DENMARK - Here's something rather rotten from the State of Denmark. Its government yesterday unveiled official research showing that two-year-old children are at risk from a bewildering array of gender-bending chemicals in such everyday items as waterproof clothes, rubber boots, bed linen, food, nappies, sunscreen lotion and moisturising cream.
USA - In times of crisis, some always benefit while others take a hit, and one drug company that's done rather well by the H1N1 pandemic is vaccine-maker Novavax.
WASHINGTON, USA - The US healthcare system is just as wasteful as President Barack Obama says it is, and proposed reforms could be paid for by fixing some of the most obvious inefficiencies, preventing mistakes and fighting fraud, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Monday. The US healthcare system wastes between $505 billion and $850 billion every year, the report from Robert Kelley, vice president of healthcare analytics at Thomson Reuters, found.
CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — Most of the developing world is paying more for food despite drops in commodity market prices during the global economic slowdown, with 200 million people joining the ranks of the hungry in the past two years, the UN World Food Program said Monday.
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK, PALESTINE - Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are unlikely to resume any time soon, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Monday, blaming Israel for the impasse and urging Washington to do the same.
CHICAGO, USA - Chicago is considering leasing its water system to help fix the budget. The new boss could charge whatever they want for water, CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports.
VATICAN - The Vatican announced Tuesday it was making it easier for Anglicans to convert to Roman Catholicism — a surprise move designed to entice traditionalists opposed to women priests, openly gay clergy and the blessing of same-sex unions.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND - The World Health Organization predicts that within 20 years more people will be affected by depression than any other health problem. According to the WHO, depression will be the biggest health burden on society both economically and sociologically.
UK - A tourist might have mistaken it for an innocuous conversational gambit, but to a longtime London resident, the cabbie's query — "Are you heading home to watch Question Time?" — was politically charged.
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - Israeli police have entered Jerusalem's most sensitive religious site to arrest a number of Palestinian demonstrators. Officers arrested people who were throwing stones in the Temple Mount compound, known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, a police spokesman said.
BEIRUT, LEBANON - US President Barack Obama's high-priority Middle East peace drive has run into predictable quicksands, even as other foreign policy challenges in Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond clamor for his attention.
ASIA - Asian nations discussed plans at a major summit Saturday to "lead the world" by boosting economic and political cooperation and possibly forming an EU-style community.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama declared the swine flu outbreak a national emergency and empowered his health secretary to suspend federal guidelines at hospitals and speed up how infected people might receive treatment in a disaster.
INDONESIA - A magnitude 7.0 earthquake has hit off the coast of Indonesia, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS). The quake was reported to have occurred in the Banda Sea, near the Maluku islands to the east of East Timor.
USA - The big profits made by some of Wall Street's leading banks are "hidden gifts" from the state, and taxpayer resentment of such companies is "justified", George Soros, the fund manager, said in an interview with the Financial Times.