Oscar Pistorius Weeps in Court as Prosecutors Seek Murder Charges

By Andrea Billups

02/15/2013 at 08:15 AM EST

Oscar Pistorius

Antonie de Ras/Reuters/Landov

Oscar Pistorius, the South African track star known as the Blade Runner, put his head in his hands and wept Friday as prosecutors said they would seek a charge of premeditated murder in the shooting of his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, the New York Times reports.

Pistorius, 26, appearing in a Pretoria courtroom, is accused of shooting Steenkamp, 30, whose body was found in a pool of blood in his gated home in Pretoria on Thursday. She was reportedly shot four times. He did not enter a plea on the murder charges and police said they would oppose any application for bail.

Pistorius rose to fame and became a national hero as a world-class sprinter while running in the London Olympics on carbon fiber blades. He was born without fibula bones and had amputations below the knees when he was an infant. He was the first Paralymic champion to run with able-bodied athletes in an Olympic games, making his debut last summer in London.

The murder charge has shocked South Africans who held the athlete up as a national hero. A grim Pistorious sat with his jaw clenched in the courtroom. At one point, his father Henke reached out to him, but Pistorius just walked on, teary-eyed.

Steenkamp had posted Valentine's Day messages of love on her Twitter account just hours before her death. "It should be a day of love for everyone," she Tweeted. Her family said they had no clue of trouble between the couple before her death.

Reeva Steenkamp and Oscar Pistorius

Gallo Images / REX USA

Police told reporters said they were interviewing witnesses, including neighbors. A 9 mm handgun was removed from the home by police.

Initial news accounts suggest that Pistorius, a gun enthusiast, had reportedly mistaken Steenkamp for an intruder. But police countered that story by disclosing previous police complaints of domestic problems at his home.

The court case will resume on Tuesday. Pistorius competed in the 2012 Olympics, running in the 400-meter race, where he reached the semi-finals. He also competed as a part of his country's 4x400 meter relay team. He has previously won two gold medals and a silver at the Paralympic Games, also held in London.

• With reporting by MIKE BEHR

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Study: Fish in drug-tainted water suffer reaction

BOSTON (AP) — What happens to fish that swim in waters tainted by traces of drugs that people take? When it's an anti-anxiety drug, they become hyper, anti-social and aggressive, a study found. They even get the munchies.

It may sound funny, but it could threaten the fish population and upset the delicate dynamics of the marine environment, scientists say.

The findings, published online Thursday in the journal Science, add to the mounting evidence that minuscule amounts of medicines in rivers and streams can alter the biology and behavior of fish and other marine animals.

"I think people are starting to understand that pharmaceuticals are environmental contaminants," said Dana Kolpin, a researcher for the U.S. Geological Survey who is familiar with the study.

Calling their results alarming, the Swedish researchers who did the study suspect the little drugged fish could become easier targets for bigger fish because they are more likely to venture alone into unfamiliar places.

"We know that in a predator-prey relation, increased boldness and activity combined with decreased sociality ... means you're going to be somebody's lunch quite soon," said Gregory Moller, a toxicologist at the University of Idaho and Washington State University. "It removes the natural balance."

Researchers around the world have been taking a close look at the effects of pharmaceuticals in extremely low concentrations, measured in parts per billion. Such drugs have turned up in waterways in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere over the past decade.

They come mostly from humans and farm animals; the drugs pass through their bodies in unmetabolized form. These drug traces are then piped to water treatment plants, which are not designed to remove them from the cleaned water that flows back into streams and rivers.

The Associated Press first reported in 2008 that the drinking water of at least 51 million Americans carries low concentrations of many common drugs. The findings were based on questionnaires sent to water utilities, which reported the presence of antibiotics, sedatives, sex hormones and other drugs.

The news reports led to congressional hearings and legislation, more water testing and more public disclosure. To this day, though, there are no mandatory U.S. limits on pharmaceuticals in waterways.

The research team at Sweden's Umea University used minute concentrations of 2 parts per billion of the anti-anxiety drug oxazepam, similar to concentrations found in real waters. The drug belongs to a widely used class of medicines known as benzodiazepines that includes Valium and Librium.

The team put young wild European perch into an aquarium, exposed them to these highly diluted drugs and then carefully measured feeding, schooling, movement and hiding behavior. They found that drug-exposed fish moved more, fed more aggressively, hid less and tended to school less than unexposed fish. On average, the drugged fish were more than twice as active as the others, researcher Micael Jonsson said. The effects were more pronounced at higher drug concentrations.

