor management at the University of Pittsburgh. But these kinds of studies rely on people to recall how much they have used cell phones in the past with no indication of their actual use, said Lunsford, who was not involved in the French research. The new results found no difference between regular cell users and non-users, which suggests that if there is a link, it is only applicable for people who claim to use their cell phone the most, he noted by email.

Young adults who were exposed to adverse experiences as children have greater signs of unhealthy blood vessel function than young people without a traumatic past, a new study finds. The results suggest that early-life stress may raise the risk of heart disease later on by affecting blood vessel function and blood pressure in ways that can be detected during young adulthood, the authors say. “We have translated ideas that we had from animal research and found that it’s true in humans,” Jennifer Pollock told Reuters Health.   true       Pollock, part of the research team, co-directs cardio-renal physiology and medicine in the nephrology division at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She and her colleagues looked for elevations in blood pressure and other indicators of how well blood vessels constrict or relax, as well as signs of stiffness in blood vessel walls. “All of this was highly correlated with people who have more of these stresses during childhood than the peop

Wastewater from cities and hospitals releases some antibiotic-resistant bacteria into the environment, according to a new French study. And although wastewater treatment plants cut the number of bacteria overall, the treatment process boosts the proportion of bacteria resistant to some antibiotics, the research found. The study focused on E. coli, a type of bacteria that commonly inhabits the intestines of many healthy animals, including humans, although certain strains can cause food poisoning. Drug resistance among many types of bacteria, including E. coli, is a growing problem. Previously unaffected bacteria can pick up resistance genes from other bacteria that carry them, and resistance can also spread through food crops irrigated with affected water.   true       “These multi-drug resistant bacteria are now the most frequently isolated ones in French hospitals, and in many countries,” said Xavier Bertrand, an author of the study and a microbiologist at Universite de Fran

U.S. health officials are investigating a multi-state E.coli outbreak linked to raw clover sprouts that have sickened as many as 10 people, half of whom required hospitalization, the Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday. No deaths have been reported. _0"> As of May 21 there were seven confirmed and three probable cases of E. Coli illnesses, three in Idaho and seven in Washington state, the FDA said. The FDA said it was investigating the outbreak in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local officials. The outbreak has been linked to raw clover sprouts from Evergreeen Fresh Sprouts LLC of Moyie Springs, Idaho. "We are moving quickly to learn as much as possible and prevent additional people from becoming ill," the FDA said in a statement. "We recognize that people will be concerned about this outbreak, and we will continue to provide updates and advice."   true       Health officials said the sprouts we

class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Mexico reported outbreaks of a deadly pig virus in 17 states out of 19 tested, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) said on Thursday. _0"> Following reports of unusually high mortality, mainly in piglets, in the central-western part of the country, Mexican veterinary officials tested 2,309 samples between August 2013 and May 2014 in farms and slaughterhouses, the Mexican agriculture ministry told the OIE. These showed that 30 percent were positive for the deadly Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus (PEDv), suggesting that there may be some other causative agent involved in this event, the ministry said. class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Mexico has 31 states plus the federal district of Mexico. The country, which has around 16 million pigs, has banned imports of live pigs from the United States since last June, the Mexican ministry said. It added that Mexican authorities had found the virus in 770 dead pigs since it was de

Shares in U.S. biotech company PTC Therapeutics more than doubled in premarket dealings on Friday after European regulators recommended a conditional class="mandelbrot_refrag"> marketing authorization for Translarna, its drug for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. _0"> European Medicines Agency experts had adopted a negative opinion on the drug in January. Conditional class="mandelbrot_refrag"> marketing authorization is an early access mechanism for medicines that address an unmet medical need for patients suffering from life-threatening diseases, even if comprehensive clinical data are not yet available. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler , Editing by Paul Sandle)

European regulators said on Friday they had recommended approval of Roche's drug Gazyvaro, or obinutuzumab, for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, boosting the Swiss group's line-up of new cancer treatments. _0"> The new medicine is an improved follow-on medicine to Roche's $7 billion-a-year Rituxan, or MabThera, and Roche is hoping to switch as many patients as possible to the newer product before Rituxan faces competition from cheaper copies. The European Medicines Agency also gave a green light to Biogen Idec's Plegridy for multiple sclerosis and a recommendation for conditional approval to PTC Therapeutics' Translarna for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Shares in PTC soared on the green light. class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Novartis received a mixed bag of news, with its Alcon eyecare unit winning a recommendation for Simbrinza, a treatment for open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension, but heart treatment serelaxin was rebuffed o

EU health regulators have recommended against approving Novartis's experimental heart failure drug for the second time this year due to insufficient evidence it improves symptoms, the Swiss drugmaker said in a statement on Friday. _0"> The ruling by the European Medicine Agency's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) follows a previous rebuffal given in January and dashes Novartis's hopes for approval of serelaxin in Europe this year. The Basel-based firm was banking on serelaxin, also known as RLX030, to help replace lost revenue from blood pressure pill Diovan which faces competition from cheap, copycat medicines.   true       Tim Wright, global head of development at class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Novartis class="mandelbrot_refrag"> Pharmaceuticals said he was "disappointed" that the drug would not be available for patients this year, but said the company was committed to providing further evidence. class