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  US regulators on Wednesday approved the first drug to treat obesity in 13 years, …

US regulators on Wednesday approved the first drug to treat obesity in 13 years, a drug called lorcaserin, marketed as Belviq and made by Arena Pharmaceuticals.

The drug works to control the appetite through receptors in the brain and was approved as additional therapy for certain overweight and obese patients, combined with diet and exercise.

Trials showed the drug helped people lose an average of three to 3.7 percent of their body weight after a year when compared to a placebo, the US Food and Drug Administration said.

It is approved for use in obese adults with a body mass index of 30 or greater, or overweight adults with a BMI of 27 or greater who have at least one other condition such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol.

Arena’s stock opened the day at $9 per share and jumped as high as 47 percent on news of the US approval. The company said it is also seeking approval on the European market, but has no timeline yet for a decision.

Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, described obesity as “a major public health concern,” and said the new drug offers a treatment option when used “responsibly in combination with a healthy diet and lifestyle.”

However, the FDA warned that Belviq is not for women who are pregnant or nursing, and called for further long-term postmarketing studies on the drug’s potential risks.

The label will also recommend that Belviq be discontinued in patients who fail to lose five percent of their body weight after 12 weeks of treatment.

“These patients are unlikely to achieve clinically meaningful weight loss with continued treatment,” said the FDA statement.

Belviq activates the serotonin 2C receptor in the brain, and may cause serious side effects if taken in combination with certain medications for depression and migraine that increase serotonin levels or activate serotonin receptors.

“Belviq may also cause disturbances in attention or memory,” said the FDA.

Common side-effects in patients without diabetes include headache, dizziness, fatigue, nausea, dry mouth, and constipation.

In diabetic patients, side effects may include low blood sugar, headache, back pain, cough, and fatigue.

Lorcaserin was rejected in 2010 by the Endocrinologic and Metabolic Drugs Advisory Committee, which advises the FDA, over concerns that it formed breast tumors in rats.

But those effects did not appear in trials on overweight and obese humans.

An independent advisory committee to the FDA recommended the drug be approved in May after three randomized, placebo-controlled trials of nearly 8,000 patients spanning one to two years.

“All participants received lifestyle modification that consisted of a reduced calorie diet and exercise counseling,” the FDA said.

“Compared with placebo, treatment with Belviq for up to one year was associated with average weight loss ranging from three percent to 3.7 percent.”

Some patients with type 2 diabetes experienced higher levels of weight loss, with 38 percent of these patients achieving at least five percent loss of their body weight compared to 16 percent who did the same on a placebo.

The pills will be manufactured at Arena’s facility in Zofingen, Switzerland, and will be distributed in the US by Eisai Pharmaceuticals.

Arena is headquartered in San Diego, California.

According to Michael Aziz, internist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, the biggest apparent drawback to the drug is the tiny amount of weight loss that patients experience while taking it.

“The only problem with this drug is the weight loss is so, so very low,” Aziz told AFP, remarking that a 200 pound (91 kilogram) person might lose just six pounds (2.7 kg) in a year, based on the study data.

“That is so insignificant,” he said. “I think people should also implement lifestyle changes because the fact is, people can lose one pound a week and that is perfectly healthy.”

The last anti-obesity drug approved in the United States was Xenical (Orlistat) by Roche in 1999.

Sold over the counter as Alli by GlaxoSmithKline, it works by preventing the body from absorbing fat, though its tendency to cause gastrointestinal side effects such as oily, loose stools have curbed its popularity among patients.

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Health authorities are working at tightening South Africa’s anti-smoking laws, proposing a total ban on indoor smoking and even making it illegal to puff away in open spaces such as beaches.

Stadiums, zoos, parks, outdoor eateries and beer gardens would all be affected. At beaches, smoking would only be allowed at least 50 metres from the closest person.

But before introducing any new law, the health ministry will throw open the proposals to the public in discussions next week.

It is the second time in five years that South Africa has tried to amend its legislation to make it even harder for smokers to indulge in their habit.

Even before the regulations are debated and final decisions made however, many smokers are fuming, labelling the plans as “extreme”, “shameless” and an intrusion on people’s rights.

“It’s a kind of hysteria, a kind of peculiar semi-religious fundamentalist puritanism,” said Leon Louw, director of the Free Market Foundation, a think tank pushing for an open society free of regulations.

“It’s a kind of vicious assault on other peoples’ choices and lifestyles.”

If the regulations went through they could constitute a breach of freedom and even result in job losses, the foundation suggests.

“The anti-tobacco fanatics… the nicotine nazis or nico-nazis obviously will not stop until it’s full prohibition,” he added.