"Our first thought is, this is like a person diagnosed with ADHD," said Jonsson, referring to attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. "They become asocial and more active than they should be."

Tomas Brodin, another member of the research team, called the drug's environmental impact a global problem. "We find these concentrations or close to them all over the world, and it's quite possible or even probable that these behavioral effects are taking place as we speak," he said Thursday in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Most previous research on trace drugs and marine life has focused on biological changes, such as male fish that take on female characteristics. However, a 2009 study found that tiny concentrations of antidepressants made fathead minnows more vulnerable to predators.

It is not clear exactly how long-term drug exposure, beyond the seven days in this study, would affect real fish in real rivers and streams. The Swedish researchers argue that the drug-induced changes could jeopardize populations of this sport and commercial fish, which lives in both fresh and brackish water.

Water toxins specialist Anne McElroy of Stony Brook University in New York agreed: "These lower chronic exposures that may alter things like animals' mating behavior or its ability to catch food or its ability to avoid being eaten — over time, that could really affect a population."

Another possibility, the researchers said, is that more aggressive feeding by the perch on zooplankton could reduce the numbers of these tiny creatures. Since zooplankton feed on algae, a drop in their numbers could allow algae to grow unchecked. That, in turn, could choke other marine life.

The Swedish team said it is highly unlikely people would be harmed by eating such drug-exposed fish. Jonsson said a person would have to eat 4 tons of perch to consume the equivalent of a single pill.

Researchers said more work is needed to develop better ways of removing drugs from water at treatment plants. They also said unused drugs should be brought to take-back programs where they exist, instead of being flushed down the toilet. And they called on pharmaceutical companies to work on "greener" drugs that degrade more easily.

Sandoz, one of three companies approved to sell oxazepam in the U.S., "shares society's desire to protect the environment and takes steps to minimize the environmental impact of its products over their life cycle," spokeswoman Julie Masow said in an emailed statement. She provided no details.

___

Online:

Overview of the drug: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/meds/a682050.html

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Buffett, Brazil's 3G team up for $23 billion Heinz buyout

(Reuters) - Warren Buffett and Brazilian financier Jorge Paulo Lemann are teaming up to buy ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co for $23.2 billion, in what could be the first step of a wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.

Analysts and people close to the deal said Heinz could be a good starting point to consolidate similar staple food companies, particularly given the larger ambitions of Lemann's private equity firm 3G Capital.

Including debt assumption, Heinz valued the transaction, which it called the largest in its industry's history, at $28 billion. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G will pay $72.50 per share, a 19 percent premium to the stock's previous all-time high.

Heinz shares initially rose slightly above the offer price, although Buffett cautioned he had no intention of raising his bid and the stock fell back below that mark by midday. The stock has been on a tear, almost doubling over the last four years, though analysts said the price seemed fair.

They also said the deal could be the first step in a broader wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.

"Maybe for the consumer staples group in general this may start some talk about consolidation. Even corporate entities are flush with cash, interest rates are low, it would seemingly make sense," Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.

Companies like General Mills and Campbell Soup - itself long seen as a potential Heinz merge partner - rose on the news.

Any acquisition could help Heinz further diversify and broaden its international profile. It already dominates the ketchup business, with a nearly 26 percent share of the global market and a 59 percent share domestically, according to Euromonitor International.

The company actually generates the largest portion of its sales in Europe, though its traditional North American consumer products business is the most profitable.

But its real growth engine has been the Asia/Pacific region, where sales increased nearly 11 percent in the last fiscal year, in part on demand for sauces and infant foods in China.

BUFFETT HUNTING GROWTH

The surprise purchase satisfies, at least in part, Buffett's hunt for growth through acquisition. He was frustrated in 2012 by the collapse of at least two unnamed deals in excess of $20 billion and said he might have to do a $30 billion deal this year to help fuel Berkshire's growth engine.

In a regulatory filing late on Thursday, Berkshire said it was providing $12.12 billion in equity, including common stock, warrants and preferred shares with a liquidation preference of $8 billion and a 9 percent dividend.

Barclays Capital's Jay Gelb the deal's valuation appeared high at 19 times Heinz's expected 2014 earnings per share, but that it would enhance Berkshire's consumer portfolio.

