Negative Blogs

It was bound to happen: Some people who aren’t at high risk for swine flu complications got the much-in-demand vaccine.

Sometimes they were healthy adults or senior citizens instead of kids, pregnant women and people with health problems.

Before Los Angeles County health officials stepped up screening at their flu clinics, Natalie Thompson sailed through the long line and got the vaccine along with her 8-year-old son, even though she’s not in one of the priority groups.

“If I can get it, I’m not gonna say no,” said Thompson, 35, of Hollywood Hills.

Another mom, Katy Radparvar, didn’t say no either.

“Our doctor doesn’t have it yet,” said the 41-year-old woman who was vaccinated along with her three children at a public health vaccination site in suburban Encino last week.

Public health officials don’t want to be vaccine police. Many don’t turn anyone away who wants the vaccine, though some locations are tougher than others.

“For many this is a frustrating process and we really sympathize with those who show up at a clinic and can’t get vaccinated,” said Los Angeles County public health director Dr. Jonathan Fielding.

Across the country, thousands have waited in line and many have been turned away, as manufacturers have trickled out the slow-to-produce vaccine. Things are improving, and now about 25 million doses are available, the government says. Hard money training

First it was the rush for hand sanitizer. Then it was the quest for the vaccine. Now, as increasing numbers of children are coming down with swine flu, more parents are facing yet another anxiety-provoking chase: the hunt for liquid Tamiflu for kids.

Spot shortages of the liquid form of the medicine are forcing mothers and fathers to drive from pharmacy to pharmacy, often late into the evening after getting a diagnosis and prescription from a pediatrician, in search of the syrupy concoction recommended for the youngest victims of the global pandemic.

“It was so frustrating,” said Cheryl Copeland of Silver Spring, who finally found some of the elusive medication for her sick 5-year-old son, William, at an independent drug store Monday after being turned away by a CVS and Rite Aid. “There was a moment when the first pharmacist said, ‘We don’t have it. There’s been a run on it,’ When I said to myself, ‘Where on Earth am I going to find it?’ ”

The drug can make the flu milder, go away more quickly and may cut the risk of serious, potentially life-threatening complications. The shortages are being caused by a surge in demand because of the second wave of swine flu sweeping the country, combined with a decision by the Swiss company that makes the medication to focus on producing the drug in capsules. Hard money training

A car bomb struck a busy market in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing 93 people — mostly women and children — as visiting Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged U.S. support for Islamabad’s campaign against Islamic militants.

More than 200 people were wounded in the blast in the main northwestern city of Peshawar, the deadliest in a surge of attacks by suspected insurgents this month. The government blamed militants seeking to avenge an army offensive launched this month against al-Qaida and Taliban in their stronghold close to the Afghan border.

The bombing was the deadliest since explosions hit homecoming festivities for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in Karachi in October 2007, killing about 150 people. Bhutto was later slain in a separate attack.

Wednesday’s bomb destroyed much of the Mina Bazaar in Peshawar’s old town, a warren of narrow alleys clogged with stalls and shops selling dresses, toys and cheap jewelry that drew many female shoppers and children in the conservative city.

The blast collapsed buildings, including a mosque, and set scores of shops ablaze. The wounded sat amid burning debris and parts of bodies as a huge plume of gray smoke rose above the city.

Crying for help, men tried to pull survivors from beneath wreckage. One man carried away a baby with a bloody face and a group of men rescued a young boy covered in dust, but others found only bodies of the dead. A two-story building collapsed as firefighters doused it with water, triggering more panic.

“There was a deafening sound and I was like a blind man for a few minutes,” said Mohammad Usman, who was wounded in the shoulder. “I heard women and children crying and started to help others. There was the smell of human flesh in the air.”

Clinton, on her first visit to Pakistan as secretary of state, was a three-hour drive away in the capital, Islamabad, when the blast took place. Speaking to reporters, she praised the army’s anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan and offered U.S. support. Hard money training

Roadside bombs — the biggest killer of U.S. soldiers — claimed eight more American lives Tuesday, driving the U.S. death toll to a record level for the third time in four months as President Barack Obama nears a decision on a new strategy for the troubled war.

The homemade bombs, also called improvised explosive devices or IEDs, are responsible for between 70 percent and 80 percent of the casualties among U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan and have become a weapon of “strategic influence,” said Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz in Washington.

The attacks Tuesday followed one of the deadliest days for the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan — grim milestones likely to fuel the debate in the United States over whether the conflict is worth the sacrifice.

Obama has nearly finished gathering information on whether to send tens of thousands more American forces to quell the deepening insurgency, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. A meeting Friday with the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be among the last events in the decision-making process, Gibbs said.

