— China's worst drought in a half-century is deepening, with the parched weather that has left millions in the Yangtze River region without enough drinking water pushing inflation higher and adding to widespread power shortages. Shanghai's government promised Thursday that the city's 23 million residents would not face shortages at home, after the city's electricity utility warned that some stores and factories may have to close in the hottest days of summer to limit demand.

Going hungry is a major contributor to ill health, particularly among children, and a new report reveals how long-lasting the damage can be. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute and the University of Calgary performed the first long-term study on the effects of hunger on general health, tracking children from birth to 21 years. Most studies to date have offered only snapshots of childhood health, assessing the short-term impact of hunger over a period of time. ...

The debate over spanking goes back many years, but the essential question often evades discussion: Does spanking actually work? In the short term, yes. You can correct immediate misbehavior with a slap or two on the rear end or hand. But what about the long-term impact? Can spanking lead to permanent, hidden scars on children years later? On Sept. 25, a sociologist from the University of New Hampshire, Murray Straus, presented a paper at the International ...

By In 1998, it looked as though the movie world was about to knock Michelle Rodriguez out of the ring. The would-be actress was living with her mother in Jersey City, N.J., and laboring as an extra in movies like Summer of Sam; the thankless, anonymous work was wearing her out. Then she saw an ad in Back Stage for a Latina actress to portray a boxer in a new film. Rodriguez didn't box and had ...

If there was any question about whether President Obama would do anything to bring the Olympics to Chicago in 2016, he's put those doubts to rest. He and first lady Michelle Obama have embarked on an unprecedented joint diplomatic mission to beat out Madrid, Spain; Tokyo, Japan; and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the Summer Games. "What a dynamic duo they will be. I think it will be high impact, I think their presentation will be very personal, given ...

Felipe Massa is back in the fast lane after his life-threatening crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix just nine weeks ago which placed his Formula One future in doubt. The Brazilian has taken to the wheel of a kart in his home city of Sao Paulo, managing 60 laps of the Granja Viana circuit and is to continue the activity over the next few days. Massa suffered horrific head injuries in qualifying in Budapest after a spring from Rubens Barrichello's ...

The Pentagon has revolutionized warfare during the past decade, making unmanned aerial vehicles, known as UAVs, a staple of modern combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Remotely-controlled drones, such as the Predator and the Reaper, have allowed the U.S. military to spy on and attack enemy combatants without putting their own forces at risk, thereby making UAVs a must-have. "The real advantage of unmanned aerial systems is they allow you to project power without projecting vulnerability," says USAF General ...

When Sarah Janosek drove to see her first patient in the early morning of Nov. 5, she knew her husband, a software engineer, could be one of the hundreds of Advanced Micro Devices employees laid off that day. "He called me at approximately 10 a.m. and told me they had not called him in yet," remembers Janosek, a 47-year-old hospice nurse and mother of three teenagers in Austin, Texas. "And then he called me 15 minutes later to say ...

Juliane Koepcke is not someone you'd expect to attract attention. Plainly dressed and wearing prescription glasses, Koepcke sits behind her desk at the Zoological Center in Munich, Germany, where she's a librarian. Yet this unassuming middle aged woman has one of the most exciting and unbelievable stories of tragedy and survival to tell. It was Christmas Eve, 1971, when Koepcke, then aged 17, and her mother boarded a Lockheed Electra turboprop for a flight from Lima, Peru, to Pucallpa in ...

Many survivors from the earthquake which has devastated central Italy have found themselves homeless, terrified -- and wondering what the future now holds. Aftershocks have continued to strike following Monday's 6.3-magnitude quake, in the mountainous Abruzzo region surrounding the city of L'Aquila. The most severe, a 5.6 magnitude tremor that struck the area Tuesday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, reminded many survivors of the original quake, which left at least 250 dead and thousands more homeless and injured. ...