Old Home Remedies

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Acorda Therapeutics Inc. (ACOR) received the support of a Food and Drug Administration panel for its multiple sclerosis drug, increasing confidence in the drug’s approval and sending shares up 53% to $25.62 in premarket trading Thursday.

The stock, which was halted all day Wednesday, dropped 21% last Friday after the panel’s briefing documents raised questions about the effectiveness of the drug, but the panel voted strongly in favor of that question, among others. Fampridine-SR, which improves walking in patients with multiple sclerosis, is expected to be approved by early next year. (more…)

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) — Among women with locally advanced breast cancer who undergo the same class of chemotherapy, race doesn’t affect the odds of having no sign of disease at surgery, a new study finds.

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Having no sign of the disease is considered a good sign that bodes well for a woman’s prognosis, although it’s not a guarantee that the cancer has vanished for good, the study authors noted. (more…)

(CNN) — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new bill into law Sunday that will fine paparazzi for taking photos that invade a celebrity’s right to privacy. The law also targets media outlets who purchase the photos.

Singer Britney Spears’ run-ins with paparazzi took center stage a few years ago when she took an umbrella to a photographer’s SUV.

1 of 2 Throngs of photographers often jockey to get the perfect shot of a celebrity, but that doesn’t mean it’s welcomed. Britney Spears famously had enough one night, taking an umbrella to a photographer’s SUV. (more…)

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. John Kerry said Tuesday he will offer a new explanation and clarification of a $7.5-billion Pakistan aid bill that has prompted a firestorm of anti-American sentiment inside Pakistan.

A member of an Islamic fundamentalist party protests the aid bill October 2 in Pakistan.

Opponents say the United States is meddling in Pakistani affairs. (more…)

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Supreme Court will delve into the shadowy world of sadomasochism next year as it looks into the case of a sex trafficker, known as the “S&M Svengali,” whose criminal conviction had been set aside.

The Supreme Court will hear a case next year involving a sadomasochism Web site.

The justices Tuesday agreed to accept the government’s appeal of a case involving Glenn Marcus, who had been sentenced to nine years in prison for the sexual abuse, physical mutilation and psychological humiliation of a woman who had agreed to be photographed as his “sex slave.” (more…)

This story contains graphic depictions that may be disturbing to some readers.

Most girls who engage in compensated dating don’t view themselves as prostitutes, a social worker says.

HONG KONG, China (CNN) — She doesn’t want to be identified, except by her nickname “Sze,” and she has a secret past. Her father doesn’t know what she did as a 16-year-old, and she hopes he never finds out. But Sze, now 19, wants young girls to hear her story so they never make the same mistake.

“My first customer was an ordinary man in his 40s. We skipped the dinner part and went straight to the guest house for sex,” Sze recalled. “Actually, I was a bit scared, but I knew this was the only way I could get money. This customer wasn’t bad, though. We just had sex, he paid, and then he left. I thought this was easy money, and that’s why I continued doing this kind of thing.” (more…)

NEW DELHI, India (CNN) — The economic might of India may bring to mind technological savvy and overseas call centers. But to understand the Indian economy, a visit to a roadside dentist like Raj Kishore is more illuminating.

The Indian economy is fueled by independent workers such as Radha Kumar.

1 of 2 “I can extract, I can fill up, I can scale, I can make dentures, I can make bridge metal or non-metal.” Kishore said as he fitted dentures for a customer.

One thing he can’t do is show a license to practice — like many roadside dentists sitting on sidewalks awaiting customers. (more…)

This was Barack Obama’s chance.

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Susan Etheridge for The New York Times

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Here was an opportunity to cut himself free, in a stroke, from the baggage that’s weighed his presidency down — the implausible expectations, the utopian dreams, the messianic hoo-ha. (more…)

The Nobel committee did President Obama no favors by prematurely awarding him its peace prize. As he himself acknowledged, he has not done anything yet on the scale that would normally merit such an award — and it dismays me that the most important prize in the world has been devalued in this way.

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Thomas L. Friedman

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Times Topics: Nobel PrizesIt is not the president’s fault, though, that the Europeans are so relieved at his style of leadership, in contrast to that of his predecessor, that they want to do all they can to validate and encourage it. I thought the president showed great grace in accepting the prize not for himself but “as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.” (more…)

TORONTO — For two months Ehsan Maleki traveled around Iran with a backpack containing his cameras, a few pieces of clothing and his laptop computer, taking pictures of the reformist candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi during the presidential campaign. He did not know that his backpack and his cameras would soon become his only possessions, or that he would be forced to crawl out of the country hiding in a herd of sheep.

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Ehsan Maleki
Ehsan Maleki, a photographer, is one of many journalists leaving Iran in the wake of the disputed June presidential election.

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Times Topics: IranMr. Maleki, 29, is one of dozens of reporters, photographers and bloggers who have either fled Iran or are trying to flee in the aftermath of the disputed June presidential election. Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organization that promotes press freedom and monitors the safety of journalists, said the number of journalists leaving Iran was the largest since the years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. (more…)