In 2007, lawmakers approved a litany of changes that sought to close loopholes in the Tobacco Products Control Act of 1993.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld that law’s blanket ban on tobacco ads.

It rejected a lawsuit brought by British American Tobacco SA, which had argued that the restrictions infringed on the company’s free speech rights.

Buoyed by that case, anti-smoking lobbyists are rejoicing at the latest stringent proposals.

“It goes the next step to protect health and we think it will work practically,” said Peter Ucko, director of the National Council Against Smoking.

Pro-smoking lobbyists argue that enforcing such a broad ban would be impossible, but Ucko insisted the laws will work.

Since the 2007 regulations, “no one smokes in shopping malls anymore,” he said.

Hoteliers appear unfazed by the pending changes.

“There may be certain discomfort for restaurants and pubs, but for the hotels, I don’t think there will be an impact from the revenue point of view,” said Eddie Khosa of the Federated Hospitality Association of Southern Africa. If the changes are adopted, South Africa would become the first African country to go smoke-free.

There were some 7.7 million adult tobacco users in South Africa last year, lighting up an estimated 27 billion cigarettes, according to the Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa.

But these numbers are 30-percent down on those from 10 years ago.

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  Alberto Perez, founder of Zumba Fitness, performs on stage during a meeting in Rimini, …

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  Alberto Perez, founder of Zumba Fitness, performs on stage during a meeting in Rimini, …

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  Alberto Perez (C), founder of Zumba Fitness, performs on stage during a meeting in …

•  Photo: People practice Zumba during a meeting in Rimini, central Italy May 11, 2012. Zumba, …
•  Photo: Alberto Perez, founder of Zumba Fitness, speaks on stage during a meeting in Rimini, …

MIAMI (Reuters) – Alberto Perez started out as a street performer and then an aerobics teacher in Colombia, making extra cash on the side teaching the wives of businessmen how to dance in nightclubs in his hometown, Cali.

Today, he stands at the centre of the Zumba exercise craze, having helped transform Zumba Fitness, a private company, into a rapidly growing fitness empire with heavyweight investor backing.

“I’m not a businessman, but I knew this had the potential to be something special,” said Perez, who along with two Colombian associates founded the Miami-based company.

Zumba, a Latin dance-inspired aerobic workout, has exploded from a Miami gym phenomenon to infomercial and DVD smash hit into a global craze with some 12 million people taking classes every week in at least 125 countries. Zumba Fitness now boasts being the largest branded fitness program in the world.

Started on a shoestring budget in a Miami garage nearly 11 years ago, Zumba Fitness now has more than 200 employees, and a pair of New York investment firms are betting the craze has staying power.

What began as a company focused on fitness has evolved into a lifestyle and entertainment brand combining e-commerce, apparel and music, and a sought-after outlet for stars like hip-hop artists Pitbull and Wyclef Jean and reggaeton singer Don Omar who have turned to Zumba to promote their music.

THE ACCIDENTAL INSTRUCTOR

Zumba got its start by chance in the 1980s.

Perez, who is known as Beto, was eking out a living as a street performer and salsa and merengue nightclub dancer known for his boyish model looks and muscular physique.

One day the owner of a nearby gym called and asked if Perez could stand in for an injured aerobics teacher. He agreed – but didn’t mention he had never done aerobics and rushed out and bought a copy of Jane Fonda’s Workout Book.

His fitness career was born.

Months later, getting ready for a class, Perez forgot his aerobics music. Instead, he put on his own merengue and salsa tapes and improvised dance moves for a workout, creating what today is known as Zumba.

It proved to be a hit and he quickly developed a loyal following before he moved to Bogota, where he briefly worked as a choreographer with pop star Shakira.

In 1999, Perez packed up and headed to Miami, speaking no English but hoping to make a breakthrough in the Latin-flavoured U.S. city with his new dance exercise class.

He struggled before eventually building up a large, adoring fan base of mostly Colombian expatriate women, including the mother of Alberto Perlman.

Then a technology entrepreneur, Perlman lost his job in the dot-com bust two years later and was struggling with what career move to make next. He co-founded Zumba Fitness and is now its chief executive.

“My mom had been taking his classes for years,” he said. “She would tell me about this amazing class but I never paid attention. When the bubble burst, I went to have dinner at her house and she kept saying ‘Talk to Beto, maybe you guys could start a gym.’”

“I said I’d meet with him but I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with him,” Perlman recalled. But after watching a class, he came up with the idea for a new fitness video he hoped could be an infomercial success.

