■UNITED STATES
Petraeus treated for cancer
General David Petraeus, commander of US forces in the Middle East and Central Asia, was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year, but underwent “successful” treatment for the illness, his office said on Tuesday. Petraeus, 56, chose not to go public with his condition at first because he considered it a personal matter and because it did not interfere with his performance of his duties, the general’s spokesman at Central Command, Colonel Erik Gunhus, said in a statement. “General Petraeus was diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer in February” and had two months of radiation treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, he said.
■UNITED STATES
EPA sets rules for airlines
Government regulators on Tuesday issued final rules requiring airlines to test and disinfect the tap water served to passengers and used in plane lavatories, an attempt to remedy bacteria contamination found in onboard water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules set out schedules for how frequently airlines must flush and disinfect the water systems on planes and test for coliform bacteria. Coliform are usually not harmful, but they are considered an indicator of the presence of disease-causing germs. The schedules vary: Airlines that test water quality frequently don not have to disinfect and flush as often; those that test less often must disinfect and flush more frequently.
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Taylor heads for hospital
Elizabeth Taylor said she was headed to the hospital for a heart procedure. The 77-year-old actress told her followers on Twitter that she is to undergo a “very new” procedure to improve heart function that “involves repairing my leaky valve using a clip device” rather than open-heart surgery. “Any prayers you happen to have lying around I would dearly appreciate,” Taylor wrote on Tuesday, adding that she plans to inform her 157,389 Twitter followers when the procedure is complete. She did not say when or where she is having treatment.
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‘Robin Hood’ gets jail
A Michigan bank manager who insists she gave the US$340,000 she stole over eight years to needy customers was sentenced on Tuesday to a year and a day in prison by a judge who declared that her “Robin Hood days are long over.” Patricia Keezer, 53, said the embezzling began in 2000, when she would give needy people US$2,000 at a time for car repairs, mortgage payments and taxes. Keezer commonly reversed bounced-check charges and other fees when she was a manager of Citizens Bank, formerly known as Republic Bank, in Manchester, 112km southwest of Detroit. “I would take other people’s problems and make them my problems,” Keezer told the judge. “I do have a problem with giving things away.”
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