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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2016
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Four killed on river rapids ride
at Australian theme park
Pediatricians: Babies should
sleep in same room as parents
SAN FRANCISCO — The American Academy of Pediat-
rics is calling for infants to be kept in their parents’ bedroom
at night for six months to a year to reduce the risk of sleep-re-
lated death.
The new recommendations say babies should sleep on a sep-
arate surface, in a crib or bassinet, and never on something soft.
The guidelines say babies should sleep in the same room as
their parents, preferably until they’re a year old. The nation’s
most influential pediatricians’ group says it updated its safe-
sleep guidance because of studies suggesting that room-sharing
reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome by as much
as 50 percent.
For two decades, the academy has advocated that babies
be placed on their backs for sleeping to reduce risks of SIDS.
Other recommendations include: avoiding bed-sharing; use
of crib bumpers, blankets, pillows and soft toys; using paci-
fiers; and breastfeeding. But SIDS cases have plateaued at
3,500 unexplained deaths each year in the U.S., prompting the
updated advice released Monday.
Noting that SIDS’ risks are highest in the first six months,
the academy says room-sharing but not bed-sharing is most
likely to prevent suffocation that can occur when infants sleep
with their parents.
“Placing the crib close to the parents’ bed so that the infant
is within view and reach can facilitate feeding, comforting, and
monitoring of the infant,” the academy says.
Presidential race turns to
Florida with voting underway
TAMPA, Florida — With the race for the White House speed-
ing to an end, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are campaign-
ing today in swing state Florida, where tens of thousands of vot-
ers are already flocking to the polls.
Trump, on the final day of a three-day Florida swing, has been
denouncing the “disgusting” media that promotes “phony polls”
showing him trailing Clinton in this and other battleground states.
“The media isn’t just against me. They’re against all of you,”
Trump told cheering supporters Monday in St. Augustine. He
added, “I believe we’re actually winning.”
Trump, who must win Florida to have any chance at the 270
electoral votes needed to win the presidency, is scheduled to
attend three Florida campaign events. Clinton, who can win the
presidency with or without Florida, is making just one appear-
ance, in the southern part of the state.
Her confidence surging, Clinton is also eyeing a new Demo-
cratic majority in the Senate. Her campaign has been attacking
Republican Senate candidates in Florida and New Hampshire.
On Monday, the Democratic nominee campaigned alongside
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, who is locked in a tight
Senate race against Republican incumbent Kelly Ayotte. They
got an assist from Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who was
merciless as she seized on recent revelations of Trump’s preda-
tory sexual language and several allegations of sexual assault.
“He thinks that because he has a mouth full of Tic Tacs, he
can force himself on any woman within groping distance,” War-
ren charged. “I’ve got news for you Donald: Women have had it
with guys like you.”
Trump, in an interview with WGIR radio in New Hampshire,
called the accusations “total fiction.” He lashed out at his latest
accuser, former adult film performer Jessica Drake, who said Sat-
urday that he had grabbed and kissed her without permission and
offered her money to visit his hotel room a decade ago.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
Keyshla Rivera smiles at her newborn son Jesus as reg-
istered nurse Christine Weick demonstrates a baby box
before her discharge from Temple University Hospital in
Philadelphia in May. The American Academy of Pediatrics
announced new recommendations for safe infant sleep-
ing Monday. They call for parents to keep infants in the
same bedroom as them at night for six months to a year
in order to lessen the risk of sleep-related death.
Surfer bitten by shark at beach;
says ‘came out of nowhere’
HONOLULU — A surfer says he’s grateful to be recovering
in a Maui hospital after a shark bit him — even though the attack
forced him and his wife to postpone their honeymoon.
Federico Jaime was surfing Friday at a beach about two blocks
from his Paia home when he felt a shark chomp down on his left
arm, he recalled Monday from his room at Maui Memorial Medi-
cal Center.
“It just came out of nowhere,” he said. “I saw the shark right in
my face. It grabbed my arm— my left arm. It was really violent.”
He knew he had been bitten. “I could see my arm was pretty
much destroyed,” Jaime said. “I hit it with my hands and my legs. I
don’t know what I did.”
Then, he said, he felt something pull on his left leg. At the time,
he didn’t realize the shark had bit him a second time.
Jaime, who was supposed to leave for a Tahiti honeymoon
on Saturday, started screaming. Nearby surfers helped get him to
shore. One of them used a surfboard leash as a tourniquet.
How autism in girls may help
reveal the disorder’s secrets
CHICAGO — Think autism and an image of an awkward boy
typically emerges, but the way autism strikes girls — or doesn’t
— may help reveal some of the developmental disorder’s frustrat-
ing secrets.
Autism is at least four times more common in boys, but sci-
entists taking a closer look are finding some gender-based sur-
prises: Many girls with autism have social skills that can mask the
condition. And some girls do not show symptoms of autism even
when they have the same genetic mutations seen in boys with the
condition.
“Autism may not be the same thing in boys and girls,” said Kevin
Pelphrey, an autism researcher at George Washington University.
The causes of autism aren’t known. Genetic mutations are
thought to play a role, and outside factors including older par-
ents and premature birth also have been implicated. But the gen-
der effect is now a hot topic in autism research and one that could
lead to new ways of diagnosing and treating a condition that
affects at least 1 in 68 U.S. children.
SYDNEY — Four people were killed today in an accident at a
popular theme park on Australia’s east coast, officials said.
Two men and two women died while on a river rapids ride
at Dreamworld, a park on Queensland state’s Gold Coast,
Queensland police officer Todd Reid told reporters.