The men sought to put a name on the exercise, first thinking of the Spanish word rumba, which loosely translates as party, but realized it was already trademarked.

“We just went through the alphabet to see what rhymes with rumba,” Perlman said. “We were getting nervous by the end, nothing sounded good – bumba, kumba. Then we settled on Zumba, it was perfect.”

12 MILLION AND COUNTING

Perlman said growing the instructor and student base is the firm’s top priority, with a goal of one day reaching 100 million students, more than eight times the current number.

The company has also launched its own line of brightly coloured clothing, Zumba footwear and a glossy magazine named “ZLife”, all designed in its Miami office.

But it is also focused on developing TV shows, pushing into global markets, particularly Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, and exploiting a new business opportunity: fitness concerts.

“I see Zumba Fitness also as an entertainment brand,” Perlman said. “It’s becoming a music, TV and concert platform.”

Fitness fads rise and fall. But two prominent investment firms have made bets Zumba Fitness will avoid going the way of workout has-beens like Jazzercise, Thighmaster and the Ab Rocket.

“You see a lot of feasts and famines in the fitness industry,” said Richard Wells, managing director of New York-based Insight Venture Partners, a private equity and venture capital firm that has invested in Twitter and Tumblr.

The firm made a minority investment in Zumba Fitness earlier this year. “They are just scratching the surface of its potential,” Wells said.

The Raine Group, a media and entertainment investment firm based in New York, also has invested in the firm.

Neither company would reveal the size of its investment.

Perlman said Zumba Fitness hopes to draw on the firms for media, entertainment and technology resources and has no plans to go public.

“While there isn’t a lot we rule out at Zumba Fitness, this is not on our radar at this time,” he said.

THE ZUMBA ECOSYSTEM

Once Zumba gained exposure on infomercials, fans started asking for more. The company began receiving calls at all hours of the day from people saying “I want to be a Zumba instructor,” said Perlman.

By 2005, the company decided to develop the global instructor network and Zumba took off. The instructors each pay $30 a month to receive regular instalments of new music and dance and exercise steps.

“It’s their ecosystem,” said Wells, the investor.

The network has turned Zumba instructors in the United States and across the globe as far away as South Korea and Norway into entrepreneurs.

“It’s become my small business,” said Betsy Dopico, a native Cuban who moved to Miami from Mexico four years ago and now teaches Zumba classes.

On a recent night, around 60 people packed a downtown Miami dance studio for her hour-long class. Salsa and merengue rhythms throbbed on loudspeakers as the group of mostly 20-something and middle-aged women in sweat-drenched T-shirts and exercise tights spun around, kicked and jumped to the music.

A handful of men also participated, most of them mimicking Dopico’s moves from the back of the class.

Mehdi Benhaddouch, a 32-year-old account executive at a financial company, said he had grown bored with gym workouts before settling on Zumba a few months ago. “It’s like going to a nightclub, but you’re exercising,” he said.

The company has turned live concerts into fitness experiences where concert-goers follow Zumba instructors on stage while artists perform.

A concert in Orlando, Florida, last year drew thousands.

“My dream is to see fitness concerts all over the world, travelling shows, permanent shows in Las Vegas,” Perlman said. “The artists love it too, because it’s a new way of selling their music.”

Success has also brought challenges. Pirated versions of Zumba Fitness DVDs and clothing have led the company to hire a staff of a dozen people to combat counterfeiting.

Perez, whose official title is “chief creative officer”, said Zumba’s explosive popularity is rooted in its simplicity of having a good time while trying to stay fit.

“Over the years, fitness became too complicated and difficult,” he said. “The industry turned egocentric with an emphasis on instructors doing the exercises. It became a show.”

He added: “They forgot about normal people – mothers, grandmothers and the housewives who want to stay in shape and have some fun. That’s the essence of Zumba.”

(Editing by David Adams and Jim Loney)

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  Indian pharmaceutical tycoon Yusuf Hamied in 2010. Hamied revolutionised AIDS treatment more than a decade ago by supplying cut-price drugs to the world’s poor. Now he wants to do the same for cancer. Hamied, chairman of generic drugs giant Cipla, last month slashed the cost of three medicines to fight brain, kidney and lung cancer in India, making the drugs up to more than four times cheaper

Indian pharmaceutical tycoon Yusuf Hamied revolutionised AIDS treatment more than a decade ago by supplying cut-price drugs to the world’s poor — and now he wants to do the same for cancer.

Hamied, chairman of generic drugs giant Cipla, last month slashed the cost of three medicines to fight brain, kidney and lung cancer in India, making the drugs up to more than four times cheaper.

