The government was concerned that the images, which included views of the entrances to military bases, were a threat. Gen. Gene Renuart, head of the military command responsible for homeland defense, said, "It actually shows where all the guards are.

It shows how the barriers go up and down. It shows how to get in and out of buildings. I think that poses a real security risk for our military installations."

Freedom of information and security butt heads once again.

The Pentagon said that Google (NSDQ: > GOOG > )'s Street Views is > a threat to national security > and made Google pull images taken on streets near U.S. military bases. >

The question remains whether the government had the right to request that the images be removed.

Street Views has caused controversy from the start. Many privacy advocates claimed that even though images were taken in public places -- where no reasonable assumption of privacy really exists -- people were being exposed doing things they might not wish to have plastered on the Internet for all to see.

man was pictured exiting a San Francisco strip club.

woman was shown sunbathing

Complaints have even included a woman asking that a picture of her cat be taken down, a request Google denied."

The finding may explain the popularity of some high-cost drugs over cheaper alternatives, the authors conclude.

It may also help account for patients’ reports that generic drugs are less effective than brand-name ones, though their active ingredients are identical.

The research is being published on Wednesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The investigators had 82 men and women rate the pain caused by electric shocks applied to their wrist, before and after taking a pill. Half the participants had read that the pill, described as a newly approved prescription pain reliever, was regularly priced at $2.50 per dose. The other half read that it had been discounted to 10 cents. In fact, both were dummy pills.

The pills had a strong placebo effect in both groups. But 85 percent of those using the expensive pills reported significant pain relief, compared with 61 percent on the cheaper pills.

corrected for each person’s individual level of pain tolerance.

Previous studies have shown that pill size and color also affect people’s perceptions of effectiveness. In one, people rated black and red capsules as “strongest” and white ones as “weakest.”

One of the greatest challenges in battling HIV is the virus' ability to mutate and evade medications.

This means the virus cannot get out of the cells to infect other cells, thereby blocking the spread of the virus."

"This means that TRIM22 is an essential part of our body's ability to fight off HIV. The results are very exciting because they show that our bodies have a gene that is capable of stopping the spread of HIV."

When we put this gene in cells, it prevents the assembly of the HIV virus," said Barr

drugs are unable to eradicate the virus.

Barr and his team have discovered a gene that could potentially do the job naturally.

in the future the idea would be to develop drugs or vaccines that can mimic the effects of this gene."

figure out why this gene does not work in people infected with HIV

gene's ability to battle other viruses.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.

The cloak of secrecy that long concealed the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program and its legal underpinnings has gradually broken down.

The C.I.A. director, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, publicly admitted for the first time two weeks ago that the agency used waterboarding in 2002 and 2003 in the interrogation of three Qaeda suspects but said that the technique was no longer used, and its legality under current law is uncertain. The technique, which has been used since the Spanish Inquisition and has been found illegal in the past by American courts, involves water poured into the nose and mouth to create a feeling of drowning.

Mr. Jarrett’s disclosure came as prosecutors and F.B.I. agents conduct a criminal investigation of the C.I.A.’s destruction in 2005 of videotapes of harsh interrogations and a week after Congress passed a ban on coercive interrogations, which President Bush has said he will veto.

The research, conducted across the country, is shedding light on how our candidate of choice might not be entirely our own choosing.

Three years ago, a Rice University study examined the political similarities between identical twins versus fraternal twins. Identical twins, who have the same genetic blueprint, tend to share more political views than fraternal twins, the study found.

Since then, scientists — both political and biological — have fought quietly over the origin of our political views: whether they're entirely a product of the people around us, or whether we've already chosen our candidates without even realizing it.

study that analyzed how self-proclaimed liberals and conservatives use a portion of the brain that activates when a person is confronted with information or ideas contrary to his established beliefs.

Liberals' use of that portion of the brain was higher than that of conservatives in the study, suggesting that liberals are more responsive to different ideas, the report said.

"More liberal people tend to be able to deal with pros and cons of decisions, and as they get more conservative, people like to focus on one side of the story,"

Internal Environmental Protection Agency documents and e-mails, obtained by the advocacy group Environmental Defense, show attempts over the past two years to blunt state efforts to make their plants drastically reduce mercury pollution instead of trading for credits that would let them continue it.

An EPA official said the agency's job "is not to pressure states."

The federal plan capped overall mercury releases from power plants nationwide. But it allowed plants to avoid reductions by purchasing emission credits. Critics have said that creates "hot spots" of mercury releases harmful to communities.

A neurotoxin linked to learning disabilities, mercury is most dangerous to fetuses, infants and small children, usually when pregnant women or children eat mercury contaminated fish.

