A new treatment for the wet form of age-related macular degeneration--a leading cause of vision loss in people over 50--appears to be a big improvement over the current therapy. The condition occurs when blood vessels in the eye grow abnormally and leak fluid into the central retina (macula). Two studies in this week's New England Journal of Medicine found that patients given monthly injections of ranibizumab (Lucentis) in the eye to inhibit vessel growth experienced much less vision loss or more improvement than those given the usual therapy, which uses a laser to close off leaking vessels.
The nation's third schoolhouse atrocity in less than a week, the one in Nickel Mines, Pa., took place in a community as different from everyday America as horse-drawn buggies are from SUVs. How could it happen there, in rural farmland among the peace-loving Amish for whom the injunction "be ye not conformed to this world" is much more than a fine notion?
AP - The world lined up against North Korea on Monday for staging a nuclear test denounced even by key allies. President Bush called it "a threat to international peace and security," and the U.N. Security Council weighed severe sanctions to punish the impoverished communist nation.
AP - Democrats seized on North Korea's brazen act to criticize President Bush's record in confronting the communist regime, contending the administration's focus on Iraq ignored legitimate threats.
AP - An anti-Castro militant now in a Texas jail warned the CIA months before the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that fellow exiles were planning such an attack, according to a newly released U.S. government document.
The United States is vowing to press for tough international sanctions against North Korea over its claimed nuclear test, while scientists have raised questions about whether the test was a success. U.N. Security Council members will resume closed-door discussions today of the U.S. proposals.
Diplomats at the United Nations are discussing U.S.-proposed sanctions Monday in the aftermath of North Korea's announcement that it tested a nuclear device. Ambassador John Bolton earlier said there was no one defending North Korea on the Security Council but it is not known how Russia and China will handle the U.S. call.