CALIFORNIA, January 26 – This week a new study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine which raised quite some eyebrows. The drug Trasylol which is normally used after surgery to control bleeding has been found to increase the risk of kidney failure and increase the risk of an heart attack.

Trasylol of which the working ingredient is atropinin, is one of the leading drugs produced by Bayer AG, the German pharmacy company. The drug is used in over 60 percent of all surgeries, an astonishing fact considering that this drug might be lethal to some of these patients. The risk on heart failure or heart attacks increased by a baffling 55 percent and the risk on a stroke or the breakdown of brain tissue even doubled.

In response to this new research stock for Bayer AG declined with 3.1 percent, the biggest decline in over one and a half year. Although representatives of Bayer have questioned the methods by which the research was done doctors are now advising to use the less expensive generic drugs aminocaproic acid and tranexamic acid which are considered to be safe.

For more health information please visit Bhia.org

MONTPELLIER, January 22 – In a disturbing development a 32-year old woman was hospitalized in France after she has shown symptoms of the avian influenza. The woman recently returned from a holiday in Turkey and showed severe signs that she had contracted the much dreaded disease.

Preliminary tests have dismissed the suspicion of a possible H5N1 infection but for further safety measures the woman has been quarantined and is now treated with anti-viral medication.

The woman explained that she traveled through the Tarsus-region on her holiday and saw dead poultry lying around. Although doctors do not believe her travel conditions would have exposed her to these dead birds all safety measures were taken to prevent any possible spread.

This is the second case of a suspected bird flu infection in Europe. Earlier a Belgian journalist was hospitalized after showing symptoms of the bird flu but luckily it was false alarm. Further testing will determine whether the woman in France is indeed free of infection.

LEEDS, January 21 – An important study on the link between cell phone use and brain tumors has been concluded and the results were shown in the British Medical Journal.

This new research is a cooperation between the universities of Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham and the Institute of Cancer Research in London. The research included 966 people with common forms of brain tumors and a total of 1,716 healthy individuals over a total period of four years.

The study concluded that there is absolutely no link between the use of cell phones and the growth or occurrence of brain tumors. Often used arguments like phone model and frequency of use were also accounted for but posed no difference in the results.

Although large mobile phone network operators like T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange and O2 partially funded the project there was an agreement in place that ensured the independence of the researchers. Mr. Philips, director of the consumer watch group PowerWatch responded that the study is severely flawed. According to his information 49 percent of the 966 sick individuals did not get interviewed because most of them died due to fast-growing tumors before they could conclude the study.

So far no official response has been made towards this comment.

FLORIDA, January 17 – The much awaited launch of the NASA space-mission to Pluto suffered several delays today which resulted in an ultimate delay of 24 hours. The mission is now scheduled for 1:16PM EST (1816 GMT).

Continuous ground winds were the main reason for the delays, the winds reached speeds above the maximum limit set out by NASA several times during the day and ultimately this caused the mission to be delayed for 24 hours. Apart from the winds there were also some glitches with a vent valve, a ground tracking station in Antigua and the NASA Deep Space Network which all contributed to the problems faced today.

The New Horizons Pluto probe and its Atlas 5 rocket launch were cancelled just two minutes and 42 seconds before the actual launch would take place, a true cliffhanger. Flight controllers are confident they will be able to launch tomorrow.

For more information on the mission to Pluto please visit PlutoMission.com

WASHINGTON, January 15 – In a worrying development it has been discovered that the current main flu strain H3N2, common influenza, is resistant to two of the most-used anti-viral drugs.

With the flu season off to a fresh start the main strain spreading fast is H3N2. Normally the drugs amantadine and rimantadin are widely used to combat flu in the flu season but tests show that 91% of the common flu strains are immune to these drugs. This is a staggering rise from only an 11% resistance in the last flu season!

Amantadine was sold under the brand name Symmetrel and rimantadin was known as Flumadine. Both widely used, Symmeterel as early as since the 60’s and Flumadine since the 90’s. Both drugs appeared in generic form and only presented a tenth of the cost of popular anti-viral drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza.

The recent outbreak of avian influenza worries researchers, the current common flu could evolve with a strain of the deadly H5N1 virus and thus create a lethal strain that is transferable from human to human. Such a development would be catastrophic.

BURGDORF, Switzerland, January 14 – The head of the European investigative commission researching the handlings of the CIA on European soil has come to the conclusion that without a doubt the CIA handled illegally on European territory.

The Council of Europe requested these investigations after the allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency was abducting terrorist suspects to torture them in third-world countries. Talks of secret detention centers in Eastern Europe arose, especially in Poland and Romania but all connections were denied by local governments and even the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

The tension between Europe and the U.S. peaked just before Christmas when an Italian judge issued arrest warrants for CIA operatives linked to an abduction of a muslim cleric in 2003. No arrests were made yet in this case because there was no request for extraction.