FDA scrutinizing safety of asthma drug Xolair

The Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday it is conducting a safety review of the asthma drug Xolair after data from an ongoing study suggested an increased number of heart attacks and strokes among patients who use it. Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday as the ship, after a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, was heading back to its origination point of San Diego, California, authorities said. Robert McGill, who is in his mid-50s, is charged with murder on the high seas, FBI Special Agent in Charge Keith Slotter told HLN.

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Husband charged with killing wife on cruise

A Los Angeles-area man has been charged with murder in the death of his wife while on a cruise along the Mexican coast, An FBI spokesman told CNN sister network HLN. Shirley McGill, 55, was found dead in her cabin on the Carnival Elation on Tuesday as the ship, after a five-day cruise to Cabo San Lucas, was heading back to its origination point of San Diego, California, authorities said. Robert McGill, who is in his mid-50s, is charged with murder on the high seas, FBI Special Agent in Charge Keith Slotter told HLN

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Former South Korean leader, Nobel winner on respirator

A former South Korea president who won the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering better relations between North and South Korea has been placed on a respirator in a hospital, a news agency reported Thursday. Kim Dae-jung “became short of breath on Wednesday night and was put on a respirator around 3 a.m.

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Will new Michael Jackson music be released?

Michael Jackson’s songs and albums went to the top of the charts in the days and weeks following his death –and there may be plenty more hits to come, if his rumored plethora of unreleased songs find their way to the public. Since his death, rumors have surfaced about a mountain of unpublished material from the King of Pop,­ including recent collaborations with artists such as will.i.am and Akon, as well as unused tracks from studio sessions dating back to the 1980s.

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Commentary: West stares into Afghan abyss

Given its long history of warfare, the United Kingdom is not squeamish about fatalities in time of war and yet a debate has been ignited by the deaths of 15 British soldiers in Afghanistan over the last few weeks. The question now is whether this profound soul-searching results in a more efficient policy towards the war-torn country. The West became involved in fighting in Afghanistan principally because the Taliban government allowed a non-state actor to carry out acts of terrorism unhindered from within its borders

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Storm Fallout: A Florida Exodus?

After the 2000 presidential election debacle, a friend of mine in New York voiced a snide but widely shared sentiment: “The best thing about Florida,” he told me, “is that it’s a place to keep Floridians.” I’ve often said the same thing about Manhattan. But I’m recalling my friend’s remark now as I look east and see hurricanes lining up in the Atlantic like bombers on an aircraft carrier, threatening to blow mango trees into my Miami living room from now until Halloween.

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Uganda seeks to ban female circumcision

In many cases it’s a woman that grips the blade — maybe clean, maybe dirty — that cuts a girl’s path to womanhood. The cutter, who works for a fee, can pursue any number of surgical options for the young girl’s rite of passage. She can remove the girl’s clitoris entirely, narrow her vagina with stitches, or make other excisions of the girl’s genitalia.

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Study: A Fairer Way to Cut Global CO2 Emissions

At the end of the year, governments from around the world will meet in Copenhagen hopefully to hammer out a new treaty — the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 — to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions. Their lack of time aside, diplomats face a very large, very immovable hurdle on the way to a new Kyoto. Developed countries like the U.S., which refused to ratify the original treaty, are responsible for most of the CO2 in the atmosphere — and more than a century of industrialization has helped make them rich — which would indicate that they should shoulder the lion’s share of future emissions reductions.

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