Breast-feeding ads said to bow to lobby
WASHINGTON, D.C.
In an attempt to raise the nation's historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned an attentiongrabbing ad campaign a few years ago to convince mothers that their babies faced health risks if they did not breast-feed. It included photos of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers topped with rubber nipples. Political appointees in the Health and Human Services Department toned down the campaign after the infant-formula industry lobbied for changes. The intervention is being scrutinized by Congress. (
North Carolina
Evangelist Graham leaves hospital
RALEIGH - Evangelist Billy Graham was released from a hospital yesterday, nearly two weeks after he was admitted for intestinal bleeding, officials said. Doctors identified the source of Graham's bleeding during a colonoscopy last week, said Merrill Gregory, a spokeswoman for Mission Health & Hospitals in Asheville. Physicians were able to treat the condition with cauterization. Rice said he expects the 88-year-old evangelist will continue to regain his strength. Physicians initially thought the bleeding was related to a diverticulum, or a small pouch that forms in the lower intestine, after Graham was admitted Aug. 18. They now say the bleeding source was an arteriovenous malformation, a tangle of small blood vessels in the lining of the colon. (AP)
Florida
Ex-astronaut can remove monitor
ORLANDO - Former astronaut Lisa Nowak can remove an electronic monitoring bracelet from her ankle while she awaits trial on charges she attacked a romantic rival, a judge ruled yesterday. Nowak had argued that the bracelet was expensive, bulky, and uncomfortable. Judge Marc L. Lubet said that those claims did not matter, but that Nowak had behaved well enough over the past seven months to remove the device. The woman Nowak is accused of attacking asked a court to require Nowak to continue wearing the device. Colleen Shipman said she still feared Nowak. Nowak is still prohibited from contacting Shipman or Bill Oefelein, the former shuttle pilot both women pursued, Lubet said in the order. Nowak has no reason to travel to Florida, where Shipman lives, other than court appearances, or to Virginia, where Shipman's boyfriend lives, the judge said. (AP)
California
A guilty plea in plot to arm dissidents
LOS ANGELES - A man pleaded guilty in a scheme to buy thousands of submachine guns and sell them to Iranians opposed to Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, court records showed. Under the plea agreement reached this week, Seyed Mostafa Maghloubi, 49, an Iranian-born US citizen, acknowledged that he attempted to obtain night-vision goggles and as many as 100,000 Uzi submachine guns for shipment to Iran, in violation of US laws. Maghloubi was the subject of a sting operation in February. Maghloubi's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 26. (AP)
