At Japan?s ultra-cheap interest rates, it makes sense to borrow there rather than where interest rates are higher.

People do, from all over the world, selling yen and moving the money to higher-yielding countries to invest, picking up the interest rate spread. To do so, they must also buy that new currency. The process pushes the yen down and other currencies up, and is called the yen carry trade.

The economic costs to the United States of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far total approximately $1.5 trillion, according to a new study by congressional Democrats that estimates the conflicts "hidden costs"-- including higher oil prices, the expense of treating wounded veterans and interest payments on the money borrowed to pay for the wars.

That amount is nearly double the $804 billion the White House has spent or requested to wage these wars through 2008, according to the Democratic staff of Congresss Joint Economic Committee. Its report, titled "The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War," estimates that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have thus far cost the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000.

WHEN Prime Minister John Howard launched his campaign for re-election this week, he did not mention the war in Iraq.

That omission has outraged two young Australian women ? one badly injured in the 2005 London bus bombing and the other the partner of an American soldier who was killed in Iraq.

Now Louise Barry and Sam McMillan want to talk to Mr Howard to tell him of the wars human toll.

They have written Mr Howard a letter and telephoned his office several times to be told a meeting was under consideration.

Yesterday, they launched a "Hounding Howard" campaign to put the war back on the political agenda. Brett Solomon, head of the GetUp! campaign, said the two women knew something about the real cost of the war on terror.

Ms Barry was on the No. 30 Islington bus in London in 2005 as a suicide bomber sitting on the floor above her blew himself up. Her neck was broken and she spent months in hospital recovering.

Swedish prosecutors say they will file charges against five individuals involved in BitTorrent tracking operation the Pirate Bay by the end of January.

According to IDG (in Swedish), prosecutor Hakan Roswall will name the Pirate Bays adminstrator Peter Sunde, also known as Brokep, in the copyright infringement suit.

Its likely that in any trial the Pirate Bay will repeat its line that it acts only as a search engine, and does not host any infringing content itself. The sites operators have repeated the line in interviews, and its the same tack taken by OiNK admin Alan Ellis after he was arrested in the UK in October.

Free Rice - For Each Word You Get Right, We Donate 10 Grains of Rice through the United Nations to Help End World Hunger

Are You Ready to Have Children

Smear peanut butter on the sofa and curtains. Place a fish stick behind the couch and leave it there all summer.

Obtain a 55-gallon box of Legos. (If Legos are not available, you maysubstitute roofing tacks) Have a friend spread them all over the house. Put on a blindfold. Try to walk to the bathroom or kitchen. Do not scream. (This could wake a child at night.)

Borrow one or two small animals (goats are best) and take them with you as you shop at the grocery store. Always keep them in sight and pay for anything they eat or damage.

Obtain one large, unhappy, live octopus. Stuff into a small net bag, making sure that all arms stay inside.

Obtain a large plastic milk jug. Fill halfway with water. Suspend from the ceiling with a stout cord. Start the jug swinging. Try to insert spoonfuls of soggy cereal (such as Fruit Loops or Cheerios) into the mouth of the jug, while pretending to be an airplane. Now dump the contents of the jug on the floor.

Anemia: High in iron, bananas can stimulate the production of hemoglobin in the blood and so helps in cases of anemia.

Blood Pressure: This unique tropical fruit is extremely high in potassium yet low in salt, making it perfect to beat blood pressure. So much so, the US Food and Drug Administration has just allowed the banana industry to make official claims for the fruit?s ability to reduce the risk of blood pressure and stroke.

Brain Power: 200 students at a Twickenham (Middlesex) school (England ) were helped through their exams this year by eating bananas at breakfast, break, and lunch in a bid to boost their brain power. Research has shown that the potassium-packed fruit can assist learning by making pupils more alert.

Constipation: High in fiber, including bananas in the diet can help restore normal bowel action, helping to overcome the problem without resorting to laxatives.

If the Chicago White Sox beat the Astros tonight, theyll be just one victory away from their first World Series title since 1917. Last season, the Boston Red Sox won their first championship since 1918. Why are these teams "Sox" rather than "Socks"?