Berkshire Hathaway already has a variety of food assets, including Dairy Queen ice cream chain, chocolatier See's Candies and food distributor McLane. Buffett, famed for a love of cheeseburgers, joked he was well acquainted with Heinz's products already and that this was "my kind of deal."

It does represent an unusual teaming of Berkshire with private equity, though; historically, Buffett's purchases have been outright his own. He and 3G founder Jorge Paulo Lemann have known each other for years, and Buffett said Lemann approached him with the Heinz idea in December.

One Berkshire investor said he had mixed feelings about the deal because of the limited growth prospects domestically.

"We're a little hesitant on the staple companies because they don't have any leverage in the United States," said Bill Smead, chief investment officer of Smead Capital Management in Seattle. But at the same time, he said, Buffett was likely willing to accept a bond-like steady return even if it was not necessarily a "home run."

A second investor, Michael Yoshikami of Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, said he liked the purchase because it provided cash flow for other deals.

"This is a better use of cash than current money market instruments," said Yoshikami, the firm's CEO and chairman of its investment committee.

3G EXPANDS

For 3G, a little-known firm with Brazilian roots, the purchase is something of a natural complement to its investment in fast-food chain Burger King, which it acquired in late 2010 and in which it still holds a major stake.

Historically, 3G was more of an investor than an acquirer. Its biggest shareholdings include Delphi Automotive, Newell Rubbermaid and Anadarko Petroleum.

Lemann, a globe-trotting financier with Swiss roots, made his money in banking and gained notoriety for helping to pull together the deals that ultimately formed the beer brewing giant AB InBev. Forbes ranks him as the world's 69th-richest billionaire, with a fortune of $12 billion.

3G's Alex Behring runs the fund out of New York. He appeared at a Pittsburgh news conference on Thursday with Heinz management to discuss the deal - and to reassure anxious local crowds that the company will remain based there and will continue to support local philanthropy.

But at the same time, Behring said it was too soon to talk about cost cuts at the company. Unlike Berkshire, which is a hands-off operator, 3G is known for aggressively controlling costs at its operations.

PITTSBURGH ROOTS

Also to be determined is whether CEO Bill Johnson would stay on. Only the fifth chairman in the company's history, Johnson is widely credited with Heinz's recent strong growth.

"I am way too young to retire," he told the news conference, adding that discussions had not yet started with 3G over the details of Heinz's future management.

The company, known for its iconic ketchup bottles, Heinz 57 sauces as well as other brands including Ore-Ida frozen potatoes, has increased net sales for the last eight fiscal years in a row.

Heinz said the transaction would be financed with cash from Berkshire and 3G, debt rollover and debt financing from J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire and 3G would be equal equity partners.

That would imply roughly $6 billion to $7 billion of new debt needs to be raised.

Heinz shares soared 19.9 percent, or $12.02, to $72.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.

A week ago the stock hit a long-term high of $61 a share - near records it set in 1998 - having risen almost 5 percent this year and nearly 12 percent since the beginning of 2012.

The Heinz Endowments, a pillar in Pennsylvania philanthropy, said the sale of the company would have virtually no impact on their work. Heinz shares represent just over 1 percent of the endowment's $1.4 billion in holdings.

The deal is also a potential boon for new U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, whose wife, Teresa, is the widow of H.J. Heinz Co heir John Heinz. Kerry's most recent financial disclosures from his time in the U.S. Senate show a position in Heinz shares of more than $1 million, although the precise size is unclear.

Centerview Partners and BofA Merrill Lynch were financial advisers to Heinz, with Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP the legal adviser. Moelis & Company was financial adviser to the transaction committee of Heinz's board and Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as its legal adviser.

Lazard served as lead financial adviser. J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo also served as financial advisers to the investment consortium. Kirkland & Ellis LLP was legal adviser to 3G Capital, and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP was legal adviser to Berkshire Hathaway.

(Additional reporting by Olivia Oran and IFR's Stephen Carter in New York and Drew Singer in Pittsburgh; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Leslie Gevirtz)

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Britain Says Equine Drug May Have Entered Food Chain

LONDON — A crisis over horse meat in European food products deepened Thursday when British officials said tests showed that a powerful equine drug, potentially harmful to human health, may have entered the food chain in small quantities.

Until now, the crisis had been seen primarily as an issue of fraud after products containing horse meat were labeled beef, with politicians insisting that, even if millions of products sold as beef contained up to 100 percent horse meat, food safety was not at issue.

