More Int'l News in brief

Stroke risk tied to cold, humidity, weather swings

AP :

There may be a link between weather and the risk of suffering a stroke, say researchers who analysed climate trends and hospital records on millions of Americans.

Cold weather, high humidity and big daily temperature swings seem to land more people in the hospital with strokes. As it got warmer, risk fell - three per cent for every five degrees, the study found.

"Maybe some of these meteorological factors serve as a trigger," said Judith Lichtman, a Yale University stroke researcher who led the study. With global climate change and extreme weather like this week's freak storm in the South, "this could be increasingly important," she said.

Each year, about 800,000 Americans have a stroke. Most are due to clots that block a blood vessel to the brain, and high blood pressure is a major risk factor.

Some earlier studies found a seasonal trend to stroke rates, and there are biological reasons to think they are related, said one independent expert, Dr Andrew Stemer, a neurologist at Georgetown University.

Blood vessels constrict in cold weather, which can raise blood pressure, he said. Extreme weather can trigger a stress reaction by the body, causing it to release substances "that not only increase the work of the heart, but make blood stickier and more likely to clot", Stemer said.

Long journey ends at homefor Salvadoran fisherman

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP):

A fisherman who says he drifted at sea for more than a year has finally made it home to El Salvador, exhausted and speechless.

José Salvador Alvarenga tried to address a media throng waiting at the airport, eager to fill in details about what many people have viewed as a fish tale: a man tossed 6,500 miles (10,500 kilometers) across the Pacific in a small boat from Mexico to the Marshall Islands, surviving on raw fish, turtles and bird blood.

But when handed the microphone at the San Salvador airport late Tuesday, Alvarenga could only put his hands to his face, appearing to cry.

Wearing a dark blue T-shirt, khaki trousers and tennis shoes, the 37-year-old left the airport in a wheelchair and was taken by ambulance to the National Hospital San Rafael, where he was greeted by a daughter, who didn't remember him, and a mother who had thought he was dead after not hearing from him for years.

Dr Yeerles Ramirez described the reunions as emotional, and said that according to medical tests so far, "the prognosis is very good."

Nebraska city votes to keep illegal immigration rules

FREMONT, Nebraska (AP):

Residents of a small Nebraska city have reaffirmed their desire to take on illegal immigration.

Nearly 60 per cent of Fremont voters decided Tuesday to keep an ordinance that requires all renters to swear they have legal permission to live in the United States, a move that will likely push the city back into the forefront of the nation's immigration debate.

Local voters first approved the rules by a smaller margin in 2010. Critics had pushed for the new vote, saying the housing restrictions would be ineffective and might cost Fremont millions of dollars in legal fees and lost federal grants. They also said it was hurting the city's image.

But it wasn't enough to sway voters in the conservative agricultural hub near Omaha.

Fremont is one of only a handful of cities trying to restrict illegal immigration and, like those other cities, has found itself mired in court fights because of the regulations. City leaders put the ordinance on hold after the 2010 vote while courts reviewed it.