Why the love affair with the letter "x"? The formation of the modern baseball leagues coincides, more or less, with a broad movement to simplify English spelling. The father of the movement, Noah Webster, had pushed to create a "national language" a century earlier. Webster wanted to distinguish American English from British English by correcting irregular spellings and eliminating silent letters. Some of Websters suggestions took?"jail" for "gaol"?while others havent caught on?"groop" for "group."

Chocolate was first produced by the ancients as a by-product of beer, suggests a new archaeological study. And evidence from drinking vessels left by the Mesoamericans who developed chocolate suggests that the source of chocolate, cacao, was first used 500 years earlier than thought.

Mesoamericans ? who flourished in central America before it was colonised by the Spanish ? developed chocolate as a by-product of fermenting cacao fruit to make a beer-like drink called chicha still brewed by South American tribal people.

At least a dozen warships provide a physical guard while the technical wizardry of the worlds only military superpower offers an invisible shield to detect and deter any intruders.

That is the theory. Or, rather, was the theory.

American military chiefs have been left dumbstruck by an undetected Chinese submarine popping up at the heart of a recent Pacific exercise and close to the vast U.S.S. Kitty Hawk - a 1,000ft supercarrier with 4,500 personnel on board.

By the time it surfaced the 160ft Song Class diesel-electric attack submarine is understood to have sailed within viable range for launching torpedoes or missiles at the carrier.

According to senior Nato officials the incident caused consternation in the U.S. Navy.

The incident, which took place in the ocean between southern Japan and Taiwan, is a major embarrassment for the Pentagon.

A new study reported in the journal Pain finds that Sativex, an orally administered cannabis extract spray, is effective at treating neuropathic pain in patients for whom standard painkillers do not provide adequate relief. During the five-week study, 125 subjects with peripheral neuropathic pain continued to take previously prescribed analgesics and achieved additional relief from Sativex, averaging a reduction of about 1.5 points on a 10-point self-reported pain scale, compared to half a point for the placebo spray. The research is part of GW Pharmaceuticals efforts to gain wider regulatory approval for Sativex, which is approved for treatment of multiple sclerosis in Europe and for treatment of both cancer pain and M.S.-related neuropathic pain in Canada. 

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt.

Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.

President Ahmadinejad, questioned by students in New York two months ago about the executions, dodged the issue by suggesting that there were no gays in his country.

Kiwi champ chills beer in seconds for summer

A GADGET that can chill a warm can of beer in seconds has been invented just in time for summer.

This Is Your Brain on Hillary: Political Neuroscience Hits New Low in New York Times

Brain scans of swing voters shown pictures of Mitt Romney reveal activity in the amygdala, an area associated with anxiety. John Edwards elicits disgust; Hillary Clinton, conflict. People feel connected to Fred Thompson, but dont feel much of anything about Barack Obama or John McCain.

Their observations, based on these composites, at first seem interesting. On average, women started out feeling favorable about Hillary Clinton but cooled down after watching her speak; men exhibited the same reaction to Rudy Giuliani. Mitt Romney evoked more neural activity than any other candidate. Fred Thompson stimulated empathy-associated structures, as did John Edwards -- but subjects who didnt like Edwards really didnt like him; their brains showed disgust.

9-Year-Old Boy Accidentally Shoots, Kills Playmate

Italians & Europeans Flash Video

How to Make OpenCola

[edit] Ingredients

All ingredients listed are in metric units.