“I hope we’ll cut prices of many more cancer drugs,” he told AFP, adding that he wants to supply the cheaper drugs to Africa and elsewhere.

“Reducing the price of cancer drugs is a humanitarian move.”

Hamied, 76, was pilloried by Western drug giants 11 years ago when he broke their monopoly by offering to supply life-saving triple therapy AIDS drug cocktails for under $1 a day — one-thirtieth the price of the multinationals.

The firms branded him an intellectual property thief while he accused them of being “global serial killers” whose high prices were costing the lives of AIDS patients.

“What he did was path-breaking. It has been very important in saving lives, and what he is doing with cancer drugs is the same,” said Leena Menghaney, a lawyer with humanitarian group Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).

In 1972, India made only the process for making drugs patentable, not the drugs themselves.

This meant firms could “reverse-engineer” or change methods used to make medicines and sell them at up to one-fiftieth of US prices.

The legislation gave a huge leg-up to India’s generics industry and gave the nation the nickname “the pharmacy to the Third World”.

But in 2005, India brought its law in line with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules recognising 20-year patents, pushing up the prices of newly launched drugs.

Cipla, India’s fourth largest pharmaceutical company by sales, has been pressing the government to allow widespread use of “compulsory licences”, which are permitted under WTO rules.

The licences allow companies to make existing life-saving drugs to sell in countries where they are otherwise priced out of reach.

India’s first such licence was granted in March to Natco Pharma to produce a generic version of Bayer’s blockbuster kidney cancer drug Nexavar, cutting the price from 28,000 rupees ($500) for a monthly dose to 6,840 rupees.

Ranjit Shahani, who heads the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India, says widespread compulsory licensing will jeopardise investment in innovative pharmaceuticals.

Bayer has said it will launch a legal challenge to the compulsory licence, and global drugmakers have vowed to oppose the spread of such legislation.

Hamied denied that his latest move was simply an attempt to boost his share in the oncology drugs market, insisting business must be linked to “social responsibility”.

But he said like any other business his company, which has 23 cancer drugs, also wants higher sales.

“I owe it to my shareholders to be pragmatic,” he said.

Born in Lithuania to an Indian Muslim father and a Lithuanian Jewish mother, Hamied was two months old when his parents fled Europe in the 1930s under the threat of Nazi Germany.

He was raised in Mumbai and studied for a doctorate in chemistry at Cambridge University in Britain before joining Cipla, which was founded by his father.

“My father never forced me but chemistry was my best subject,” said Hamied, who became chairman of the company in 1989.

His bold step in offering cheap AIDS drugs turned out to be a smart business move.

Cipla is now the world’s largest AIDS antiretroviral drugs supplier and the publicly-listed company is valued at nearly $5 billion, while business magazine Forbes puts Hamied’s personal fortune at $1.75 billion.

But Hamied said poverty-racked India “can’t afford to divide people into those who can afford life-saving drugs and those who can’t”.

“It needs a pragmatic policy,” he said.

He believes the pharma giants should let emerging market drugmakers make copycat medicines in exchange for small royalties.

Some 95 percent of Western firms’ profits come from regulated developed markets like Japan, Europe, America, so the pharmaceutical giants “really won’t lose out”, he said.

Even with the reduced price of generic drugs, such medicines are still beyond the reach of many of the world’s poorest, conceded Hamied, who confesses he has his eye on his legacy.

“I want it to be said when I leave this world that ‘he was not just a money-making machine,’” he said.

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Pneumonia and diarrhea are among the top causes of childhood deaths around the world, particularly among the poor, said a report out Friday by the UN Children’s Fund.

UNICEF said that while these two diseases kill more than two million children each year, making up 29 percent of child deaths under age five worldwide, some simple interventions could save lots of lives in the coming years.

The report urges the 75 countries with the highest mortality rates to aim to treat poor children with diarrhea and pneumonia the same way they do those from the top 20 percent of households, a so-called “equity approach.”

Key interventions include vaccinating against the major causes of pneumonia and diarrhea, encouraging infant breastfeeding, improving access to clean water and sanitation, offering antibiotics for pneumonia and rehydration solutions for diarrhea.

“Modeled estimates suggest that by 2015 more than two million child deaths due to pneumonia and diarrhea could be averted across the 75 countries with the highest mortality burden,” said the report.

“If national coverage of key pneumonia and diarrhea interventions were raised to the level in the richest 20 percent of households in each country,” it added.

About half of childhood deaths in the world due to diarrhea or pneumonia take place in five countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan and Ethiopia, said the report.

