Mayor Thomas M. Menino of Boston called on the city's Retirement Board yesterday to deny a disability pension to a firefighter who competed in bodybuilding competitions after claiming to have suffered a career-ending fall at a firehouse.

The Boston Globe reported yesterday that firefighter Albert Arroyo finished eighth in a men's bodybuilding competition on May 3, six weeks after his doctor recommended to city officials that he be granted an accidental disability retirement because he was "totally and permanently disabled."

The case was reported as the Justice Department investigates allegations of broad abuse of disability pensions by firefighters.

Source: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/07/15/mayor_urges_disability_pension_denial/

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Northeastern University suspended a partnership with a New Jersey hospital this week after two of its students were allegedly coerced by paramedics into dressing as members of the Ku Klux Klan, officials said.

A grainy cellphone photograph released by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey shows two people wearing white sheets, one clenching a makeshift cross constructed from wood and tape. Someone in an emergency medical services uniform can be seen adjusting the other student's sheet.

Officials at UMDNJ, which operates Newark's University Hospital, said the three paramedics involved in the staging were fired this week. Timothy Prahm was fired July 7, Guess said. Henry Solares and Thomas Hart were fired July 10, she said. All students involved immediately returned to Boston, where they were placed into new programs. The names of the students were not released.

Source: http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2008/07/14/students_appear_like_kkk_in_photo/

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Dozens of partygoers at an outdoor rave near Moscow have been partially blinded after a laser light show burned their retinas, say Russian health officials.

Partygoers say heavy rains forced organisers to erect massive tents for the all-night dance party. The damage seems to have been caused when laser beams that were intended for outdoor use to illuminate the sky, were somehow turned or reflected onto the crowd.

"They all have retinal burns, scarring is visible on them. Loss of vision in individual cases is as high as 80%, and regaining it is already impossible," [local paper] Kommersant quoted a treating ophthalmologist as saying.

Source: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn14310-party-laser-blinds-russian-ravers.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news5_head_dn14310