Flavoring

• 3.50 mL orange oil
• 1.00 mL lemon oil
• 1.00 mL nutmeg oil
• 1.25 mL cassia (cinnamon) oil
• 0.25 mL coriander oil
• 0.25 mL neroli oil (similar to petitgrain, bergamot, or bitter orange oil)
• 2.75 mL lime oil
• 0.25 mL lavender oil
• 10.0 g food-grade gum arabic (thickener)
• 3.00 mL water

Concentrate

• 5 mL flavoring
• 17.5 mL 75% phosphoric acid or citric acid
• 2.28 L water
• 2.36 kg granulated white sugar
• 2.5 mL vitamin b
• 30.0 mL caramel color

Energy measures passed by one house or the other in the summer would seek to do all those things if signed into law. They include mandates for the production of huge new quantities of alternative fuels like ethanol, biodiesel and those made from excess plant material; a requirement that electric utilities produce 15 percent of their power from wind, water or solar energy by 2020; and tax credits and loan guarantees for greener buildings, nuclear power and more efficient home appliances.

But these measures would do nothing to lower prices in the short run, and some of them could result in higher energy prices by making utilities rely on renewable sources like wind or solar power that are more costly than coal and natural gas.

The Bavarian village of Obereichstaett is constructing a foot-high wall around the entire hamlet to prevent the entry of thousands of millipedes which have each autumn "for hundreds of years" invaded the sleepy corner of Germany.

Mayor Hans Harrer added: "We have tried a complete blackout on street lamps in the autumn. But switching them off was not the solution."

Neither was poison, according to a zoological SWAT team which investigated, due to the sheer quantity required. Instead, they suggested a "a metal-lined wall with an overhanging lip". It seems to have done the trick, since "the creatures can instead be seen in their thousands crawling around the wall every night", as the Telegraph puts it.

Where the millipedes come from zoologists are unable to say, but theyve been making their annual pilgrimage for yonks. Back in 1900, they brought the local rail network to a standstill by invading the tracks, thereby preventing trains wheels from gripping*. ®

Science and the arts are partners in the messy search for truth. The spirit of seeking knowledge and exploration is precious to both disciplines.

Some artists deride science for its formulaic reduction of the world: The American author Saul Bellow lamented "science shines a blinding light on us." And of course the fact that science is formulaic and reductive is only the beginning of its sins. The Frankenstein myth dies hard. Since Mary Shelleys novel in 1817, Frankenstein has been reincarnated in every new technology, be it test-tube babies, cloning, nuclear energy, GM crops or synthetic bacteria.

But the cultural divide is not where my musing leads; rather it leads to the similarities between science and the arts. For starters, the cultural chasm is a relatively new thing. Learned men and women of the past ? such as Shakespeare and Da Vinci ? were often educated in both the arts and sciences.

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ABC News Eloise Harper and Rick Klein Report: Its been a rough stretch for Hillary Clinton -- a tough debate performance, a lost voice, and the revelation that the Clinton campaign had been coaching questioners at events...

Then, on Sunday, everything started falling down around her.

After a very Presidential-esque news conference - Clinton turned around to leave the reporters and their peppering questions. A staffer swooped open a curtain, and chaos ensued. Four large American flags came crashing in front of Senator Clinton as she headed for the door. In a controlled panic,  the staffers and the Senator attempted to catch the flags before they fell to the ground.

NEW DELHI (AP) - A man in southern India married a female dog in a traditional Hindu ceremony as an attempt to atone for stoning two other dogs to death _ an act he believes cursed him _ a newspaper reported Tuesday.

P. Selvakumar married the sari-draped former stray named Selvi, chosen by family members and then bathed and clothed for the ceremony Sunday at a Hindu temple in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, the Hindustan Times newspaper said.

Selvakumar, 33, told the paper he had been suffering since he stoned two dogs to death and hung their bodies from a tree 15 years ago.

The paper said an astrologer had told Selvakumar the wedding was the only way he could cure the maladies. It did not say whether his situation had improved.

The paper showed a picture of Selvakumar sitting next to the dog, which was wearing an orange sari and a flower garland.

Speaking Thursday night in Las Vegas, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani touted his recent endorsement by televangelist Pat Robertson.

The endorsement Wednesday has surprised many in the political world, as Giulianis positions on social issues are anathema to many religious conservatives.

Giuliani was at The Venetian on the Strip addressing about 200 people at the annual dinner of Keystone Corp., a political action group made up of Nevada business leaders.

He accused Democratic candidates of not being able to utter the phrase "Islamic terrorism" for fear of appearing politically incorrect.