There has been some progress in offering vaccines against Hemophilus influenza type b, as well as pneumococcal conjugate vaccines and rotavirus vaccines in the poorest countries, but more effort is needed, it said.

Water and sanitation is another key hurdle, with 783 million people globally not using an improved drinking water source, and 2.5 billion not using sanitation facilities.

“Nearly 90 percent of deaths due to diarrhea worldwide have been attributed to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene,” said the report.

“Hand washing with water and soap, in particular, is among the most cost-effective health interventions to reduce the incidence of both childhood pneumonia and diarrhea.”

Pneumonia is responsible for 18 percent of childhood deaths worldwide each year, and diarrhea is linked to 11 percent.

In contrast, AIDS is responsible for two percent of global childhood deaths annually and malaria for seven percent, according to the report.

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  A widow of a 9/11 firefighter who spent 500 hours at Ground Zero and died of cancer at the age of 44, listens during a press conference at Ground Zero in 2010 by emergency workers protesting opposition to funding health care bill for ill Ground Zero rescuers. People with cancer who were caught in the aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse should be eligible for aid, authorities said

People with cancer who were caught in the aftermath of the World Trade Center collapse during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York should be eligible for aid, authorities proposed Friday.

A wide range of dozens of cancers was recommended to be added to the list of conditions officially linked to 9/11, when thousands of local residents and rescue workers were forced for weeks to breathe dust and fumes from the fallen towers.

A $4.3 billion fund is available for 9/11 health victims but until now cancer sufferers — believed to be in the many hundreds — have not been able to place claims of their own.

Until now, most of the aid recipients have had respiratory diseases.

The official recommendation by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health has long been delayed since there has been little evidence of a direct link between the World Trade Center tragedy and cancer.

In the ruling, some cancers are excluded, but 14 categories are included and sufferers would qualify for free treatment and compensation.

However, the pool of available money will not expand.

“We recognize how personal the issue of cancer and all of the health conditions related to the World Trade Center tragedy are to 9/11 responders, survivors and their loved ones,” WTC Program Administrator John Howard said in a statement.

“The proposal posted today in the Federal Register would add all types of cancers recommended by the WTC Health Program Scientific/Technical Advisory Committee.”

Howard said that public comment would follow, meaning the change was not yet certain.

Three New York congressional representatives — Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Nadler and Peter King — praised the proposal and said there was no doubt of a link between cancer and the toxic Ground Zero site.

“We are thrilled,” they said in a joint statement. “As we have all seen with our own eyes again and again, cancer incidence among responders and survivors is a tragic fact, and we must continue to do everything we can to provide the help that those who are sick need and deserve.”

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  Attorney Gloria Allred (C) holds a news conference with Yovonka Bryant (R), girlfriend of a Rudy Eugene (in photo, R), on June 6, in Miami. Eugene, 31, was shot dead by police on May 26, 2012, after he refused to stop chewing the face of Ronald Poppo, a homeless man

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  Handout image provided by the Miami Dade Police Department shows Rudy Eugene, the man who was shot dead by police as he ate the face of a homeless man during Memorial Day weekend in Miami

Cloud Nine and other synthetic drugs known as “bath salts” can induce anything from a sense of relaxation to full-on panic attacks and seizures. But how about a zombie-like taste for human flesh?

Law enforcement officials in Miami feel it’s possible, saying Cloud Nine might have driven a growling naked aggressor to literally chew off most of a homeless man’s face before being shot and killed by police.

“We have to wait for the tox (toxicology) reports to say that for sure,” Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said Thursday as national media shine a spotlight on Cloud Nine and other similar drugs.

“But certainly, you do see a lot of this kind of bizarre behavior,” she told AFP. “These chemicals are very dangerous. You’ll find people who use them who will say, ‘Boy, I’m never doing that again. That was scary’.”

Cloud Nine is one of many appellations — others are Ivory Wave, Vanilla Sky and White Lightning — for synthetic stimulants known as “bath salts” containing derivatives of a brain stimulant called cathinone.

Now banned in several states, and listed as a controlled substance by the DEA since October 2011, Cloud Nine could previously be legally purchased in “head shops” selling drug paraphernalia, convenience stores and gas stations, as well as online.

“It would sell for between 18 to 40 dollars per unit,” TG, who works at a head shop in downtown Washington that used to sell Cloud Nine, told AFP on condition that his full name not be used.

Who bought it? “Homeless guys, lawyers, anyone, from 18 to 75,” he said. “That was the strange part. They figured it was something that could alter their minds without breaking the law.”

