In brief: Some fish fine for pregnant women, FDA says

Washington – The FDA, in a change of course, now wants pregnant women to eat more fish. But not the kinds that are high in mercury.

Altering its 2004 advice to shun most seafood, the Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday in an updated report with the Environmental Protection Agency that pregnant and breast-feeding women and young children should eat fish that is low in mercury levels to gain important health benefits.

Those fish – including salmon, trout, anchovies and sardines – are high in essential omega-3 fatty acids. The FDA also noted that pollock, shrimp, talapia, catfish, cod and canned light tuna are safe to consume while pregnant or breast-feeding.

Cruz relinquishes Canadian citizenship

Austin, Texas – Canada-born U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has made good on a promise to renounce his birth country’s citizenship – doing so amid speculation he could make a run at the White House in 2016.

Spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said Cruz’s action became official May 14 and that Texas’ junior senator received written confirmation at his home in Houston on Tuesday.

Cruz, 43, was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1970, while his parents were working in the oil business there. His mother, Eleanor, is from Delaware, while his father, Rafael, is a Cuban who didn’t become a U.S. citizen until 2005.

Amid questions last August about his eligibility to be president should he decide to run, Cruz released his birth certificate to the Dallas Morning News – and said then that he was surprised to learn he was a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen.

Upon learning that he’d received it at birth, he promised to formally give it up. Months then passed before Cruz hired an immigration attorney to help him with the process.