Artificial hips, knees now found in 2% of Americans

It’s not just grandma with a new hip and your uncle with a new knee. More than 2 of every 100 Americans now have an artificial joint, doctors are reporting.

Among those over 50, it’s even more common: Five percent have replaced a knee and more than 2 percent, a hip.

“They are remarkable numbers,” said Dr. Daniel J. Berry, chairman of orthopedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic. Roughly 7 million people in the United States are living with a total hip or knee replacement.

Berry’s study results were reported Tuesday at an American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons conference in New Orleans.

NEW YORK

Bombing trainee testifies at bin Laden son-in-law’s trial

Jurors at the terrorism trial of Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law Monday watched him threaten in videotapes made just after the Sept. 11 attacks that there would be no end to the “storm of airplanes.”

Prosecutors showed the New York jury video clips of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith to set the stage for testimony from Saajid Badat, a 34-year-old United Kingdom resident who said he trained with failed shoe-bomber Richard Reid to carry out separate shoe-bomb attacks aimed at downing planes over America or in Europe in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks.

He pleaded guilty in England in 2005 to conspiring to harm an aircraft and served six years in prison before his sentence was shortened through his cooperation.

PRETORIA, South Africa

Pistorius retches in court as victim’s slaying described

Hunched over, vomiting into a bucket by his feet and retching loudly, Oscar Pistorius was vividly reminded at his murder trial Monday of the gruesome injuries he inflicted on his girlfriend when a pathologist described how the Olympian fatally shot her multiple times with bullets designed to cause maximum damage.

The testimony by Prof. Gert Saayman, who performed the autopsy on Reeva Steenkamp’s body, was so graphic that it was not broadcast or reported live on social media by journalists under an order from Judge Thokozile Masipa.Steenkamp, 29, died on Valentine’s Day last year when she was shot by the double-amputee runner.

WASHINGTON

Democrats pull all-nighter to talk of climate change

It’s a lot of hot air about a lot of hot air.

Democrats took to the Senate floor Monday night to talk about global warming and planned not to let up until morning.

At least 28 senators were expected to participate. But several Democrats who face tough re-election fights in the fall opted to skip the session.

– From news service reports