TG never used Cloud Nine himself, but from others who did, he said, “I’ve heard of varying effects from relaxation to mild seizures.”

In a fact sheet, the DEA lists potential effects as “agitation, insomnia, irritability, dizziness, depression, paranoia, delusions, suicidal thoughts, seizures and panic attacks.”

Cannibalism didn’t make the cut. But police in Miami suspect Rudy Eugene, 31, was high on “bath salts” when he tried to bite the face off of a barely conscious homeless man before he was shot and killed.

In another incident, also in Miami, a 21-year-old man, allegedly on Cloud Nine, burst into a restaurant shouting obscenities, and tried to bite the hand off a police officer.

“Please be careful when dealing with the homeless population,” the North Miami Beach police department told its officers. It also urged the public to immediately report anyone who might be on Cloud Nine.

Mark Ryan, director of the Louisiana state poison center and an expert on synthetic drugs, said “bath salts” — made with imported chemicals — first appeared in the United States in 2010, “and then in 2011, it just went nuts.”

“We went from 300-plus cases reported across the United States to poison centers in 2010 to over 6,000 in 2011,” he told AFP in a telephone interview.

“And all the cases don’t get reported to poison centers, so that probably represents maybe 25 percent of what was really out there.”

Ryan recalled cases in which Cloud Nine led to “naked people jumping out windows and climbing flag poles” and, in Louisiana, a suicide in which the victim shot himself a day after trying to slit his own throat.

“We had (another) report from police of a guy barricaded in the attic of his home with a shotgun, saying: ‘There are aliens up here. I’ve got to kill them before they can get me and my family’,” Ryan said.

“Then there was somebody who went out into the yard and turned around and began shooting at the house because there were ‘demons’ in there.”

“We’ve seen a number of quite bizarre things happening,” Ryan said, so the notion of someone on Cloud Nine developing a taste for human flesh “is definitely in the realm of possibility.”

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• Attorney Gloria Allred (C) holds …

• Handout image provided by the Miami …

Cloud Nine and other synthetic drugs known as “bath salts” can induce anything from a sense of relaxation to full-on panic attacks and seizures. But how about a zombie-like taste for human flesh?

Law enforcement officials in Miami feel it’s possible, saying Cloud Nine might have driven a growling naked aggressor to literally chew off most of a homeless man’s face before being shot and killed by police.

“We have to wait for the tox (toxicology) reports to say that for sure,” Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokeswoman Barbara Carreno said Thursday as national media shine a spotlight on Cloud Nine and other similar drugs.

“But certainly, you do see a lot of this kind of bizarre behavior,” she told AFP. “These chemicals are very dangerous. You’ll find people who use them who will say, ‘Boy, I’m never doing that again. That was scary’.”

Cloud Nine is one of many appellations — others are Ivory Wave, Vanilla Sky and White Lightning — for synthetic stimulants known as “bath salts” containing derivatives of a brain stimulant called cathinone.

Now banned in several states, and listed as a controlled substance by the DEA since October 2011, Cloud Nine could previously be legally purchased in “head shops” selling drug paraphernalia, convenience stores and gas stations, as well as online.

“It would sell for between 18 to 40 dollars per unit,” TG, who works at a head shop in downtown Washington that used to sell Cloud Nine, told AFP on condition that his full name not be used.

Who bought it? “Homeless guys, lawyers, anyone, from 18 to 75,” he said. “That was the strange part. They figured it was something that could alter their minds without breaking the law.”

TG never used Cloud Nine himself, but from others who did, he said, “I’ve heard of varying effects from relaxation to mild seizures.”

In a fact sheet, the DEA lists potential effects as “agitation, insomnia, irritability, dizziness, depression, paranoia, delusions, suicidal thoughts, seizures and panic attacks.”

Cannibalism didn’t make the cut. But police in Miami suspect Rudy Eugene, 31, was high on “bath salts” when he tried to bite the face off of a barely conscious homeless man before he was shot and killed.

In another incident, also in Miami, a 21-year-old man, allegedly on Cloud Nine, burst into a restaurant shouting obscenities, and tried to bite the hand off a police officer.

“Please be careful when dealing with the homeless population,” the North Miami Beach police department told its officers. It also urged the public to immediately report anyone who might be on Cloud Nine.

Mark Ryan, director of the Louisiana state poison center and an expert on synthetic drugs, said “bath salts” — made with imported chemicals — first appeared in the United States in 2010, “and then in 2011, it just went nuts.”

“We went from 300-plus cases reported across the United States to poison centers in 2010 to over 6,000 in 2011,” he told AFP in a telephone interview.

