More cases of swine flu reported; WHO warns of ‘health emergency’

A potentially deadly new strain of the swine flu virus cropped up in more places in the United States and Mexico on Saturday, in what the World Health Organization called "a public health emergency of international concern." The most recent reports Saturday afternoon were of two confirmed cases of the virus in Kansas — bringing the number of confirmed U.S. cases to 11. Those joined nine confirmed cases in Texas and California and an apparent outbreak at a private school in New York City, where officials say eight children likely have the virus.

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Vacation Blues as Tourists Stay at Home

On a typical weekend afternoon, Beijing’s Silk Street Market buzzes with the sound of tens of thousands of tourists haggling over antiques, jewelry and knock-off Gucci handbags. Rickshaw drivers normally scoop up these marketgoers, pedal them to their hotels and return with pockets full of foreign currency — a lucrative cycle drivers can repeat dozens of times a day. In recent months, though, the Silk Street Market’s once reliable bustle has thinned dramatically

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Why Andorrans live longer than everyone else

Getting to Andorra, a tiny country wedged in the mountains between France and Spain, is no easy feat. No airport, no train station, and the nearest city Toulouse is at least a 2 hour drive away. Perhaps that’s part of the secret of this tiny principality high up in the Pyrenees Mountains: that its quiet isolation has created a relatively stress-free life-style which has made them the world champions in the global longevity sweepstakes, at least according to the latest U.S.

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Painting, sold under Nazis, returned to owner’s estate

An oil painting was returned Tuesday to the estate of a Jewish art dealer who was forced to consign the painting and other artwork under Nazi Germany before fleeing the country. The painting, “Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe,” was done in 1632 by an unknown painter from the Northern Netherlandish school, according to a statement from the U.S

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Israeli anger over anti-racism conference

Israel pulled its ambassador from Switzerland on Monday to protest a planned address by Iran’s president at a controversial anti-racism conference. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman “have decided to call the Israeli ambassador to Switzerland back for consultations, in protest of the conference in Geneva, in which a racist and a Holocaust denier, who openly declares his intention of erasing Israel, is a guest,” Netanyahu’s office announced Monday. Withdrawing an ambassador is a sign of serious displeasure between countries.

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