Both attacks Tuesday took place in the southern province of Kandahar, said Capt. Adam Weece, a spokesman for American forces in the south. The region bordering the Pakistan frontier has long been an insurgent stronghold and was the birthplace of the Taliban in the 1990s.

The Americans were patrolling in armored vehicles when a bomb ripped through one of them, killing seven service members and an Afghan civilian, U.S. forces spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician said.

The eighth American died in a separate bombing elsewhere in the south, also while patrolling in a military vehicle, Vician said.

The number of effective IED attacks in Afghanistan has grown from 19 in September 2007 to 106 last month. Hard money training

Helicopter crashes killed 14 Americans on Monday in the deadliest day for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan in more than four years. The deaths came as President Barack Obama prepared to meet his national security team for a sixth full-scale conference on the future of the troubled war.

In the first crash, a helicopter went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight with insurgents, killing 10 Americans — seven troops and three civilians working for the government. Eleven American troops, one U.S. civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured.

In a separate incident in the south, two other U.S. choppers collided while in flight, killing four American troops and wounding two more, the military said.

It was the heaviest single-day loss of life since June 28, 2005, when 16 U.S. troops on a special forces helicopter died when their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by insurgents.

U.S. authorities have ruled out hostile fire in the collision but have not given a cause for the other fatal crash in the west. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmedi claimed Taliban fighters shot down a helicopter in northwest Badghis province’s Darabam district. It was impossible to verify the claim and unclear if he was referring to the same incident.

U.S. forces also reported the death of two other American troops a day earlier: one in a bomb attack in the east, and another who died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack in the same region. The deaths bring to at least 46 the number of U.S. troops who have been killed in October.

This has been the deadliest year for international and U.S. forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban. Fighting spiked around the presidential vote in August, and 51 U.S. soldiers died that month — the deadliest for American forces in the eight-year war. Hard money training

The mother of a 7-year-old Florida girl whose body was found in a landfill made a promise on national TV Friday to the unknown killer: “We’ll get you.”

Diena Thompson, mother of Somer Thompson, appeared red-eyed on all three network television morning shows the day after investigators identified the body they found after sorting through tons of debris at a Georgia landfill.

“We’re coming for you. We’ll get you, and hopefully justice will be served,” she said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Somer vanished on her one-mile walk home from school Monday in a heavily populated residential area in the Jacksonville suburb of Orange Park. Searchers combed the area before investigators, following garbage trucks that collected trash Tuesday, spotted her lifeless legs in a landfill about 50 miles away.

An autopsy to establish the cause of death is done, but authorities Thursday would not disclose their findings. At a news conference, Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler would not say if Somer had been sexually assaulted or answer other questions about the condition of the body.

Diena Thompson said she does not know any details of the investigation. She said she hopes the killer gets the death penalty.

“I hate him. I hate him,” she said on the CBS “Early Show.”

“Every morning when I get up, I just get up thinking it’s just all a bad dream, and you come out and you see everything that everybody’s brought and you know it’s real,” she said.

Missing child posters featuring Somer’s face, with chubby cheeks and thick brown bangs, still plaster nearly every utility pole along the mile-long route from her elementary school to her home. Hard money training

Ethiopia said Thursday it needs emergency food aid for 6.2 million people, an appeal that comes 25 years after a devastating famine compounded by communist policies killed 1 million and prompted one of the largest charity campaigns in history.

The crisis stems from a prolonged drought that has hit much of the Horn of Africa, including Kenya and Somalia.

Drought is especially disastrous in Ethiopia because more than 80 percent of people live off the land. Agriculture drives the economy, accounting for half of all domestic production and most exports.

Mitiku Kassa, Ethiopia’s state minister for agriculture and rural development, appealed to donors Thursday for more than $121 million. In January, he had said that 4.9 million of Ethiopia’s 85 million people needed emergency food aid.

Ethiopia has long struggled with cyclical droughts, which are compounded by the country’s dependence on rain-fed agriculture and archaic farming practices.

In 1984, Ethiopia’s famine drew international attention as news reports showed emaciated children and adults with limbs as thin as sticks. The crisis launched one of the biggest global charity campaigns in history, including the concert Live Aid.

This year’s drought appears to be slightly less severe than the one last year, which was exacerbated by high food prices. A year ago, Mitiku appealed for aid to feed 6.4 million people affected by drought.

But many humanitarian groups have said in recent years that they believe the number of people affected by hunger is higher than government estimates.

