A California jury in a Humboldt County courthouse ordered nursing home operator Skilled Healthcare (SH) to pay $671 million (about €531 million) in a class action lawsuit from patients of SH's 22 California facilities and their families. The jury found that SH failed to properly staff its facilities to comply with California state law.
The jury has not heard the case for punitive damages; however, it awarded the plaintiffs $613 million (about €484 million) in statutory damages. The remaining $58 million (about €46 million) was in restitution.
Senator Robert Byrd, the longest serving member of the United States Congress, died yesterday at the age of 92.
A spokesman for the Democratic Senator from the state of West Virginia said Byrd had been hospitalized since last week. At first he was thought to have been suffering from heat exhaustion and severe dehydration but other medical conditions developed. On Sunday, his condition was described as "serious".
Byrd was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1952 and to the U.S. Senate in 1958. He suffered from ill health in
A 6-year-old boy and his father were shot and killed Saturday afternoon while eating inside a busy Del Taco fast food restaurant in San Bernadino, California, before the shooter turned a gun on himself.
According to the San Bernadino Police Department, 56-year-old Jimmy Schlager arrived at the Del Taco at 1:15pm PST (2015 UTC) on a bicycle, and, armed with two semi-automatic guns, entered the restaurant and opened fire on a family of four who were dining together. The employees and other customers all ran out of the restaurant and escaped with
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) issued a statement today calling for an end to Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip which it calls a "...collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel's obligations under international humanitarian law."
The statement gives an overview of what the Red Cross views as a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The ICRC describes how the blockade has seriously impoverished the people of Gaza, as well as denying them basic access to housing, food and health care. The ICRC claims the blockade has
According to a spokesman for the Kyrgyzstan's ministry of health's press-service, at least 97 people have been confirmed dead from recent ethnic clashes between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks. Meanwhile, thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have fled to the border with Uzbekistan to escape the ongoing violence.
"Currently, in the regions of Osh and Jhalalabad, 97 people have died. A further 1247 have been hospitalised," a spokeswoman commented. Some reports caution that the actual death toll might be higher than the figures announced.
The violence, now in its third
Hungarian food critic Egon Ronay, who was associated to British eateries, died on Saturday morning. He was known for publishing guidebooks, popularizing the concept of restaurant reviews.
Ronay was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1915, but he left the country due to World War II. He departed and has lived in London since October 10, 1946. Ronay was able to work in many hotels and restaurants, such as Princess Restaurant in Piccadilly.
He was also a contributor to the Daily Telegraph and editor for its food column. Ronay published the book Egon R
Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in Essex, England, United Kingdom, has been fined £50,000 (US$71,952, €60,326, A$87,614, C$75,660) after a severely disabled patient at Basildon University Hospital died because of serious health and safety failings. Basildon Crown Court also ordered the trust to pay costs of £40,000 (US$57,552, €48,250, A$70,022, C$60,486).
20-year-old Kyle Flack, who came from Stanford-le-Hope in Essex, was deafblind and suffered from quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, and substantial learning diff
Reports suggest the World Health Organisation's declaring a swine flu pandemic was an error driven by drug companies, and lead to unjustified fear. A year after the swine flu pandemic was declared, stocks are left unused and governments try to abandon contracts, pharmaceutical companies have profited at least £4.6billion from the sale of vaccines alone.
Reports by the British Medical Journal (BMJ), the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ) and the Council of Europe claim that The World Health Organisation reaction to H1N1 was influenced by
Lead poisoning has taken the lives of at least 163 individuals in the northern Nigerian state of Zamfara in recent weeks. Sometime during March residents of remote villages began illegally mining gold in areas of high lead concentration. There have been a total of 355 reported cases, setting the fatality rate at 46%.
According to Henry Akpan, chief epidemiologist at Nigeria's Ministry of Health, 111 of the 163 recorded deaths have been children, many only several years old. Akpan further said that officials had seen young children playing in c
The World Health Organisation says that the H1N1 influenza virus, although not as intense as it has been in the past, still poses a threat and the pandemic is not yet over.
Margaret Chan, the organisation's director, commented that the pandemic alert level will remain at six, the highest possible rating. She noted that the WHO may look at the situation again in July and see if a revision is necessary then.
An emergency committee consisting of fifteen advisors stated that countries should remain on the lookout for the pandemic, and encouraged
Israel plans to release all of the activists it arrested in its raid on ships traveling to the Gaza Strip in an effort to provide aid sometime today, as it comes under fire for its actions in the incident.
By Wednesday morning, around 120 people had been deported of the 682 that were arrested, with the remainder planned to be expelled from Israel within 24 hours. Although some reports indicated that more had died, it's now believed that only nine people were killed in the Israeli attack on the convoy, although one witness put the death toll a
Canadian researchers from C-crest Laboratories have discovered an "unusually high" amount of bacteria in bottled water. Researchers don't blame specific brands, but bottled water in general.
A random study found unusually high rates of heterotrophic bacteria in the bottled water, more than 500 cfu, the legal limit set by United States Pharmacopeia on how much bacteria should be present in drinking water in Canada. Unusually high amounts of bacteria were present in 70% of the test samples across several brands of bottled water. “Heterotrophic
