Today's Globe: Rotenberg Center firings, cancerous stem cells, breast reconstruction options, syphilis in Europe

Seven staff members at the controversial Judge Rotenberg Educational Center have been fired for their role in mistakenly allowing dozens of electrical shocks to be administered to two emotionally disturbed teenagers based on a caller posing as a supervisor, a center spokesman said yesterday.

Within the next few months, researchers at three medical centers expect to start the first test in patients of one of the most promising - and contentious - ideas about the cause and treatment of cancer. The idea is to target what some scientists say are cancerous stem cells - aberrant cells that maintain and propagate malignant tumors.

Most doctors don't talk about breast reconstruction with women before cancer surgery, depriving them of key information that can sway their decision about whether to have the whole breast or just a lump removed, new research suggests.

Syphilis, the sexually transmitted disease long associated with 19th century bohemian life, is making an alarming resurgence in Europe.