“And all the cases don’t get reported to poison centers, so that probably represents maybe 25 percent of what was really out there.”

Ryan recalled cases in which Cloud Nine led to “naked people jumping out windows and climbing flag poles” and, in Louisiana, a suicide in which the victim shot himself a day after trying to slit his own throat.

“We had (another) report from police of a guy barricaded in the attic of his home with a shotgun, saying: ‘There are aliens up here. I’ve got to kill them before they can get me and my family’,” Ryan said.

“Then there was somebody who went out into the yard and turned around and began shooting at the house because there were ‘demons’ in there.”

“We’ve seen a number of quite bizarre things happening,” Ryan said, so the notion of someone on Cloud Nine developing a taste for human flesh “is definitely in the realm of possibility.”

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? ? ? ? On Feburary 9, 2012, celestial bodies of Ren of the traditional Chinese calendar year the first month of the lunar year 18, it is the medical home with great last years of a dynasty or reign of our country the Eastern Han Dynasty, China ” cure emperor ” Zhang Zhong scene day of 1862 years of birthday. That day, the group of pharmacy of Henan Wan Xi that is located in cure emperor native place carries media of person of ideals and integrity of social prominent personage, all circles and number citizen, in China cure emperor center held hold a memorial ceremony for of grand birthday of Zhang Zhong scene to do obeisance to grand ceremony, recall first emperor, force of the bend that respect a watch promotes the heart that promotes culture of traditional Chinese medicine; Pray blessing is in good health, nuo makes He Meikang of benefit society common people wish happily. Oneself have favour to visit the site along with friend of one many media, experience Zhong Jing on the spot medical culture is as long as its the medical knowledge glamour that be continuous.

? ? ? ? 1862 years of hold a memorial ceremony for do obeisance to birthday of scene of cure emperor Zhang Zhong celebration spot

? ? ? ? In the morning 9 when whole, drum 9, cry gold 9 noises, hold a memorial ceremony for does obeisance to celebration to begin formally in grave and solemn and respectful atmosphere. Grow Sun Yaozhi in group director guide below, each company such as hospital of Zhang Zhong scene of Inc. of large kitchen of scene of Zhang Zhong of big chemist’s shop of scene of Zhang Zhong of Inc. of pharmacy of Henan Wan Xi, Henan, Henan, Nanyang is in charge of high, ordinal offer flower, Jing Xiang, tribute to cure icon high grade and pure medicinal material; Sun Feng of general manager of Wan Xi pharmacy respectful read ” Zhong Jingwen of hold a memorial ceremony for ” . In Sun Yaozhi trustee strip is gotten, collectivity attends hold a memorial ceremony for to do obeisance to personnel to bow all right to cure icon the ceremony, eulogy that chant ” cure emperor eulogy ” . Citizen of spot pay homage to also respects sweet hold a memorial ceremony for in order to do obeisance to to cure icon in succession, express the esteem feeling of pair of cure emperor, invocatory and restful happiness. Besides type of solemn and respectful Bai Yi of hold a memorial ceremony for, the vivid traditional folk-custom such as happy dance of lion of local opera, dragon is performed, also make the same score for grand ceremony added auspicious auspicious. Whole celebration agenda is concise and orderly, but atmosphere of ceremonial feeling, traditional culture makes shake and the person is affected by however.

? ? ? ? Sun Feng of general manager of pharmacy of Henan Wan Xi respectful read ” Zhong Jingwen of hold a memorial ceremony for “

? ? ? ? In the sort of traditional culture long-unseen ceremonial feeling also evokes the feeling that had his deeply. Playing in this everybody additional kind, fight goes, go the times of formalization, in Central Plains earth, in cure emperor native place on this quiet hot earth, the local citizen that with Wan Xi pharmacy is a delegate is right of traditional medicine culture scrupulously abide by with what change to Zhong Jingwen is adopy, successive with promote, body revealed a heart to be opposite traditional culture and medical knowledge hold to devotionally, be advocate to the doctor of traditional Chinese medicine ” peaceful not seek fame and wealth, defend inside spirit ” the carry out of philosophy of life goes. “Inheritance, innovation, responsibility, mission, confidence, hope ” it is the request that Sun Yaozhi of president of Wan Xi pharmacy does obeisance to celebration spot to put forward to group staff in hold a memorial ceremony for, also be pair of traditional culture spirit is successive promote and take on to the mission of social responsibility, make Wan Xi pharmacy can be defended ” this heart ” , administer of place of confusion of the content outside be is made, make thereby gave Wan Xi pharmacy ” the medicinal material is good, medicine gift is nice ” pure public praise.