But on Thursday came the first admission that a banned substance, phenylbutazone – known as bute – could have entered the food chain in horse meat.

The British Food Standards Agency said that it had checked the carcasses of 206 horses slaughtered in Britain between January 30 and February 7. “Of these, eight tested positive for the drug,” it said in a statement.

Because there is little demand for horse meat in Britain, the carcasses are thought to have been exported to France where they were likely to have been used by the meat industry. The British and French authorities were trying to trace the meat but as yet have not identified any products directly affected.

The scandal has already plunged the British food industry into crisis with millions of products being withdrawn from supermarket freezer counters, initially in Britain and Ireland. But other countries, including Sweden and Germany, have been affected too.

Officials in Britain tried to reassure the public.  "Horse meat containing phenylbutazone presents a very low risk to human health,” Britain’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, said in a statement Thursday.

"Phenylbutazone, known as bute, is a commonly used medicine in horses. It is also prescribed to some patients who are suffering from a severe form of arthritis. At the levels of bute that have been found, a person would have to eat 500- 600 100 one hundred percent horse meat burgers a day to get close to consuming a human’s daily dose,” she said.

“And it passes through the system fairly quickly, so it is unlikely to build up in our bodies,” she added.

"In patients who have been taking phenylbutazone as a medicine there can be serious side effects but these are rare. It is extremely unlikely that anyone who has eaten horse meat containing bute will experience one of these side effects."

The widening scandal began when beef products on sale in several European Union countries were found to contain horse meat. Suppliers have said that the questionable meat originated at processing plants in Romania.

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Kim Kardashian & Kanye West Involved in Security Breach at JFK

By Tim Nudd

02/14/2013 at 08:00 AM EST

Kim Kardashian and Kayne West

Splash News Online

Sorry, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West. You'll have to endure the normal hassles of air travel, too.

The couple, returning from Brazil, were involved in a security breach at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday morning, when a TSA employee allowed them to skip a security checkpoint while transferring flights.

"An airline employee escorted the two travelers through a non-public area in order to provide expedited access to their domestic flight," a TSA spokesman said, according to New York's Daily News.

The spokesman said the employee was to blame – not Kardashian, 32, and West, 35.

The couple, who are expecting a baby, had returned from Carnival in Brazil and were transferring to a flight to Los Angeles. They made the connection but were forced to disembark and be screened privately, delaying the flight for an hour.

TMZ.com first reported the incident.

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Morning-after pill use up to 1 in 9 younger women

NEW YORK (AP) — About 1 in 9 younger women have used the morning-after pill after sex, according to the first government report to focus on emergency contraception since its approval 15 years ago.

The results come from a survey of females ages 15 to 44. Eleven percent of those who'd had sex reported using a morning-after pill. That's up from 4 percent in 2002, only a few years after the pills went on the market and adults still needed a prescription.

The increased popularity is probably because it is easier to get now and because of media coverage of controversial efforts to lift the age limit for over-the-counter sales, experts said. A prescription is still required for those younger than 17 so it is still sold from behind pharmacy counters.

In the study, half the women who used the pills said they did it because they'd had unprotected sex. Most of the rest cited a broken condom or worries that the birth control method they used had failed.

White women and more educated women use it the most, the research showed. That's not surprising, said James Trussell, a Princeton University researcher who's studied the subject.

"I don't think you can go to college in the United States and not know about emergency contraception," said Trussell, who has promoted its use and started a hot line.

One Pennsylvania college even has a vending machine dispensing the pills.

The morning-after pill is basically a high-dose version of birth control pills. It prevents ovulation and needs to be taken within a few days after sex. The morning-after pill is different from the so-called abortion pill, which is designed to terminate a pregnancy.

At least five versions of the morning-after pills are sold in the United States. They cost around $35 to $60 a dose at a pharmacy, depending on the brand.

Since it is sold over-the-counter, insurers generally only pay for it with a doctor's prescription. The new Affordable Care Act promises to cover morning-after pills, meaning no co-pays, but again only with a prescription.

The results of the study were released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's based on in-person interviews of more than 12,000 women in 2006 through 2010. It was the agency's first in-depth report on that issue, said Kimberly Daniels, the study's lead author.

The study also found:

—Among different age groups, women in their early 20s were more likely to have taken a morning-after pill. About 1 in 4 did.

—About 1 in 5 never-married women had taken a morning-after pill, compared to just 1 in 20 married women.

