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Health experts are warning parents against holding “swine flu parties” in the hope of infecting their children with the H1N1 virus.
alk of swine flu parties has emerged on Internet forums. The idea is that exposing a child to the H1N1 virus while it remains relatively mild will give the child immunity if the virus returns [...]
There is a new flu virus going around. It initially looked quite lethal, and caused panic. Now it is clear that it has killed relatively few victims — and many of those have underlying conditions. It is particularly dangerous to be the possessor of a pushed-in nose — that is, to be a Pekingese, a [...]
Republicans are raising questions about why the EPA apparently dismissed an analyst’s report questioning the science behind global warming.
A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.
The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the [...]
California is preparing to issue IOUs to its creditors this week as it grapples with an unprecedented cash crunch and prepares to begin its new fiscal year deep in the red.
Once the US’s richest state, California now has the dubious distinction of having the worst credit rating in the country.
It is facing a budget deficit [...]
Time is running out for the legislatures in Arizona, California, Indiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania to solve budget gaps.
Reporting from Indianapolis and Denver — The last time Indiana missed its deadline for passing a budget and had to shut down the government was during the Civil War.
But on Monday, as lawmakers raced to hammer out an [...]
The makers of Tylenol, Excedrin and other medications are trying to dissuade regulators from placing new restrictions on their popular painkillers, including possibly removing some of them from store shelves.
The Food and Drug Administration has assembled more than 35 experts to discuss ways to prevent overdose with acetaminophen – the pain-relieving, fever-reducing ingredient in Tylenol [...]
Indian scientists are flying through storm clouds as part of a new plan to seed them with rain-inducing chemicals to try to control the timing of the annual monsoon, whose late arrival is causing havoc this year.
As Britain sweltered in temperatures of up to 32C (90F), the late monsoon means that India [...]
Cybercrime is rapidly spreading on Facebook as fraudsters prey on users who think the world’s top social networking site is a safe haven on the Internet.
Lisa Severens, a clinical trials manager from Worcester, Massachusetts, learned the hard way. A virus took control of her laptop and started sending pornographic photos to colleagues.
“I was mortified about [...]
Matthew Brzica and his wife hardly noticed when the hospital took a few drops of blood from each of their four newborn children for routine genetic testing. But then they discovered that the state had kept the dried blood samples ever since — and was making them available to scientists for medical research.
“They’re just taking [...]
The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it had confirmed the presence of E. coli 0157, a deadly strain of bacteria, in samples of Nestlé Toll House refrigerated cookie dough produced at the company’s plant in Danville, Va.
Investigators did not find the bacterium inside the factory or on equipment but in a tub of [...]
Taliban militants in Pakistan’s tribal region of North Waziristan have pulled out of a peace deal negotiated with the government last year.
The announcement by a spokesman for local Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar Tuesday threatens to open another front for the Pakistani army - already battling the insurgents in two other areas.
The spokesman, Ahmadullah Ahmadi [...]
Russia Holds Largest War Games Since War With Georgia In Signal To Georgia, And To US
Thousands of troops, backed by hundreds of tanks, artillery and other heavy weaponry, began rumbling through the North Caucasus on Monday, as Russia began its largest military exercises since last year’s war with Georgia.
The Caucasus 2009 war games are being [...]
Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday said he is concerned about U.S. forces withdrawing from Iraqi cities within 24 hours.
Mr. Cheney told The Washington Times’ “America’s Morning News” radio show that he is a strong believer in Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, and that the general is doing what needs [...]
Police and soldiers clashed with thousands of protesters outside Honduras’ national palace Monday, leaving at least 15 people injured, as world leaders from Barack Obama to Hugo Chavez demanded the return of a president ousted in a military coup.
Leftist leaders pulled their ambassadors from Honduras and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said El Salvador, Nicaragua and [...]
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya says soldiers rousted him out of bed, beat his body guards and arrested him in his pajamas in what he criticized as “a coup” and “a kidnapping.”
Zelaya told a local television station Sunday that he is at the airport in San Jose, capital of Costa Rica.
He said he would not recognize [...]
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday put troops on alert after a coup in Honduras and said he would respond militarily if his envoy to the Central American country was kidnapped or killed.
Chavez said Honduran soldiers took away the Cuban ambassador and left the Venezuelan ambassador on the side of a road after beating him [...]
Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.
Iran’s hardline president lashed out anew at the United States and President Barack Obama on [...]
As he promised last year, Barack Obama has brought climate change and healthcare reform to the centre of the nation’s attention. As well as evangelising, he is pressing Congress to act. Last week the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill to curb carbon emissions, a measure that, if enacted, would touch every part [...]
