 Earth is heating up lately, but so are Mars, Pluto and other worlds in our solar system, leading some scientists to speculate that a change in the sun’s activity is the common thread linking all these baking events. Others argue that such claims are misleading and create the false impression that rapid global warming, as Earth is experiencing, is a natural phenomenon. While evidence suggests fluctuations in solar activity can affect climate on Earth, and that it has done so in the past, the majority of climate scientists and astrophysicists agree that the sun is not to blame for the current and historically sudden uptick in global temperatures on Earth, which seems to be mostly a mess created by our own species. Habibullo Abdussamatov, the head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, recently linked the attenuation of ice caps on Mars to fluctuations in the sun's output. Abdussamatov also blamed solar fluctuations for...
http://www.livescience.com
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Editor - 21:16:00 03-15-07
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 Employers up use of high-deductible health plans |
Nine percent of U.S. employers in a poll by a health consulting firm said they plan to offer only one health insurance option next year — a high-deductible policy that may encourage workers to skimp on care.This type of plan charges higher monthly deductibles, typically about $1,000 for individuals, in exchange for cheaper monthly premiums and preventive services. The aim is to stem a rise in overall medical costs, which are climbing at twice the rate of general inflation. Health consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide conducted the poll with the National Business Group on Health, a group of employers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and General Motors Corp. The poll found that 5 percent of companies offered only a high-deductible plan in 2007, and that figure ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2956022
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Editor - 20:43:00 03-15-07
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| Gonorrhea cases up in the West, down nationally Meth use could explain the increases in California and 7 other states, the CDC says. |
Gonorrhea cases are rising at an alarming pace across the western United States, even while declining in the rest of the country, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. The number of cases in California and seven other western states increased 42% from 2000 to 2005 while declining 10% nationally, according to the report. An increase in gonorrhea is typically associated with a rise in other sexually transmitted diseases — most importantly HIV infection. "This is one of the most significant increases we've seen in gonorrhea in years," said Dr. Lori Newman, an epidemiologist at the CDC and one of the report's authors. "Unless we take action now, we'll be in trouble in the future." The outbreak is spreading most intensely in Nevada, where the proportion of new cases...
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-gonorrhea16mar16,1,5033993.story?track=rss&ctrack=1&cset=true
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Editor - 20:41:00 03-15-07
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| Coca-Cola Should Drop the 'Coca,' Bolivian Coca Growers Say |
Always Coca-Cola? Not if Bolivia's coca growers have their way. The farmers want the word "Coca" dropped by the U.S. soft drink company, arguing that the potent shrub belongs to the cultural heritage of this Andean nation, where the coca leaf infuses everyday life and is sacred to many. A commission of coca industry representatives advising an assembly rewriting Bolivia's constitution passed a resolution Wednesday calling on the Atlanta, Ga.-based company to take "Coca" out of its name and asking the United Nations to decriminalize the leaf. The resolution demands that "international companies that include in their commercial name the name of coca (example: Coca Cola) refrain from using the name of the sacred leaf in their products." ...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2956012
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Editor - 20:24:00 03-15-07
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| Top U.S. Nuclear Envoy Says Financial Dispute With North Korea Is Resolved |
The top U.S. nuclear envoy said Friday that he felt a dispute over North Korean funds held in Macau that had possibly threatened international efforts to rid Pyongyang of its nuclear weapons had been resolved. Washington promised to resolve its blacklisting of the tiny Banco Delta Asia and the freezing of $24 million in North Korean deposits as an inducement to Pyongyang to rejoin international talks on its nuclear ambitions. A U.S. Treasury Department decision Wednesday ordering U.S. banks to sever ties with Banco Delta Asia appeared to fall short of expectations. But U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said he was confident North Korea would fulfill its obligations to close its main nuclear reactor in exchange for energy aid and political concessions. "I think they want assurances that the Banco Delta Asia issues is resolved and we can give them those assurances that it is resolved."...
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2956008
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Editor - 20:04:00 03-15-07
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| Chinese Parents See Daughter, 8, for First Time After Tennessee Custody Fight |
A mother said she hugged her 8-year-old daughter for the first time Thursday after a seven-year fight to get the child back from what was supposed to be temporary foster care. "I hug her very close and hard," Qin Luo He said after a court-ordered meeting with daughter Anna Mae, now a second grader. Qin Luo and husband Shaoqiang He, a former University of Memphis graduate student, were reunited with Anna Mae under orders from the Tennessee Supreme Court. Since she was a month old, the girl has lived with an American couple, Jerry and Louise Baker, who tried to adopt her over her parents' objections. The Supreme Court ruled in January that Anna Mae's parents, both Chinese nationals, lost custody because they did not understand American law, and set the ball in motion for them to get her back. ...
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2955999
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Editor - 20:03:00 03-15-07
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