NETHERLANDS
Study raises breast cancer alarm
Any spread of the disease to lymph nodes increases risk of return, researchers find
Breast cancer patients with even the tiniest spread of the disease to a lymph node have a much higher risk of it recurring years later and may need more treatment than just surgery, new research suggests.
For years, doctors and patients have struggled with what to do about a microscopic tumor or stray cancer cells in a lymph node. Women with “micro-tumors” are usually given estrogen-blocking drugs, chemotherapy or both; those with isolated cancer cells usually are not, because those were thought to be of low concern.
The new study challenges that view. It suggests that either type of metastasis, or spread, raises a woman’s risk of having cancer show up in the breast or anywhere else in the next five years by about 50 percent.
The study was done by researchers throughout the Netherlands and is in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
The study just observed more than 2,700 women rather than assigning some to get treatment and comparing how they fared to others who were not treated.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
16 honored as ‘agents of change’
President Barack Obama places a Presidential Medal of Freedom around the neck of Chief Joe Medicine Crow on Wednesday at the White House. Also among the 16 recipients were Sidney Poitier, Rev. Joseph Lowery, Billie Jean King, Sandra Day O’Connor, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Stephen Hawking and University of Chicago professor Dr. Janet Davison Rowley.
PAKISTAN
70 dead in fierce battle
DERA ISMAIL KHAN — Fierce clashes between Taliban fighters and those loyal to a pro-government warlord killed at least 70 people Wednesday, intelligence officials said.
The battles pit Taliban militants against followers of tribal warlord Turkistan Bittani on the fringes of the South Waziristan border region.
Pakistan’s army sent in helicopter gunships as reinforcements to pound about 300 Taliban fighters attacking Bittani’s mountain stronghold, officials said. The fighting raged for five hours, with militants using rockets, mortars and anti-aircraft guns.
It was impossible to independently confirm the death toll, as the fighting was taking place in an area that is off-limits to journalists.
CAUCASUS
Putin: Fortress Abkhazia
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin traveled to the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Wednesday and pledged to strengthen Russia’s military presence there, defying U.S. and European objections amid simmering tensions in the region.
Speaking on the anniversary of his nation’s victory over Georgia in a five-day war last year, Putin said the Kremlin planned to spend nearly $500million to build a base in the separatist enclave and reinforce its de facto border with Georgia.
“It won’t be a Maginot line,” Putin said, referring to the fortifications France built against Germany before World War II.
His remarks in Abkhazia underscored Russia’s growing foothold in what once was Georgian territory and highlighted differences between Moscow and Washington despite the Obama administration’s efforts to “reset” bilateral relations.
ISRAEL
‘White flag’ deaths alleged
JERUSALEM — Israeli soldiers battling Hamas militants last winter in Gaza opened fire on at least seven groups of Palestinian civilians who were carrying white flags, killing 11 people, Human Rights Watch said in a report released Thursday.
During the three-week conflict, the U.S.-based human-rights group says, Israeli soldiers in separate parts of Gaza killed five women, four children and two men as they used white flags to try to escape the battle zone.
In its report, Human Rights Watch concludes that the research “strongly indicates that, at the least, Israeli soldiers failed to take all feasible precautions to distinguish between civilians and combatants before opening fire, as required by the laws of war.”
“At worst,” the group says, “the soldiers deliberately shot at persons known to be civilians.”
Philippines
Military, extremists clash
MANILA — A Philippine general says 23 soldiers have been killed in fierce clashes that also left at least 20 Al Qaeda-linked militants dead in the country’s restive south.
Regional military commander Maj. Gen. Benjamin Dolorfino said about 400 army, marine and police commandos launched simultaneous, predawn attacks Wednesday on two Abu Sayyaf extremist group encampments on Basilan Island, sparking fierce fighting that continued to rage late in the day.
Dolorfino said Thursday that 20 marines and three soldiers, including two officers, were killed in the clashes.
Military officials say troops targeted Abu Sayyaf chieftains Khair Mundus and Furuji Indama, but it was not clear whether they were among the slain.