Because of Ethiopia’s large size and poor infrastructure, independent observers have difficulty collecting data. The worst-affected areas in the country’s east are the site of a fierce insurgency and are off-limits to journalists. Aid groups say their movements in these areas are limited by military restrictions.

In a report marking 25 years since Ethiopia’s famine, the aid group Oxfam said countries must focus on preparing communities to prevent and deal with drought and other disasters before they strike, rather than relying on importing aid.

According to the U.N., nearly two-thirds of Africa’s agricultural land has been degraded by erosion and misused pesticides. In Ethiopia, where bad farming practices have led to massive erosion, 85 percent of land is damaged. Hard money training

Joseph Wiseman, an actor who played the sinister scientist and title character of Dr. No in the first James Bond feature film, has died. He was 91.

Wiseman, who had been in declining health, died Monday at his home in Manhattan, his daughter, Martha Graham Wiseman, told The New York Times and Los Angeles Times.

A screen and stage actor, Wiseman’s film credits include “Detective Story” (1951) and “The Unforgiven” (1960). He also had guest roles on television shows “Law & Order,” “The Streets of San Francisco,” “The Twilight Zone” and “The Untouchables,” according to The New York Times.

He is likely best known, however, for his villainous role in “Dr. No,” the first in a long string of James Bond movies. The 1962 film introduced Sean Connery as James Bond and also starred Ursula Andress.

Wiseman was born in Montreal on May 15, 1918. He moved to the United States with his family when he was a boy.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Wiseman started acting when he was a teenager, getting his start in summer stock.

In 1938, he was given a small part in his first Broadway play, Robert E. Sherwood’s “Abe Lincoln in Illinois.”

Wiseman’s other Broadway credits include “Joan of Lorraine” (1946), “Antony and Cleopatra” (1947), “Detective Story” (1949); and most recently in the stage adaptation of Abby Mann’s film “Judgment at Nuremberg” (2001). Hard money training

Two girls who swam with pet turtles in a backyard pool were among 107 people sickened in the largest salmonella outbreak blamed on turtles nationwide, researchers report.

The 2007-08 outbreak involved mostly children in 34 states; one-third of all patients had to be hospitalized. In many cases, parents didn’t know that turtles can carry salmonella.

Despite a 1975 ban on selling small turtles as pets, they continue to be sold illegally.

The American Veterinary Medical Association estimates that the number of pet turtles nationwide doubled from 950,000 in 1996 to almost 2 million in 2006.

“It’s very easy to think of turtles as being a very gentle and nice pet,” but many carry salmonella, without showing any signs, said Julie Harris, a scientist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the report’s lead author.

Salmonella in turtle feces can end up on their shells and body, and can spread to people who handle them.

An infected turtle can spread the same strain of salmonella to others during shipping, which may be how the outbreak occurred. Turtles involved were bought at pet shops, flea markets, from street vendors and online. The Food and Drug Administration contacted retailers involved and their investigation is ongoing, the report said.

“Continued, collective efforts are needed, both on state and federal levels, to enforce the ban and protect public health,” the report said. It appears in October’s Pediatrics, released Monday.

Authorities began investigating in September 2007 after a Union County, N.C., teen swam in her backyard pool with two pet turtles and a friend from South Carolina. Both girls developed bloody diarrhea, vomiting, fever and stomach cramps; one developed kidney failure and spent eight days in the hospital. Hard money training

Troops fought militants on three fronts and fighter jets bombed insurgent positions near the Afghan border Monday as Pakistan pressed ahead with an assault on the country’s main Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold.

The army and the Pakistani Taliban have each claimed early victories in South Waziristan, a lawless, semiautonomous region that Islamist extremists use as a base to plot attacks on the Pakistani state, Western troops in Afghanistan and targets in the West.

As the offensive entered its third day, Pakistani intelligence officials revealed that the army had reached prior agreements with two militant commanders — whose supporters are believed to be fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan — to stay neutral during the assault.

That could trigger concern in Washington, which has been pushing Islamabad to launch the offensive, seen as the most crucial yet against militants who are in control of a large swath of Pakistan’s northwestern frontier region. Militants have carried out a string of bloody attacks in recent weeks, including a 22-hour siege of army headquarters.

On Monday, U.S. Central Command chief David Petraeus met Pakistan’s prime minister and army chief in the capital. U.S. Sen. John Kerry also met the two Pakistanis to try to ease tensions over an American aid bill that has caused a rift between Pakistan’s army and civilian government.

Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said 78 militants and nine soldiers have been killed since the offensive began Saturday. It is nearly impossible to independently verify what is going on in South Waziristan because the army is blocking access to it and surrounding towns. Hard money training