TOP STORY

GEORGIA

Those over 60 urged to get shingles shot

ATLANTA — People 60 and older should get a one-time shingles shot that can help prevent the painful rash, U.S. health officials are recommending.

There's a 50-50 chance the shot will prevent shingles for those 60 and up, though the odds get worse the older you get. But shingles can be severe for some people, and the government believes it's worth the $160-per-dose cost.

Caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox, shingles is a blistering skin rash most common in older people. It usually ends after four weeks, but one in five victims develops long-term nerve pain. Other complications include scarring and loss of vision or hearing.

The chickenpox infects about 95 percent of Americans, although some suffer mild illness and may not know they've had it. As many as one in three infected people develops shingles later in life.

Even those who have already had shingles should get the shot if they are over 60, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

IN BRIEF

TEXAS

HIV-positive man sentenced for spitting

DALLAS — A homeless man who spit in the mouth and eye of a police officer and then taunted him, saying he was HIV positive, was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday for harassing a public servant with a deadly weapon: his saliva.

Because of the deadly weapon finding, the man, Willie Campbell, 42, of Dallas, will not be eligible for parole until he has served half his sentence.

In May 2006, a passer-by reported an unconscious man, Campbell, sprawled outside a downtown Dallas building. Campbell tried to fight paramedics and kicked the police officer who arrested him for public intoxication, prosecutors said.

The police reported that Campbell spat at an officer and said he had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, as they struggled to move him to a squad car.

During the trial, Campbell, who prosecutors say has been HIV positive since 1994, denied that he had resisted arrest or spit at an officer, his lawyer, Russell Henrichs, said Thursday.

NORTH DAKOTA

Mad flight attendant forces plane to land

FARGO — A flight attendant angry about his work route smuggled a lighter aboard an airplane and set a fire in a bathroom, forcing an emergency landing, authorities said Thursday.

The Compass Airlines flight carrying 72 passengers and four crew members landed safely in Fargo on May 7 after smoke filled the back. No injuries were reported. The plane was flying from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan, authorities said.

Eder Rojas, 19, appeared in court Thursday, following his arrest a day earlier in Minneapolis, and ordered held without bail, prosecutors said. The charge of setting fire aboard a civil aircraft carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

— From wire reports