"There was an extraordinary degree of aggressiveness by EPA in pressing states to abandon a more protective mercury program. EPA devoted enormous effort to preventing states from doing more," said Vickie Patton, a lawyer for Environmental Defense.

Over 30 states have repudiated in some form EPA's rules by outlawing trading, accelerated compliance or adopted much more stringent emission levels

reduce mercury emissions by 90%

The case is linked to another dispute already at the high court in which detainees are asking the justices to rule that they can use the U.S. civilian courts to challenge their indefinite imprisonment.

Another option for the court is to take no action on the new case until it decides on the extent of the detainees' legal rights.

n the new case, the administration is asking the court to undo a federal appeals court ruling that broadens its authority to look at evidence about whether detainees have been properly characterized as enemy combatants.

The ruling held that, when Guantanamo Bay detainees challenge their status as "enemy combatants," judges must review all the evidence, not just the evidence the military chooses.

The administration said the decision jeopardizes national security.

At the Guantanamo hearings, detainees are not allowed to have lawyers present and the Pentagon decides what evidence to present. And unlike in criminal trials, the government is not obligated to turn over evidence that the defendant might be innocent.

Test results reported this week by the CDC showed formaldehyde levels in hundreds of FEMA trailers and mobile homes were, on average, about five times higher than what people are exposed to in most modern homes. Formaldehyde, a preservative commonly used in construction materials, can cause breathing problems and also is believed to cause cancer.

CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding said scientists need time to determine how - and why - formaldehyde levels varied among different models of FEMA trailers. Scientists from the CDC and the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory also are looking at ways to reduce formaldehyde emissions in the trailers.

The study was limited to materials in unoccupied government trailers.

"We in the RV industry are committed to following the science and making sure our products are safe,"

Critics claim FEMA should have reacted sooner to concerns that formaldehyde is to blame for a host of ailments reported by trailer occupants.

FEMA administrator R. David Paulison said Thursday the agency hoped to move all of the roughly 35,000 families out of trailers by summer, when hot weather increases formaldehyde emissions.

Many of the most serious reactions - deaths and hospitalizations - occurred among children treated for cerebral palsy-associated limb spasticity, the agency said. The drugs are not FDA-approved for that use in children or adults.

FDA-approved drugs often have off-label uses, where physicians take medications approved for one disease to treat another. This practice often benefits patients and drug manufacturers, but can increase risks.

estimates it will yield as much as $1.4 billion in 2008.

Botox and Myobloc are each forms of a toxin produced by bacteria that can paralyze muscles and lead to botulism, a fatal food poisoning.

But in small amounts, the injected toxins can calm muscle spasms. A third product, Botox Cosmetic, is FDA-approved to improve the appearance of wrinkles between the eyebrows.

The FDA said case reports under review suggest that the toxin may migrate from the point of injection more commonly than had been believed, and can cause symptoms of botulism.

Shares in Allergan dropped nearly 6 percent to close at $63.30 on Friday.

"While this agreement is neither perfect nor perhaps all that we deserve for the countless hours of hard work and sacrifice, our strike has been a success," WGA West president Patric Verrone and WGA East president Michael Winship said in the memo.

Members will meet in New York at 2 p.m. EST and in Los Angeles at 10 p.m. EST to discuss specific terms, the ratification process and ending the strike, the union added.

The WGA memo said the tentative deal "creates formulas for revenue-based residuals in new media, provides access to deals and financial data to help us evaluate and enforce those formulas, and establishes the principle that, 'When they get paid, we get paid.'"

The Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. has estimated the strike has cost the region's film and TV industry at least $650 million in wages, with over $1 billion more in lost earnings attributed to the ripple effect on the local economy.

It also urged banks to disclose all their losses and bolster their balance sheets to help stabilise markets.

The group's statement came after a day-long meeting of ministers and central bank governors in Tokyo.

"In all our economies, to varying degrees, growth is expected to slow somewhat in the short term," it said.

The G7 nations said that continuing risks included further problems for the US housing market, tighter credit, high commodity prices and rising inflation.

They also called on oil producers to increase output and on China to let its currency appreciate faster.

China, India and other East and South East Asian economies have experienced break-neck growth over the past few years

But as the global credit crisis and US housing slump has brought the world's largest economy to its knees, concerns have persisted that these problems would spread to Asia, which is heavily reliant on US imports of its products and foreign investment for growth.

Police said they were investigating whether Mr Kumar was involved in illegal transplants in Nepal, and that he had been trying to flee to Canada.

Mr Kumar has denied the accusations of illegal practices.

