Pfizer studies back pneumococcal shot for adults

Two key late-stage studies of Pfizer's blockbuster pneumococcal vaccine for children show it works at least as well as a rival in adults, a big market the drugmaker wants to tap.

The studies of Pfizer Inc.'s Prevnar 13 vaccine against pneumonia, meningitis and other infections were presented Monday at two medical conferences in Milan, Italy. The results have been submitted to regulators in the U.S., European Union and more than a dozen other countries where New York-based Pfizer is seeking approval for people over 49.

It said the studies show the shots worked as well as or better than an older pneumococcal vaccine made by Merck & Co, Pneumovax 23.

Videos show bin Laden watching himself on TV

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Home movies taken from Osama bin Laden's hideout show the terrorist leader watching news coverage of himself on television.

The videos were seized by Navy SEALs after bin Laden was killed Monday. They were shown to reporters Saturday by intelligence officials.

FBI: DC suspicious letters part of broader probe

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than three dozen suspicious but apparently harmless letters addressed to District of Columbia schools appear to have been mailed from the Dallas area and closely resemble letters under investigation by authorities there, the FBI said Friday.

Envelopes containing a white, powdery substance were delivered to 28 D.C. schools on Thursday. One school received two letters. On Friday, 10 more envelopes were found: six that had been delivered to schools and four more that were collected at a mail facility by U.S. postal inspectors, said Lindsay Godwin, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office.

No hazardous substances have been found in any of the envelopes, and no one has been injured or become ill after coming into contact with them. They are being analyzed at an FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va.

Judge: No blame for UK agencies in London bombings

LONDON (AP) -- Neither intelligence lapses nor a flawed emergency response contributed to the deaths of 52 people killed when suicide bombers struck London's transit system in 2005, a judge ruled Friday.

Judge Heather Hallett's inquest verdict disappointed some victims' families, who hoped she would criticize emergency agencies and Britain's spy service, which had two of the bombers on its radar but failed to pursue them.

Hallett concluded that the commuters were "unlawfully killed in a dreadful act of terrorism" by the four bombers and said that no "failings on the part of any organization or individual caused or contributed to any of the deaths."

Religious groups question Goldman on pay

NEW YORK (AP) -- When Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executives and shareholders gather Friday morning for the company's annual meeting, the room might look a little like a house of worship.

A coalition of religious groups headed by a nun, a priest and the CEO of a Jewish organization will be there to press Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to evaluate whether it's paying executives too much. Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein will have no choice but to listen. The group has won a coveted spot on the annual meeting agenda.

The religious contingent also wants the investment bank to evaluate the pay discrepancy between high-paid workers and those at the bottom. And they're asking the company to explain something many shareholders want to know: why compensation for Goldman's top five executives rose to $69.6 million in 2010 even as profits and revenues have declined.

CVS Caremark 1Q profit falls on margins, costs

NEW YORK (AP) -- CVS Caremark Corp. said Thursday that its first-quarter net income fell nearly 8 percent as its pharmacy benefits management business continued to report lower profits.

The Woonsocket, R.I., company said its profit fell to $713 million, or 52 cents per share, from $771 million, or 55 cents per share. Its revenue grew 9 percent to $25.88 billion from $23.76 billion.

Excluding acquisition and other charges, the company said it earned 57 cents per share. FactSet said analysts expected a profit of 55 cents per share and $25.76 billion in revenue.

Stamp honors 1st American in space 50 years later

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- The first American in space, Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard, was honored with his own stamp Wednesday on the eve of the 50th anniversary of his flight.

The Postal Service dedicated the Forever stamp Wednesday to commemorate Shepard's suborbital flight on May 5, 1961. He is the first astronaut to be honored, all by himself, on a stamp.

Twenty Shepard family members, including the late astronaut's three daughters, gathered at Kennedy Space Center with more than 100 others for the afternoon ceremony, held in an outdoor rocket garden. A replica of the black and white Mercury Redstone rocket that propelled Shepard on his 15-minute journey rose behind the stage.

For computer chip builders, only one way to go: Up

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- In the race to build a faster computer chip, there is literally nowhere to go but up. Today's chip surfaces are packed with the tiniest electronic switches the laws of physics allow, but Intel Corp. says it is blowing past those limits with a breakthrough, three-dimensional transistor design it revealed Wednesday.

Analysts call it one of the most significant developments in silicon transistor design since the integrated circuit was invented in the 1950s. It opens the way for faster smartphones, lighter laptops and a new generation of supercomputers - and possibly for powerful new products engineers have yet to dream up.

Minuscule fins jutting from the surface of the typically flat transistors improve performance without adding size, just as skyscrapers make the most of a small square of land.

NYC sees spike in suspicious packages reports

NEW YORK (AP) -- Within minutes of a news conference at ground zero where authorities preached calm and vigilance after the killing of Osama bin Laden, the alarming 911 call came in.

The caller in Times Square on Monday afternoon reported that a suspicious package was sitting on the sidewalk at West 43rd Street and Eighth Avenue - a mere two blocks from where admitted terrorist Faisal Shahzad had failed in his frightening attempt to blow up a car bomb almost exactly a year earlier.

Unlike the Shahzad case, the scare fizzled out in a more familiar way: The New York Police Department patrol officers who swarmed the area quickly determined the package was a bag of garbage.

The NYPD says such false alarms have become a frequent but necessary annoyance for authorities laboring to protect a nervous city in the post-9/11 world.