Dallas

Anglicans push for split because of gay bishop

Still seething over the impending installation of an openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church, more than 2,500 conservative clergy and parishioners will convene today to implore international Anglican leaders to disown their liberal brethren in the United States.

The meeting, organized by the conservative American Anglican Council, will call on Anglican leaders to hand over the reins of the Episcopal Church — the U.S. branch of the Anglican Communion — to the bishops who voted against the Rev. Gene Robinson’s installation as bishop-elect of New Hampshire.

The council wants church leaders to strip the Anglican franchise from the Episcopal Church. The measure would essentially create a new Anglican province.

Philadelphia

Cancer myth could stop patients from getting care

Thirty-eight percent of patients who responded to a survey in five urban clinics believed the myth that cancer spreads when exposed to air during surgery.

Doctors administered a voluntary, anonymous questionnaire to 626 patients at clinics specializing in lung diseases. The study appears in today’s Annals of Internal Medicine.

Of the 38 percent who said they believed that cancer spreads when exposed to air, 24 percent said they would reject lung cancer surgery based on that belief. Nineteen percent said they would reject surgery even if their doctor told them the belief had no scientific basis.

Washington, D.C.

Study: Two-thirds of drivers aren’t obeying stop signs

A safety group said more than two-thirds of motorists in a survey either failed to come to a complete stop at intersections or stopped only after the vehicle had entered the crosswalk, a finding the group called especially worrisome in neighborhoods where children walk to school.

The National Safe Kids Campaign said it monitored 25,660 vehicles at 288 intersections in 39 states for its study, which is being released today. Slightly more than half of the intersections were in school zones; the others were in areas with heavy child pedestrian traffic.

Thirty-seven percent of the vehicles rolled through the stop signs, while 7 percent didn’t stop at all, the survey said. Only 29 percent stopped before the crosswalk or intersection as they were supposed to.

Australia

Male contraception trial results in no pregnancies

A hormone-based contraceptive treatment for men has prevented pregnancy among 55 couples during a 12-month test, researchers said today.

The study was able to successfully and reversibly turn off sperm production in the men that took part, said Rob McLachlan, director of clinical research at Prince Henry’s Institute of Medical Research in Sydney.

Over the 12 months of the trial, the men continually took implants of testosterone and injections of progestin, a reproductive hormone. McLachlan said the risk of cancer in men taking the contraceptive would be similar to that of women on female contraception.