"I have not committed any crime," he said at a news conference in Kathmandu on Friday.

India bans trade in live kidneys unless the organ is donated by a blood relative or a spouse, or if two families agree a swap.

But many continue to sell their kidneys to satisfy demand from rich clients, including Westerners, waiting for transplants.

In January, police raided an illegal clinic in Gurgaon after being tipped-off by a victim. Four people were arrested. The donors were allegedly paid up to $2,500 (£1250).

$200,000 and had been seized from Mr Kumar on his arrest.

He headed for a door, "and all of a sudden I heard the glass breaking and it was sucking," he said. "When I tried to shut the door, [it] seemed like the door was lifting up. So I just dove and I lay flat on the floor."

Lying there, everything in the house flew over him, scraping and banging his back, Kruger said. Then the chaos stopped. "I was laying in the dirt. There was no floor. No nothing."

The house was gone, but Kruger says he believes there's reason why he survived. "I think God was holding my leg, beating my ass, teaching me that I hadn't been doing everything he wanted me to do," he said.

Kruger, Whitaker and others across the region tried Thursday to put their lives back together in a swath of the South where tornadoes killed at least 56 people.

The trail of death stretched across four states, with four fatalities in Alabama, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky and 32 in Tennessee.

Macon County, Tennessee, which includes Lafayette, was one of the worst-hit areas, with 14 deaths and overwhelming damage.

Elsewhere in the area, a mother was found dead in a creek bed about 50 yards from where her house stood. Her baby was discovered alive 250 yards away. The child was taken to a local hospital, Austin said.

There is no known reason why the DNA is able to combine the way it does, and from a current theoretical standpoint this feat should be chemically impossible.

In the study, scientists observed the behavior of fluorescently tagged DNA strands placed in water that contained no proteins or other material that could interfere with the experiment.

Strands with identical nucleotide sequences were about twice as likely to gather together as DNA strands with different sequences.

This recognition effect may help increase the accuracy and efficiency of the homologous recombination of genes, which is a process responsible for DNA repair, evolution, and genetic diversity. The new findings may also shed light on ways to avoid recombination errors, which are factors in cancer, aging, and other health issues.

At age 18, venerable for giraffes, Tiki is subject to the vicissitudes of age. She already gets regular visits from a chiropractor, a masseuse and an acupuncturist.

Those are accepted treatments for horses, at least in the always edgy San Francisco Bay area, and provide a gentle way to treat animals without drugs, said zoo keeper Melissa McCartney. Massage helps get Tiki used to interacting with keepers. Acupuncture helps with her shoulder and withers.

At 13 feet tall, Tiki is too big to be herded into a stall, and regular horse blankets are too ill-fitting to be left on without supervision lest she get in a tangle.

The zoo staff got in touch with a horse-blanket designer who agreed to donate her services to tailor a coat for Tiki.

The jacket will be a tasteful forest green and feature a removable liner for those in-between days.

Yahoo cut its revenue forecasts earlier this week and said it would have to spend an additional $300m this year trying to revive the company.

lay off 1,000 staff

Yahoo shares have fallen 46% since reaching a year-high of $34.08 in October. On Friday they closed almost 48% higher.

Microsoft closed 6.6% lower while Google shares fell 8.6%.

"Ultimately this corporate marriage was forced by the rise of Google, which has grown into a serious competitor for both Microsoft as a software company and Yahoo as an internet portal," said Tim Weber, business editor of the BBC News website.

This consolidates the marketplace down to Google versus Microsoft.

When she emailed a complaint to Delta and asked for a refund, they thanked her for her feedback.

escalate it!

appealed this to someone higher up

When Julie took his advice, Delta apologized and gave her a $250 voucher.

Delta, and most of the other network airlines, tends to look the other way when someone unusually tall or wide boards their aircraft. At least one carrier, Southwest Airlines, doesn't. It requires that plus-sized passengers buy an extra seat (but they get their money back if there are empty seats).

The key is not to introduce a foreign gene but to silence one using a phenomenon called RNA interference. By stopping sulphur compounds from being converted to the tearing agent and redirecting them into compounds responsible for flavour and health, the process could even improve the onion.

"We anticipate that the health and flavour profiles will actually be enhanced,"

"This is an exciting project because it's consumer orientated and everyone sees this as a good biotechnology story,"

Although conventional growing has identified some sweet, mild onions, this discovery will eventually give farmers new varieties and consumers more choice."

The tearing agent is a chemical defence. Break into onion cells, and you release amino acid sulphoxides, along with the enzyme (that is turned off in the new onion). The enzyme changes the sulphoxides into a vapour that is the lacrimatory factor that acts on tear glands