NASA Sends Into Orbit Sophisticated Weather Satellite, Meant To Track Hurricanes And Tornadoes
A sophisticated new weather satellite rocketed into orbit Saturday, giving forecasters another powerful tool for tracking hurricanes and tornadoes.
An unmanned rocket carrying the nation’s latest Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite blasted off early Saturday evening, a day late because of thunderstorms. The satellite headed [...]
Lawyers representing the families of the 9/11 victims, expose evidence allegedly proving the Saudi royal family’s financial support for al-Qaeda.
The lawyers provided The New York Times with excerpts of the material they had amassed by putting together the pieces from leaking American intelligence documents among other things, the daily reported on Tuesday.
The evidence, originally presented [...]
Faith matters. Even if you are not of religious faith yourself. Over 4 billion people world-wide recognize themselves as religious. They may not attend an organized place of worship. But Faith plays a part in their lives. A recent poll found that religion is important for around 30-35% of people in Europe, 65% of Americans [...]
The Rt Rev Paul Richardson said declining church attendance and the rise in multiculturalism meant that “Christian Britain is dead”.
He criticised his fellow bishops for failing to appreciate the scale of the crisis and warned that their inaction could seal the Church’s fate.
As one of the Church’s longest-serving bishops, [...]
Vatican officials announced Wednesday that President Obama will have his first audience with Pope Benedict XVI in July.
Although the White House has not confirmed the meeting, deputy Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini told Reuters, “the Pope is ready to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in the afternoon of July 10.” Mr Obama will be in [...]
Fauré’s “Requiem” is playing in the background, followed by the Kronos Quartet. Every so often the music is interrupted by an electromechanical arpeggio — like a jazz riff on a clarinet — as the motors guiding the telescope spin up and down. A night of galaxy gazing is about to begin at the Vatican’s observatory [...]
A recent visit by a Vatican delegation to CERN — one of the world’s largest centers for scientific research — has opened up an important channel of communication between science and faith, said the Vatican representative to U.N. agencies in Geneva.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the representative, was part of the delegation led by Cardinal Giovanni [...]
The Pope has his own YouTube channel and has urged young Catholics to help spread Catholicism via the internet.
Since launching his YouTube channel earlier this year, Pope Benedict XVI said the Internet has changed the way news is distributed and how people relate to each other.
So the Catholic church plans to use it to spread [...]
It’s easy to picture the Vatican as a medieval anachronism—a theme park built by Michelangelo and protected by the Swiss Guard (who really are Swiss, by the way). Heck, its press office even closes at 2:30pm.
But this impression isn’t wholly accurate. The Vatican has taken plenty of small steps into the Internet age over the [...]
Pope’s broadcaster runs 24-hour programming on Internet, FM stations
Vatican Radio said Tuesday it will start running commercials for the first time in its 78-year history, interspersing the pope’s messages with “ideologically” sound publicity spots.
The first ads from Italian energy giant Enel will start running July 6 in five languages: Italian, English, Spanish, French and German, [...]
Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher had an informal exchange with Pope Benedict XVI after she attended his weekly general audience on Wednesday.
The pope shook hands and had a brief conversation with Britain’s first female premier, dressed in black, in the same way he greets scheduled visitors and recently married couples.
Thatcher, 83, a Protestant, became [...]
All you need to know to diagnose the state of the Catholic Church in America today is that Pope Benedict XVI — who has a knack for ticking off Muslims and Jews — spent the past week wandering the Middle East, yet Catholics here barely noticed. They were too busy fighting over Barack Obama’s appearance [...]
The U.S. public has a high opinion of the pope and many want to hear him address controversial issues, a poll indicates.
The poll, conducted by the Knights of Columbus in partnership with the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in New York, shows that by a nearly 3 to 1 margin — 59 percent to [...]
The Vatican is launching iPhone and Facebook applications in an effort to help Catholics, especially younger generations, use new technologies to create a culture of dialogue, respect and friendship.
The new applications are part of a brand new Vatican Web site — www.pope2you.net — that was to go live on World Communications Day, which will be [...]
Benedict’s take on Aids, Islam and a Holocaust denier boosted understanding and reflection, says communications chief
The Vatican’s communications chief has defended his handling of the controversies surrounding Benedict XVI’s papacy by arguing that the furores have benefited the Holy See.
Father Federico Lombardi said that many of the scandals had led people to think deeply about [...]
Former U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld used ‘biblical images’ to deliver reports on the war in Iraq to President Bush.
With the former president known for his devout evangelical beliefs, bible passages were printed on the top secret briefs detailing the progress of the war in 2003, it has emerged.
The hand-delivered messages, which were leaked to [...]