"Im not suggesting that any religion is bad," he said. "Were intelligent enough to understand that. Were intelligent enough to make that distinction and not turn it into some kind of prejudice."

This is yet more evidence?as if we needed it?that the goal of leading Democrats is to withdraw American troops from Iraq, even if withdrawal destroys our chances of success.

Nancy Pelosi?s effort to subvert a manifestly successful (if belatedly implemented) strategy in Iraq is reckless and foolish?and it may succeed in driving down Congressional approval ratings, already at record lows, to single digits. Which is about where they belong.

Whenever you read that a candidate ?values loyalty above all else? ? run for the hills. Loyalty is a terribly important consideration if you?re choosing a pet, but not a cabinet member.

How about if this time we try for a president who would recruit gifted people who can accomplish great things, as opposed to a room full of dopes who will never write tell-all memoirs?

In this area, the fat is likely to be the much touted Omega-3, which could improve the womans own mental abilities as well as those of her child during pregnancy.

Men respond to the double enticement of both an intelligent partner and an intelligent child, the researchers at the Universities of Pittsburgh and California said.

CRIES for help from the mentally ill are being ignored because state-funded community crisis teams are overstretched and underfunded, a government-commissioned report has found.

As Victorias public hospital system struggles to deal with a deluge of mentally ill patients, the report concludes that specially trained Community Assessment and Treatment teams ? designed to keep these patients out of hospital ? are too busy to carry out their core duties.

"What is of concern is that CAT services ability to provide acute treatment in the community seems to be compromised," the report said.

Instead of spending more time with individual patients, CAT teams often only had time to perform initial patient assessments. "The question needs to be asked whether CAT services can ever realistically fulfil the expectation for immediate urgent response to all requests."

At a time when Muslim doctors and engineers stand accused of attempting atrocities in the expectation of supernatural reward, when the Catholic Church still preaches the sinfulness of condom use in villages devastated by AIDS, when the president of the United States repeatedly vetoes the most promising medical research for religious reasons, much depends on the scientific community presenting a united front against the forces of unreason.

There are bridges and there are gangplanks, and it is the business of journals such as Nature to know the difference.

Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson called for a million-member military ground force and more funding to equip and care for service members and veterans in a speech Tuesday at a military college in this early presidential primary state

"Some would say this plan is too much and too big," Thompson said. "I dont believe thats the case, not at all."

Harare - A Zimbabwean rights organisation advocating the plight of white farmers evicted of their land by the governments land reform programme, says it will take the case to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal.

Justice for Agricultures decision to resort to the tribunal was spurred by a Supreme Court ruling that the government could acquire all farming equipment and machinery belonging to evicted white farmers, reports The Zimbabwean.

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The United States spends far more on health care per person than any other nation. Yet we have lower life expectancy than most other rich countries. Furthermore, every other advanced country provides all its citizens with health insurance; only in America is a large fraction of the population uninsured or underinsured.

You might think that these facts would make the case for major reform of America?s health care system ? reform that would involve, among other things, learning from other countries? experience ? irrefutable. Instead, however, apologists for the status quo offer a barrage of excuses for our system?s miserable performance.

So I thought it would be useful to offer a catalog of the most commonly heard apologies for American health care, and the reasons they won?t wash.

Climate porn: Will scare tactics save the planet?

Every day you read in the paper about just how dire our circumstances have become. Ice caps are melting, water levels are rising -- in short, the end is nigh. Right?

Well, maybe. In fact, probably. But media reports of our eminent death and destruction feel empty -- so much so that a British think tank called it "tantamount to climate porn." And, more importantly, these dramatics often fall on deaf ears.

Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday 8 November ? Four Nordic countries, Sweden (1), Norway (2), Finland (3) and Iceland (4) once again top the latest Gender Gap Index released today by the World Economic Forum. All countries in the top 20 made progress relative to their scores last year ? some more so than others. Latvia (13) and Lithuania (14) made the biggest advances among the top 20, gaining six and seven places respectively, driven by smaller gender gaps in labour force participation and wages.

