Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Doctor: Skin lesion removed from Biden’s chest was cancerous
WASHINGTON — A skin lesion removed from President Joe Biden’s chest last month was a basal cell carcinoma — a common form of skin cancer — his doctor said Friday, adding that no further treatment was required.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, the White House doctor who has served as Biden’s longtime physician, said “all cancerous tissue was successfully removed” during the president’s routine physical Feb. 16.
Biden, 80, was deemed by O’Connor to be “healthy, vigorous” and “fit ” to handle his White House responsibilities during that physical exam, which comes as he is weeks away from launching an expected bid for reelection in 2024.
O’Connor said the site of the removal on Biden’s chest has “healed nicely” and the president will continue regular skin screenings as part of his routine health plan.
Basal cells are among the most common and easily treated forms of cancer — especially when caught early. O’Connor said they don’t tend to spread like other cancers, but could grow in size, which is why they are removed.
Biden had “several localized non-melanoma skin cancers” removed from his body before he started his presidency, O’Connor said in his Feb. 16 summary of the president’s health, noting it was well established that Biden spent a lot of time in the sun during his youth.
First lady Jill Biden in January had two basal cell lesions removed from her right eye and chest.
She said last week that she’s now “extra careful” about sunscreen, especially when she’s at the beach.
Basal cell carcinoma is a slow-growing cancer that usually is confined to the surface of skin — doctors almost always can remove it all with a shallow incision — and seldom causes serious complications or becomes life-threatening.
The Bidens have long been advocates for fighting cancer. Their adult son Beau died in 2015 from brain cancer.
Deadly weather: A large storm system producing heavy winds and possible tornadoes in Texas, Louisiana and Kentucky damaged homes and buildings, downed trees, left thousands without power and was blamed for the deaths of three people Friday as it marched eastward, threatening heavy snow in the Midwest and Northeast.
After spawning likely tornadoes overnight in Texas and Louisiana that damaged a university campus in Shreveport, the storms threatened the Tennessee and Ohio valleys with high winds and more tornadoes as they moved toward New England, officials said.
A 70-year-old man sitting in his truck as strong winds blew through Talledega County, Alabama, was killed Friday when a tree fell onto the vehicle. In west central Mississippi, a person was killed inside a vehicle Friday after a tree, toppled by strong winds, struck the car. In Arkansas, a man drowned after he drove into high floodwaters.
Pentagon Papers: Daniel Ellsberg, who copied and leaked documents revealing secret details of U.S. strategy in the Vietnam War that became known as the Pentagon Papers, said he has terminal cancer and months to live.
Ellsberg, 91, posted on his Facebook page Thursday that doctors diagnosed him with inoperable pancreatic cancer Feb. 17 following medical scans.
Doctors have given him three to six months to live, he said.
Ellsberg said he has opted not to undergo chemotherapy and plans to accept hospice care when needed.
The documents in the Pentagon Papers looked in excruciating detail at the decisions and strategies of the Vietnam War. They told how U.S. involvement was built up steadily by political leaders and top military brass who were overconfident about U.S. prospects and deceptive about the accomplishments against the North Vietnamese.
Ellsberg, a former consultant to the Defense Department, provided the Pentagon Papers to Neil Sheehan, a reporter who broke the story for The New York Times in June 1971.
Nigeria refinery blast: An explosion and fire near an illegal oil refinery site in
Nigeria’s Niger Delta region killed at least 12 people Friday, police said, although local residents reported a much higher death toll.
The explosion in the Emuoha council area of the southern Rivers state occurred along a pipeline targeted by illegal refinery operators trying to steal oil, state police spokesperson Grace Iringe-Koko said.
“Preliminary investigation by the Police Command indicates that the victims were scooping crude products when the site caught fire,” Iringe-Koko said, adding that authorities were working to determine how many people died.
Fyneface Dumnamene, executive director of Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, said a spark from the exhaust pipe of a bus loaded with gallons of crude oil ignited the explosion as the driver attempted to depart.
“Everybody in about five vehicles there was all burnt,” Dumnamene told The Associated Press.
Syria quake losses: The World Bank said Friday that Syria sustained an estimated $5.1 billion in damage in last month’s massive earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and northern parts of the war-torn country.
The quake killed at least 50,000 people, including about 6,000 in Syria, according to the United Nations. Tens of thousands are still missing and hundreds of thousands were left homeless.
The World Bank’s report said the level of damage in Syria is about 10% of the country’s gross domestic product.
In an earlier assessment report, the World Bank said Monday that the damage in Turkey from last month’s earthquake is estimated at $34.2 billion.
Colombia hippos: Colombia is proposing transferring at least 70 hippopotamuses that live near Pablo Escobar’s former ranch — descendants of four illegally imported from Africa by the late drug lord in the 1980s — to facilities in India and Mexico as part of a plan to control their population.
The hippos have spread far beyond the Hacienda Napoles ranch, 124 miles from Bogota along the Magdalena River. Environmental authorities estimate there are about 130 hippos in the area in Antioquia province and their population could reach 400 in eight years.
Escobar’s Hacienda Napoles — and the hippos — have become a sort of local tourist attraction since the kingpin was killed by police in 1993. When his ranch was abandoned, the hippos survived and reproduced in local rivers and favorable climatic conditions.
Scientists warn the hippos do not have a natural predator in Colombia and are a potential problem for biodiversity, as their feces change the composition of the rivers and could degrade the habitat of manatees and capybaras. Last year, Colombia’s government declared them a toxic invasive species.