Florida

Study: Aspirin may help prevent prostate cancer

Though the evidence for it isn’t as compelling as it is for some other cancers, aspirin may modestly reduce the risk that a man will develop prostate cancer, a large new study suggests.

Men who regularly took aspirin had a 15 percent lower risk of developing prostate cancer than nonusers, and those who took two or more pills a day had 20 percent less risk, the study found.

In Wisconsin, where 4,500 new cases are projected, a 20 percent reduction “would be almost 1,000 men who wouldn’t get prostate cancer — a huge impact,” said Douglas Reding, a Marshfield Clinic cancer expert who helped conduct the nationwide study.

Results were presented at a recent meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Orlando.

California

Survey: Gasoline prices reach new record

Gasoline prices climbed 2 1/2 cents more in the past two weeks as high crude oil prices and tight capacity contributed to record prices at the pump, a national survey said Sunday.

The nationwide average in the past two weeks that ended Friday was $1.82 for all grades, said Trilby Lundberg of the Lundberg survey, which regularly polls 8,000 stations across the United States.

Gasoline prices are up 31.5 cents per gallon nationwide since late December, Lundberg said.

“The prices keep breaking their own records every week,” she said.

San Diego had the highest average price for self-serve regular, at $2.22 per gallon, up 10 cents from two weeks ago.

Demand is not expected to slow over the next few weeks as the peak summer travel approaches, crude oil prices remain around $37 per barrel, and refineries temporarily shut down their plants for maintenance.

Mexico

American firefighters assist with rescue

Mexican soldiers and American firefighters searched through debris Sunday, a day after a gas explosion killed six people and injured more than a dozen others in the border town Nuevo Progreso.

It was unclear if more people were still trapped in the rubble. Mexican authorities had received no reports of missing people but were exploring the wreckage with care in case survivors remained.

Emergency workers from the McAllen, Texas, Fire Department were helping in the search as well.

Mexican authorities said a gas leak Saturday triggered an explosion at about 8:30 a.m. that leveled a two-story cement building containing a restaurant and clothing stores. The blast also flattened a neighboring three-level shopping center.

Six people were killed by the explosion, and 14 remained hospitalized — three in critical condition, said Raul Herrera, a Nuevo Progreso police officer.

Investigators said the blast, which shattered windows along the street, appeared to be accidental.

Russia

Search for survivors continues after blast

The coal-blackened faces of exhausted rescuers and the red-rimmed eyes of anxious relatives told a grim story of disappearing hope Sunday, a day after a methane blast tore through a Siberian mine, killing at least 42 miners.

Five miners remained missing in the latest disaster to strike Russia’s hardscrabble coal country. “Most likely, they will all be corpses,” said Sergei Ovanesyan, head of a commission dealing with the disaster.

The blast occurred early Saturday about 1,840 feet down in the Taizhina mine in a coal-rich strip of western Siberia called the Kuzbass.

On Sunday, emergency officials plotted rescue and recovery strategies at one end of the mine’s Soviet-era administration building, while grieving relatives sat or milled nervously in a nearby auditorium.

Of the 42 bodies found, 36 had been retrieved and 29 of those had been identified, said officials overseeing the recovery effort.

More than 600 miners work at the mine in the city of Osinniki, according to ITAR-Tass, the Russia’s official news agency.

Moscow

Kidnapped aid worker freed in Russia

A Dutch aid worker who was kidnapped in Russia nearly two years ago was freed Sunday in a police operation in southern Russia, officials said.

Arjan Erkel, who headed the North Caucasus mission of Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, was found in the province of Dagestan, said Abdul Musayev, a spokesman for the local branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry. The Dutch Foreign Ministry confirmed Erkel’s release.

Mark Walsh, an MSF spokesman in Moscow, said the group had received a telephone call Sunday from an association of veterans of Russia’s foreign intelligence announcing that Erkel had been freed. Representatives from the aid organization flew to Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, and saw him around noon.

“It’s too early to say what state of health he’s in,” Walsh said.

No details were available about whether ransom was paid.

Boston

Kerry quiet on release of presidential briefing

Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry marked the Easter holiday at church Sunday. He ducked questions about violence in Iraq after several days spent speaking out about the situation there.

“Happy Easter,” the Massachusetts Democrat told reporters and photographers who waited for him outside the Paulist Center in the Beacon Hill section of Boston.

Aides said Kerry also would not comment on Saturday’s release of a presidential briefing document dated Aug. 6, 2001, that has fueled the debate about whether the Bush administration did enough to prevent terrorist attacks the following month that killed nearly 3,000 people.

Inside the packed church, Kerry joined other parishioners for Holy Communion. Some in the Roman Catholic faith have criticized Kerry for participating in the church rite because some of his political positions — he favors abortion rights and stem-cell research — are at odds with church teachings.