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Mayo Clinic Minute: A tick to blame for the alpha-gal, meat allergy

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

Deb Balzer | Mayo Clinic News Network (TNS)You may have heard about alpha-gal syndrome also known as the meat allergy illness or tick bite meat allergy. In a recent report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says more than 110,000 suspected cases of alpha-gal syndrome were identified between 2010 and 2022. However, the CDC says that number may be much higher because people need to be tested for alpha-gal syndrome and there are many healthcare providers who may not be familiar with the emerging disease.Alpha-gal syndrome can be a serious, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. The American Gastroenterological Association added guidance earlier this year to medical professionals to watch for patients with undiagnosed abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, especially those living in areas where alpha-gal is prevalent.What is alpha-gal and how do you get it? Dr. Bobbi Pritt, director of the Clinical Parasitology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, is a tick exp...

Massachusetts woman accused of stabbing partner to death, charged with manslaughter

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

A 37-year-old Marlboro woman is accused of stabbing her partner to death last week, according to police who have charged her with manslaughter.Darlene Carreras has been charged in connection with fatally stabbing Eric Murray, 45, inside her Saint Ives Way apartment in Marlboro last Wednesday night.Carreras was arrested in Worcester on Saturday, and she was arraigned on Monday in Marlboro District Court. She was ordered held pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Aug. 23.According to the Middlesex DA’s Office, police last Wednesday at around 10:32 p.m. responded to a 911 call from a resident reporting an altercation inside a neighboring apartment. A woman inside was reportedly calling for help.Upon arrival, police found Murray inside suffering from apparent stab wounds. He was transported to UMass Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Carreras was also found inside the home with cuts on her hands, and she was transported to the hospital and released. MurrayR...

Boston Herald’s shark stories

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

Here is the Boston Herald’s coverage of shark information.

How to stay safe from financial scams

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

By Kimberly Palmer | NerdWalletOne of the biggest mistakes you can make when it comes to protecting yourself from financial scams is thinking you’re too smart to be duped by one.“We’re all vulnerable — we can all fall for a scam given the right set of circumstances,” says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that provides advice and assistance related to identity theft. Keeping yourself safe starts with accepting that fact, she adds.“You look at the profiles of victims who filed complaints and it runs the gamut from highly educated, high-income people all the way down to the most vulnerable people in our population,” says John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League, a nonprofit advocacy group that speaks out about consumer concerns.While there isn’t a “foolproof solution to stay safe from all scams,” as Breyault puts it, there are strategies you can employ to...

9 killed in a pair of bombings in Pakistan in attacks claimed by no group, police say

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying a local politician and his friends in southwestern Pakistan on Monday, killing him and six others, police said. In a separate bombing, two people were killed in the northwest.The attack that killed seven happened in Kech, a town in Baluchistan province, local police officer Haider Ali said. He said that the slain politician, Ishaq Yaqub, was from the Baluchistan Awami Party and it was unclear who was behind the attack. For years, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by small separatist groups and nationalists who complain of discrimination and demand a fairer share of their province’s resources and wealth.The bombing in Baluchistan happened hours after a suicide bomber apparently detonated his explosives-laden vehicle prematurely in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, killing a married couple in a nearby car, officials said.A local administration official, Rehmant Ullah, said the bombing ...

William Friedkin, Oscar-winning director of ‘The Exorcist’ and The French Connection,’ dead at 87

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

LOS ANGELES (AP) — William Friedkin, the Oscar winning director who became a top filmmaker in his 30s with the gripping “The French Connection” and the horrifying “The Exorcist” and struggled in the following decades to match his early success has died. He was 87.Friedkin, who won the best director Oscar for “The French Connection,” died Monday in Los Angeles, a representative from his office told The Associated Press. His wife, former studio head Sherry Lansing also confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie, based on a true story, deals with the efforts of maverick New York City police Detective James “Popeye” Doyle to track down Frenchman Fernando Rey, mastermind of a large drug pipeline funneling heroin into the United States. It contains one of the most thrilling chase scenes ever filmed.The movie also won Academy Awards for best picture, screenplay and film editing and led critics to hail Friedkin, then just 32, as a leading member of a new generation of filmmakers.He foll...

From prison, Pakistan’s former Premier Imran Khan and his lawyer plan to challenge his graft case

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s Imran Khan and his lawyer met Monday at a high-security prison where the former prime minister is being held following his sentencing, to plan how to challenge the graft case that landed him behind bars more than a year after he was ousted from power.A national cricket hero and top opposition leader, Khan was sentenced over the weekend to three years for concealing assets after selling state gifts while in power and taken to Attock, a high-security prison in eastern Punjab province. The stunning sentence could bar him from politics as Pakistani law prohibits anyone with a criminal conviction from holding or running for public office, and may cost him the chairmanship of the party he founded, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI.Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Haider Panjutha, told reporters after their meeting Monday that Khan was in good spirits and maintaining “a high morale” despite the harsh conditions at the prison, which is known for holding convicted ...

Trio of missing hikers who set out on treacherous ridge in Scottish Highlands found dead

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

GLEN COE, Scotland (AP) — The bodies of three missing hikers were recovered from a mountain in the Scottish Highlands after they didn’t return from a notoriously difficult scramble on the narrowest ridge crest in Britain, police said Monday. The trio set out Saturday in Glen Coe to hike the Aonach Eagach, a 6-mile (10-kilometer) knife-edge ridge that tops out at 3,600 feet (1,100 meters) and has precipitous drops. A search began after sunset when they didn’t return, Police Scotland said. A Coastguard helicopter flying in fog and mist located the bodies and a search and rescue crew returned Sunday morning to recover them. The deaths did not appear to be suspicious but a report will be given to the office that investigates deaths and prosecutes crimes, police said.While storm Antoni lashed parts of the U.K. on Saturday with strong winds and heavy rain, the forecast in the Highlands was for light rain in the afternoon and temperatures as low as 41 degrees (5 celsius) at 6 p...

Thousands in Haiti march to demand safety from violent gangs as killings and kidnappings soar

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Several thousand people — their faces covered to conceal their identities — marched through Haiti’s capital on Monday demanding protection from violent gangs who are pillaging neighborhoods in the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond.Haitians’ daily lives have been disrupted by incessant gang violence that has worsened poverty across the country as it awaits a decision from the U.N. Security Council over a potential deployment of an international armed force.“We want security!” the crowd chanted as it marched for two hours from the troubled community of Carrefour-Feuilles to Champ de Mars in the downtown area and then to the prime minister’s official residence, where police broke up the demonstration with tear gas.“I can’t work. I can’t go out. I’m like a prisoner in my own home,” said Wilene Joseph, a 36-year-old street vendor and mother of two who joined the march out of frustration.“I worry about my kids being shot because bullets are flying ...

Ex-student accused in California stabbing deaths is mentally unfit for trial

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 12:48:38 GMT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The criminal case against a former Northern California university student accused of several stabbings is on hold after prosecutors agreed that he is incompetent to stand trial for charges related to the attacks, which killed two people, wounded a third and terrorized a peaceful college town.The judge dismissed jurors in Carlos Dominguez’s competency trial Monday, which would have been the fifth day of testimony, after county prosecutors informed the court last week they no longer planned to fight the defense by Dominguez’s attorney that he was not mentally fit for trial.A determination of incompetency means Dominguez cannot currently understand court proceedings, assist his attorney in his defense and understand his own status in the criminal proceeding. Yolo Superior Court Judge Samuel McAdam last week ordered the defendant to receive medication over Dominguez’s objections, ruling he was a danger to himself and others without it. Three medical experts te...