The performance of the United States (31) was mixed over the last year

Someday the robots will rise up and kill us all. Theyll record our lives, obliterate our privacy, set off nuclear war, and eventually turn on us and eat our brains. If any of this ever did happen, it would serve us right. We, at least American consumers, dont deserve the future that robots really have to offer.

Recent evidence abounds. Whats more appalling?a television commercial depicting an industrial automotive robot committing suicide or the public outcry that followed? We have a robot psychiatrist (more on her later) and an entire country?South Korea, not the U.S. (for now)?committed to the "ethical treatment" of robots.

Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

Police and security guards from Cambodias "Killing Fields" tribunal arrested former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary on Monday, the third Pol Pot henchman to be taken into custody by the UN-backed court.

With sirens blaring, a police convoy ferried the octogenarian from his plush Phnom Penh villa. Ieng Sary became the international face of the ultra-Maoist revolution after its collapse under the weight of a Vietnamese invasion in 1979. A court spokesman declined to comment.

An estimated 1.7 million people were executed or died of torture, disease or starvation under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979.

Ieng Sary, who spent years after the Vietnamese invasion at the United Nations defending Pol Pots legitimacy, has denied having anything to do with the extraordinary privations and brutality during the regimes time in power.

Long-haul flights can be unpleasant enough, but theyre made worse if youre stuck next to an unpleasant passenger.

And when it comes to Australian politicians, it seems Prime Minister John Howard is perceived to be the most unpleasant.

A survey has found that Mr Howard is the politician Australians would least like to sit next to on a long flight.

In the survey conducted by travel site TotalTravel.com, Howard attracted 29 per cent of the vote, followed by his deputy, Peter Costello, with 22 per cent.

In continuing strong poll results for Labor, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd gained only 16 per cent of the vote, behind his deputy Julia Gillard (18 per cent) and equal with Greens leader Bob Brown.

The survey ran over three weeks and had 3015 respondents.

TotalTravel.com global marketing manager Paul Fisher said the results raised questions about Mr Howards standing in the eyes of the Australian public.

• I have great worth just being myself
• I deserve to be prosperous and wealthy
• Money flows easily to me
• Wealth enables me to more fully express my creative potential
• Expressing my creativity allows me to be wealthy
• Money and prosperity help me to help others
• The more I give, the more I receive
• I enjoy being paid for doing what I enjoy
• I am willing to receive money for my pleasure
• I am willing to allow my life to be fun and easy

John Howard says he is confident the promises he has made can be managed (File Photo). (AAP: Paul Miller)

Teacher interview

Mike Batchelor invited the heads of 46 charities into his downtown office for one-on-one meetings to personally deliver the news. Nearby, on a small table, sat a box of tissues.

And then he proceeded: A donor had given a staggering $100 million to the Erie Community Foundation, and all of the charities would receive a share.

That was when the tears began to flow -- and the mystery began -- in this struggling old industrial city of 102,000 on Lake Erie, where the donor is known only as "Anonymous Friend."

Batchelor, president of the Erie Community Foundation, has been sworn to secrecy and will allow only that the donor worked with the organization for years to identify deserving recipients before the announcement over the summer.

Is the donor dead or alive? No comment, Batchelor says. What is the donors connection to Erie? No comment.

• VIDEO: Green Room: Sams Red Tie
Backstage: George Will, Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts.
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• VIDEO: This Week All Week Webcast
GOP Endorsement Showdown
More This Week All Week Webcast stories...
• VIDEO: Webcast: Piling on Hillary
• VIDEO: Webcast: George on the Politics of Iran
• VIDEO: Webcast: Brownback Drops Out
• VIDEO: Webcast: Thompson Takes The Stage
• VIDEO: Webcast: Money, Money, Money
• VIDEO: Webcast: Democratic Debate
• VIDEO: Webcast: Campaign Countdown
• VIDEO: Webcast: Presidents Iraq Speech
• VIDEO: Webcast: Fred Thompson Finally Gets In
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