The Horn News

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Melatonin poisoning is up in kids, study says

Researchers are drawing attention to a rise in poisonings in children involving the sleep aid melatonin — including a big jump during the pandemic. Last year, U.S. poison control centers received more than 52,000 calls about children consuming worrisome amounts of the dietary supplement — a six-fold increase from about… Read More

WHO calls out North Korean regime

A top official at the World Health Organization said the U.N. health agency assumes the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea is “getting worse, not better,” despite the secretive country’s recent claims that COVID-19 is slowing there. At a briefing on Wednesday, WHO’s emergencies chief Dr. Mike Ryan appealed to North… Read More

Needle attacks at nightclub puzzle police

Across France, more than 300 people have reported being pricked out of the blue with needles at nightclubs or concerts in recent months. Doctors and multiple prosecutors are on the case, but no one knows who’s doing it or why, and whether the victims have been injected with drugs —… Read More

New genetic experiment shrinks tough-to-treat cancer

In a novel experiment, a woman with advanced pancreatic cancer saw her tumors dramatically shrink after researchers in Oregon turbocharged her own immune cells, highlighting a possible new way to someday treat a variety of cancers. Kathy Wilkes isn’t cured but said what’s left of her cancer has shown no… Read More

Experts warn of a busy hurricane season

Batten down the hatches for another nasty hurricane season. Nearly every natural force and a bunch of human-caused ones — more than just climate change — have turned the last several Atlantic hurricane seasons into deadly and expensive whoppers. The season that starts Wednesday looks like another note in a… Read More

Mexico bans all sales of e-cigarettes

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a decree Tuesday outlawing the sale of e-cigarettes, continuing the government’s anti-vaping policy. Mexico had already prohibited imports of the devices since at least October. And even before that, consumer protection and other laws had been used to discourage sales. Surprise! Eggs do… Read More

Coal ash workers succumb to illness as lawsuit drags

In 2013, the first of more than 200 workers who labored to clean up the nation’s worst coal ash spill filed a suit against the contractor, blaming Jacobs Engineering for illnesses they believe were caused by exposure to heavy metals and radioactive particles in the ash. Nearly a decade later,… Read More

Shanghai rebounds toward normalcy as restrictions ease

Traffic, pedestrians and joggers reappeared on the streets of Shanghai on Wednesday as China’s largest city began returning to normalcy amid the easing of a strict two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has drawn unusual protests over its heavy-handed implementation. Shanghai’s Communist Party committee, the city’s most powerful political body, issued a… Read More

Facing uncertainty, WHO quells fears of a monkeypox pandemic

The World Health Organization’s top monkeypox expert said she doesn’t expect the hundreds of cases reported to date to turn into another pandemic, but acknowledged there are still many unknowns about the disease, including how exactly it’s spreading and whether the suspension of mass smallpox immunization decades ago may somehow… Read More

Breaking: Shanghai to end two-month COVID lockdown

Shanghai authorities say they will take major steps Wednesday toward reopening China’s largest city after a two-month COVID-19 lockdown that has set back the national economy and largely confined millions of people to their homes. Full bus and subway service will be restored, as will basic rail connections with the… Read More