South Carolina Guv says it’s time to start recovery
CHAPIN, S.C. – As the worst of the floodwaters that roared through South Carolina washed out to sea, Gov. Nikki Haley and other officials said Monday it is time to start recovering instead of reacting to the ongoing emergency.
Workers reopened the entire stretch of Interstate 95 southbound Monday, making it the first time in eight days that traffic on the major highway link from Florida to the Northeast didn’t take a two-hour detour. Crews hope the northbound lanes would soon follow.
Haley also thanked volunteers, law enforcement and other workers for their time.
Dissolving stents for heart passes big test in big study
Now you see it, now you don’t. A new type of heart stent that works like dissolving stitches, slowly going away after it has done its job, passed its first major test in a large study, doctors said Monday.
Abbott Vascular’s dissolving Absorb stent performed as well as a conventional stent in the one-year study, but the fact it did not prove superior led some experts to be wary.
Still, the results on this and other novel stents currently in testing are fueling hope for a new generation of these devices, used on about 850,000 heart disease patients each year in the United States alone.
Stents are tiny mesh cages that keep blood vessels from reclogging after an artery-opening angioplasty procedure.
Turkey faces instability, fear as elections approach
ANKARA, Turkey – The suicide bombings that ripped through a rally promoting peace in Turkey’s capital have magnified the political uncertainty ahead of a key election Nov. 1 and raised fears the country may be heading toward an extended period of instability.
The blasts – Turkey’s bloodiest in years – have further polarized the country as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tries again for a ruling majority in parliament. And with political winds blowing against the ruling party, the election could create new power struggles just as the country grapples with more than 2 million refugees and tries to avoid being drawn into the chaos in neighboring Syria and Iraq.
“We are now facing uncharted waters in terms of deadly violence in Turkey,” wrote Omer Taspinar of the Brookings Institution in Today’s Zaman, an opposition newspaper.
Nobel winner’s work links aid programs and poverty
Angus Deaton has dug into obscure data to explore a range of problems: The scope of poverty in India, how poor countries treat young girls, the link between income inequality and economic growth.
The Princeton University economist’s research has raised doubts about sweeping solutions to poverty and about the effectiveness of aid programs. And on Monday, it earned him the Nobel prize in economics.
For work that the award committee said has had “immense importance for human welfare, not least in poor countries,” Deaton, 69, will receive a prize of 8 million Swedish kronor (about $975,000) from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Associated Press