—Of the women who used the pill, 59 percent said they had done it only once, 24 percent said twice, and 17 percent said three or more times.

A woman who uses emergency contraception multiple times "needs to be thinking about a more regular form" of birth control, noted Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that does research on reproductive health.

Also on Thursday, the CDC released a report on overall contraception use. Among its many findings, 99 percent of women who've had sex used some sort of birth control. That includes 82 percent who used birth control pills and 93 percent whose partner had used a condom.

___

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/

Emergency contraception info: http://ec.princeton.edu/index.html

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Stock futures dip on Europe, Japan growth data; Cisco weighs

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock futures fell on Thursday in the wake of weaker-than-expected growth data from Europe and Japan and a disappointing outlook from technology bellwether Cisco Systems .

Though weakness in Europe has persisted over recent quarters, underwhelming economic growth data from the region and from Japan, which could impact global growth and U.S. corporate profits, may spur profit-taking in U.S. equities.

The French and German economies shrank more than expected in the fourth quarter of 2012, and a 0.6 percent contraction in the euro zone was the steepest for the bloc since the first quarter of 2009.

Japan's GDP shrank 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter, crushing expectations of a modest return to growth and adding weight to the new government's push for radical policy steps to revive growth.

The S&P 500 is up 6.6 percent so far this year, though a dearth of fresh incentives has kept trading thin over the past few sessions.

"We've had a real absence of news in the marketplace and any bit of information that suggests the recovery is not underway is probably being given more significance that it might have," said Rick Meckler, president of investment firm LibertyView Capital Management in Jersey City, New Jersey.

He said that following a mild climb on the S&P 500, traders were "cashing in a little bit."

Shrinking European economies translated to a 5-percent drop in revenue from the region for Cisco Systems, which reported its results Wednesday. The company's shares fell 1.6 percent in premarket trading.

S&P 500 futures fell 4 points and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures fell 62 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures lost 11 points.

H.J. Heinz Co shares jumped 20 percent in premarket trading after it said that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital will buy the company for $72.50 a share, or $28 billion including debt.

American Airlines and US Airways Group said they plan to merge in a deal that will form the world's biggest air carrier, with an equity valuation of about $11 billion. US Airways shares rose 1.3 percent in premarket trading.

Nvidia shares fell 1.5 percent in premarket trading after the chip maker's revenue outlook missed expectations on Wednesday, pointing to a slowing PC industry and slower production of tablets using its chips.

On the other hand, shares of the world's largest chip gear maker Applied Materials rose Wednesday after the closing bell following a better-than-expected earnings report and outlook.

Best Buy shares fell 2.8 percent in premarket trading; sources said on Wednesday the electronics retailer's founder may scrap a buyout bid and instead line up investors to take a minority position.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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IHT Rendezvous: Mario Draghi Takes the E.C.B.'s Message to Spain

MADRID—The European Central Bank and its president, Mario Draghi, want to ensure that their voices get heard beyond the financial district of Frankfurt.

But their efforts to travel around Europe and spread their message more directly to its citizens have ended up backfiring, at least when it comes to visiting Spain, one of the countries at the center of the Continent’s debt crisis.

Last May, the E.C.B. held one of its regular meetings in Barcelona, under the kind of police surveillance worthy of a city at war and in a convention center on the outskirts of the city, in order to shield Mr. Draghi and his fellow central bankers from anti-austerity street protests. About 7,500 police officers were deployed around Barcelona, with helicopters hovering above, while only a few hundred students gathered in the city center to protest spending cuts by the Spanish government in areas like health and education.

On Tuesday, Mr. Draghi was again in Spain, this time in Madrid to address lawmakers in Congress. The security was less fearsome, but the meeting was held behind closed doors, and Parliament did not provide the usual transcript of such an official session. As a result, regardless of what was said inside, Mr. Draghi’s visit ended up generating more controversy because of its format than its content.

Afterward, Spain’s opposition lawmakers lambasted the president of the Parliament, Jesús Posada, for using frequency-scrambling technology to block any cellphone transmissions within the chamber during Mr. Draghi’s session, to thwart the plans of some parliamentarians who had promised to send Twitter messages and upload videos to keep people informed about what Mr. Draghi was saying.

Valeriano Gómez, the spokesman on the economy for lawmakers from the main opposition group, the Socialist Party, said the restrictions surrounding Mr. Draghi’s appearance had done “no favor to the E.C.B., nor to the prestige of our chamber.” Other leftist lawmakers denounced the format of the event as a violation of parliamentary rules and an insult to democracy.