? ? ? ? Respect the emperor that do obeisance to cure, pray blessing is restful

? ? ? ? There is no lack of in the crowd that do obeisance to hold a memorial ceremony for devotional and the youth that come, this lets oneself feel accident quite, to most today youth, “Traditional ” , ” culture ” , ” ceremony ” it is further and further that such lexical feeling leaves us, of illuminate be iterationed it is forever ” vogue ” , ” ego ” a kind word. However numerous youth goes out to be here now today, besides pray blessing, most propbably also leaked another information, no matter how efficient, modern life is convenient,that is, if lost that ceremony the portion is then feeling, grave, the portion is then right devotional devotional, life became the force that does not have a root, be about to injure crosscurrent, easily in content the more this me, of belief of prediction of a person’s luck in a given year today, we need the heavy tree that the ceremony feels the more, devotional heavy tree.

? ? ? ? Although be a kind of culture that inheritance of Wan Xi pharmacy promotes Zhong Jingwen to change,the hold a memorial ceremony for of day of cure Christmas day does obeisance to celebration carrier form, but the heft that we hope more people can experience that traditional culture from which sincerely, devotional heft, had done the flamen in him life!

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  Saif al-Islam is seen after his capture, in the custody of revolutionary fighters in Obari, Libya, in this November 19, 2011 picture. REUTERS/Ammar El-Darwish/Files

ZINTAN/TRIPOLI, Libya (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam needs surgery to remove gangrenous flesh from a severed thumb and finger which if not treated could make him seriously ill, a doctor who examined him told Reuters on Thursday.

Saif al-Islam has been nursing injuries to his right hand which he says were sustained during a NATO airstrike weeks ago. No further details have been available on the state of his heavily bandaged thumb, index and middle fingers.

“This wound is not in good condition and requires amputation,” Andrei Murakhovsky, a Ukraine-born doctor working in Zintan, the town where Saif al-Islam is being held, and who treated him three days ago told Reuters.

“The wound is covered with gangrenous tissue and necrotic tissue,” Murakhovsky added.

Fighters from Libya’s Western Mountains captured Saif al-Islam in the southern desert on Saturday and flew him to their stronghold town of Zintan, where he is being held pending a handover to the country’s provisional government.

Saif al-Islam’s middle finger did not require surgery but the two other bandaged digits had been severed and were weeping pus, said Murakhovsky, who was interviewed by Reuters television in English and later by telephone in Russian.

“His index finger has been ripped off at the level of the middle phalange (finger bone), the bones are all shattered … It’s the same thing with the thumb of that hand,” he said.

When a picture of Saif al-Islam’s bandaged hand was aired, many Libyans thought his captors had cut off his fingers in retribution for televised remarks in which he threatened anti-Gaddafi rebels, pointing and making other hand gestures.

Murakhovsky, however, said the injuries were consistent with “some kind of explosion.”

SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES

The surgical intervention required was relatively simple and could be performed in Zintan under local anaesthetic, Murakhovsky said, but the town’s militiamen were worried someone would try to kill Saif al-Islam if they took him to hospital.

“I would have done it the day before yesterday. It’s not so urgent. It’s already been like that for a month. But it’s preferable that it should be done soon,” he said.

Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib has said Saif al-Islam is receiving the best possible treatment, but for now he is not in the hands of the provisional central government.

Zintan’s fighters have said they will hand him over to the provisional government once it is formed. The cabinet was sworn in on Thursday, with the defence minister’s post going to the head of Zintan’s military council.

Murakhovsky said only a small part of Saif al-Islam’s thumb and index finger needed to be removed, and while he did not need to be operated on urgently, if there were no intervention there could be serious consequences.

If left untreated, the gangrenous infection could spread into the bloodstream and lead to osteomyolitis, which Murakhovsky said was “an infection of the bone marrow, which could have an impact on his general condition.”

The International Criminal Court has indicted Saif al-Islam for crimes against humanity and issued a warrant for his arrest. Libya, however, says it will not hand him over to the Hague, and the ICC’s prosecutor says Tripoli can try him if it wants to.

Saif al-Islam has not been charged in Libya, but ICC Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said his Libyan counterpart has launched investigations into the same events as the ICC, in which protesters were killed during this year’s revolution.

If Libya were to charge him with similar crimes as the ICC, Saif al-Islam would face the death penalty. The maximum sentence the ICC can pass is life in prison.

Libya is also investigating five counts of alleged corruption by Saif al-Islam, Moreno-Ocampo said on Thursday.

(Writing by Francois Murphy; Editing by Jon Hemming)