President Obama reached out to citizens of the world Tuesday, saying in an op-ed piece that ran in 31 newspapers around the globe that there is an urgent need for worldwide economic cooperation. Obama's move comes ahead of next week's Group of 20 meeting in London, England, in which leaders of the world's richest nations will discuss the global economic downturn. "My message is clear," Obama wrote. "The United States is ready to lead, and we call upon our partners ...

Science is not shy about ambiguity, never more so than when it comes to medical advice. So here's the latest recommendation on prostate-cancer screening: Men should continue to have both a manual prostate exam and a blood test for prostate-specific antigen every year — bearing in mind that neither test may affect your odds of surviving prostate cancer. Those seemingly contradictory conclusions are part of the results of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial , a ...

Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel are getting their group back together this spring for a reunion tour of Asia and Australia, according to a source close to the group. Reunion plans apparently began after Simon and Garfunkel played three songs together during Simon's two-night gig at New York's Beacon Theatre in February. Tour rehearsals begin in New York in May and the tour will launch in New Zealand around the first week of June, according to the source. Shows in ...

Development threatens to engulf Civil War battlefields, a preservationist group said as it released its annual list of endangered battle sites on Wednesday. "In town after town, the irreplaceable battlefields that define those communities are being marred forever," said James Lighthizer, the head of the Civil War Preservation Trust. "As we approach the sesquicentennial of the bloodiest conflict in our nation's history, we need to be more aware than ever of the importance of preserving these sacred places for ...

At 16, Rhandolf Fajardo reflects on his former life as a gang member. "My gang mates were the most influential thing in my life," says Fajardo, who joined a gang when he was in sixth grade. "We were pressured to join." He's not alone. In the Philippines, teenage membership in urban gangs has surged to an estimated 130,000 in the past 10 years, according to the Preda Foundation, a local human rights charity. "I thought I'd get ...

Don Duncan says he is not a pot smoker. "I haven't in eight or nine years now," says Duncan, 37. "It wasn't the right thing for me." Which is ironic, since he spends most of his day around plenty of cannabis as part owner of a West Hollywood, Calif. dispensary of medical marijuana, a storefront operation where as many as 100 customers — Duncan is careful to call them patients — line up daily with letters from their doctors ...

Three Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) staffers have been abducted in the war-torn Sudanese province of Darfur, the group said Thursday. A Canadian nurse, an Italian doctor and a French coordinator were abducted Wednesday night. Two Sudanese workers had also been taken, but they have since been freed, the group said. The incident took place in Serif Umra, the Sudanese province in northern Darfur. The three were working for the group's Belgian section and their relatives have been contacted. ...

European aerospace group EADS has announced "satisfying" results for 2008, posting a net profit of ?1.572 billion ($1.987 billion), despite the economic downturn. In a statement on its Web site, the company revealed earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) for the period amounted to €2.8 billion ($3.55 billion). This compared to a €446 million net loss in 2007. The Munich and Paris-based company attributed the results to its excellent underlying performance and significant positive foreign currency effects. "We made significant ...

The UK government confirmed Saturday that it will take majority control of Lloyds Banking Group, with the taxpayer owning 65 percent of voting shares in return for insuring £260 billion ($366 billion) of the group's toxic assets. The British Press Association reported that the deal with the Treasury would see Lloyds commit to lend at least £28 billion ($40 billion) over the next two years. In return the government will insure the bank's riskiest loans. As a result its holding ...

Climate protesters demonstrating against Donald Trump's plans for a sports resort broke into a Scottish airport Tuesday, setting up a small golf course and scaling the roof of a terminal building. Flights at Aberdeen airport were returning to normal by midday after the activists breached the security fence overnight, the airport authority said. Nine members of Plane Stupid, which campaigns against airport expansion and aviation-related climate change, entered the airport grounds at about 2:15 a.m. Tuesday (9:15 p.m. Monday ET), ...