Mr. Draghi, meanwhile, later spoke to reporters to detail his views on the Spanish economy, while the E.C.B. also published the text of Mr. Draghi’s opening speech to Spanish lawmakers.

Asked about the lack of transparency, Mr. Draghi insisted that that he had not set the rules and would have had no problem speaking more openly before lawmakers if the Spanish Parliament had wanted. Given that videos of his session were eventually released by some frustrated lawmakers, Mr. Draghi concluded that, “I don’t believe anybody missed out on anything.”

Except perhaps Mr. Posada, the Parliament president, who may have hoped to see Mr. Draghi showing a bit more solidarity and helping to justify his communications strategy.

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One Direction, Taylor Swift Among Kids' Choice Awards Nominees

By Andrea Billups

02/13/2013 at 08:50 AM EST

One Direction, (from left) Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Harry Styles

Jon Furniss/AP

Time to get slimed!

Wednesday brought the nominations for Nickelodeon's Kids' Choice Awards, set to air March 23 with Josh Duhamel as host.

For favorite musical group, nominees include Big Time Rush, Bon Jovi, Maroon 5 and One Direction. Favorite Song nominees include: "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen, "Gagnan Style" by PSY, "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift, and "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction.

"We are delighted with our nominations for the Kids' Choice Awards," One Direction's Harry Styles said in a statement to PEOPLE. "It was amazing to perform 'What Makes You Beautiful' at last year’s show. Thank you as always to our incredible fans and supporters!"

Voting opens in 22 categories on nick.com on Thursday, allowing for a little Valentine's Day love for your favorite TV actors, musicians, sports and film stars. New categories added this year include favorite app and favorite villain.

Voters may also mark their ballots on Facebook using embeddable wall posts and on Twitter with custom hashtags.

This year mark's Nickelodeon's 26th annual awards. The show will be broadcast live from the University of Southern California's Galen Center on March 23, starting at 8 p.m. ET, on Nickelodeon, of course.

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SARS-linked virus may have spread between people

LONDON (AP) — British officials say a mysterious virus related to SARS may have spread between humans, as they confirmed the 11th case worldwide of the new coronavirus in a patient who they say probably caught it from a family member.

The new virus was first identified last year in the Middle East and the 10 people who have previously been infected had all traveled to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Pakistan.

According to Britain's Health Protection Agency, the latest patient is a U.K. resident with no recent travel to any of those countries but who had close personal contact with an earlier case. The patient may also have been at greater risk of infection due to an underlying medical condition and is currently in intensive care at a Birmingham hospital.

"Although this case provides strong evidence for person to person transmission, the risk of infection in most circumstances is still considered to be very low," John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the Health Protection Agency, said in a statement. "If (the) novel coronavirus were more infectious, we would have expected to have seen a larger number of cases."

Six hospital staffers where the patient is being treated are being monitored for infection but none have so far showed any symptoms of the illness. The patient did not come into contact with any other hospital patients and is currently being kept in isolation.

The new coronavirus is part of a family of viruses that cause ailments including the common cold and SARS. In 2003, a global outbreak of SARS killed about 800 people worldwide.

Officials at the World Health Organization said the new virus has probably already spread between humans in some instances. In Saudi Arabia last year, four members of the same family fell ill and two died. And in a cluster of about a dozen people in Jordan, the virus may have spread at a hospital's intensive care unit.

"We know that in some of those cases there was close physical contact between family members caring for one another, so we can't rule out human-to-human transmission," said Gregory Hartl, a WHO spokesman.

He said there were still big gaps in the understanding of the novel coronavirus, which can cause acute pneumonia and kidney failure. Of the 11 cases to date, five people have died.

Health experts still aren't sure how humans are being infected. The new coronavirus is most closely related to a bat virus and scientists are considering whether bats or other animals like goats or camels are a possible source of infection.

Michael Osterholm, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Minnesota, warned the virus could be adapting into a more transmissible form. "At any moment the fire hydrant of human-to-human transmission cases could open," he said. "This is definitely a 'stay tuned' moment." He noted that before SARS sparked a worldwide epidemic, there were a handful of human-to-human cases, until something happened, like a virus mutation, which triggered an explosion of cases.

WHO says the virus is probably more widespread than just the Middle East and has advised countries to test any people with unexplained pneumonia.

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