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South Africa Announces National Healthcare

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Aug. 12 (UPI) — South Africa’s government has announced plans to introduce a universal healthcare scheme to be phased in nationally in the next 14 years. South Africa is one of the world’s most unequal societies where quality healthcare is available only in the private sector, analysts said. More than 80 percent […]

Drinking Water Shortage In China Drought

BEIJING, Aug. 12 (UPI) — Officials in China say nearly 2 million people are short of drinking water in an ongoing drought in the country’s southwest Guizhou province. Provincial officials said rainfall since early July has been almost 70 percent less than normal and people in 84 of the province’s cities and counties were suffering […]

Texas Dog Retrieves Hand Of Dead Man

BROWNSVILLE, Texas, Aug. 12 (UPI) — A family dog in Texas returned home with a severed hand, leading authorities to discover the body of a suspected illegal immigrant, police said. Police were called to a Mission, Texas, home after the family’s black Labrador retriever came home Thursday with the hand, the San Antonio Express-News reported. […]

Ex-Nasdaq Executive Gets Prison

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) — Donald Johnson, a former managing director of the Nasdaq over-the-counter stock market, was sentenced Friday to 42 months in a U.S. prison for insider trading. Johnson, 57, of Ashburn, Va., was also ordered to forfeit more than $750,000, the Department of Justice said. He pleaded guilty in the eastern district […]

Anthony Ordered To Serve Probation

ORLANDO, Fla., Aug. 12 (UPI) — A Florida judge imposed one year of probation on Casey Anthony for check-fraud, saying it was clear the sentence was to be served after she was freed from jail. Anthony was acquitted last month of murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee and freed from jail. Her […]

Study Shows Depression, Stroke Link

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 12 (UPI) — Depressed women have a greater risk of stroke than non-depressed women and those who take antidepressants face an even higher risk, U.S. researchers say. A Harvard University study found women with a history of depression have a 29 percent greater risk of having a stroke and those taking antidepressants, […]

Alleged Rioter Was Olympic Ambassador

LONDON, Aug. 12 (UPI) — British parents who called police when they saw their 18-year-old daughter participating in London riots said the girl is an Olympics ambassador. Adrienne Ives, 43, said she and her husband, Roger, 54, saw their daughter, Chelsea, 18, damaging a police car during news footage of the riots, The Sun reported […]

CIA Disputes Civilian Drone Death Claims

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) — The U.S. government Friday disputed reports its drones in Pakistan have killed hundreds of civilians, including more than 160 children. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in London this week said the CIA’s counter-terror drone program has killed 385 civilians, 168 of them children, in 291 strikes since 2004. The CIA […]

NASA Forms New Directorate

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) — U.S. space agency NASA is creating a directorate that will focus on International Space Station operations and human exploration beyond low Earth orbit. The organization — the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate — combines the Space Operations and Exploration Systems mission directorates. “America is opening a bold new chapter […]

Court Rejects Mandatory Health Insurance

ATLANTA, Aug. 12 (UPI) — An appeals court in Atlanta said Friday President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law overstepped its boundaries and was, in part, unconstitutional. The 2-1 panel vote at the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which directly contrasts with a ruling in Cincinnati, said the federal mandate that requires individuals to either […]