The Thunder River Rapids ride whisks people in circular rafts
along a fast-moving, man-made river. A malfunction caused two
people to be ejected from their raft, while two others were caught
inside the ride, said Gavin Fuller, an officer with the Queensland
Ambulance Service. He did not know whether the two victims
who were caught in the ride were trapped under water, or caught
up in the machinery.
Park staffers administered first aid to the victims, but their
injuries proved fatal, Fuller told reporters.
The victims were in their 30s and early 40s, he said.
Militants attack Pakistan
police academy, killing 59
QUETTA, Pakistan — Militants wearing suicide vests
stormed a Pakistani police academy in the southwestern city of
Quetta overnight, killing at least 59 people, mostly police cadets
and recruits, and waging a ferocious gunbattle with troops that
lasted into early hours today.
Pakistani officials feared the death toll could rise further, as
the four-hours-long siege — one of the deadliest attacks on Paki-
stan’s security forces in recent years — left 117 wounded, some
of them in critical condition.
The assault caught many of the recruits asleep in their dorms
and forced cadets and trainers to jump off rooftops and run for
their lives to escape the attackers.
By mid-day today, conflicting claims of responsibility
emerged. The Islamic State group, which is waging war in Syria
and Iraq where it has declared a self-styled caliphate, posted a
claim on the group’s media arm, the Arabic-language Aamaq
news agency. It said three IS fighters killed 60 police recruits
in Quetta but the claim was not confirmed by Pakistani officials
and IS did not offer any previously unknown details about the
assault.
Earlier, a little-known breakaway faction of the Pakistani Tal-
iban, known as the Hakimullah group, also issued a statement
claiming responsibility for the attack. Pakistani officials, doubt-
ing the group’s capabilities in staging such a coordinated and
spectacular assault, also could not confirm that claim.
Iraqi forces battle IS in
western town, far from Mosul
BAGHDAD — Iraqi forces, backed by U.S.-led coalition air-
strikes, battled Islamic State militants for a third day today in
a remote western town, hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the
south of the operation to retake Mosul, U.S. and Iraqi officials
said.
The clashes underway in Rutba, in Iraq’s western Anbar prov-
ince, are apparently part of the extremist group’s tactics to divert
attention — as well as Iraqi and coalition resources — from the
battle to retake Mosul from Islamic State militants.
“Fighting is ongoing in Rutba, which is still contested,” said
Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition.
“The coalition continues conducting strikes to support the
Iraqi security forces’ response efforts, including one against a
Daesh convoy that was attempting to flee the area,” he added,
referring to IS by an Arabic acronym.
Looking out for
No. 2: Dogs sniff
out fecal pollution
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press
FAIR HAVEN, N.J. —
Some specially trained dogs
are helping humans curb
themselves.
A company that has trained
dogs to recognize the smell of
human fecal bacteria has been
sniffing out sources of water
pollution nationwide, discov-
ering broken sewer pipes, leak-
ing septic tanks and illegal sew-
age discharges, to the delight of
environmental groups and gov-
ernment agencies.
Conventional water sam-
pling tests take 24 hours at a
laboratory, and often must be
duplicated to ensure their accu-
racy. Testing of sewer systems
with dye or smoke takes days
and is costly. But the dogs give
an instant yes-or-no indication
as to whether a particular loca-
tion is contaminated with the
bacteria.
Using dogs rescued from
shelters and specially trained to
detect human waste in the same
way other dogs are trained to
sniff out drugs or explosives,
the dogs of Otisfield, Maine-
based Environmental Canine
Services are always looking out
for No. 2.
“I could make a lot of jokes
about what kind of job this is,
but I won’t,” said Scott Reyn-
olds, who runs the company
with his wife, Karen. “They
alert us to the presence of
human-specific bacteria, E.
coli, poop, whatever you want
to call it.”
Serious problem
Human fecal contamina-
tion is a serious environmen-
tal problem that can cause ill-
nesses including intestinal
problems; hepatitis; respiratory
infections; and ear, nose, and
throat problems. Contamina-
tion from the E. coli bacterium,
naturally occurring in human
intestines, becomes dangerous
if it is present in the environ-
ment in high enough concen-
trations. It is the leading cause
of beach and waterway closures
in the U.S., and tracking down
the source of such pollution is a
high priority for local and state
governments.
One recent day, two of the
company’s dogs sniffed the
edges of a pond near the New
Jersey shore in Fair Haven,
where polluted runoff was
helping to choke the pond
with thick algae that covered
it with a green scum. Envi-
ronmental groups including
Clean Ocean Action, along
with the local government,
hired the company to determine
whether any sewage was mak-
ing its way into the pond, which
feeds into the nearby Navesink
River, a waterway having its
own problems with bacterial
contamination.
Sable, a 10-year-old Ger-
man shepherd-husky mix
Reynolds rescued from a shel-
ter, and Remi, a 3-year-old
black Lab mix they found as a
stray, were put to work. They
sniffed the shoreline and found
nothing amiss.
“Just as important as what
you find is what you don’t
find,” Karen Reynolds said.
The couple then took
the dogs to a nearby man-
hole, which town workers had
opened, to demonstrate what
the dogs do when they smell
human waste. Sable is trained
to bark when he smells it; Remi
is trained to sit still, and that’s
precisely what they did as soon
as they sniffed the manhole.
Their rewards: a treat for
Remi and some play time with
a tennis ball for Sable.
Time and
money.
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you both.
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