American Culture in the Capital of Communism

Can an American Orchestra Help to Open Up a New Relationship with North Korea?

I'm halfway around the world today, in a country where everyone has been raised to think of the United States as an enemy, but where, in just a few days, it will hear one of our premier orchestras play.

On Feb. 26, the New York Philharmonic will play a groundbreaking concert in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea -- a place that has been called "Hermit Kingdom" for its desire to stay separate from the world. This unusual opportunity began with a surprising fax the Philharmonic received from the North Korean government last August, inviting it to come and perform. >>>>

Archeologists find 5,500-year-old plaza in Peru

A ceremonial plaza built 5,500 years ago has been discovered in Peru, and archeologists involved in the dig said on Monday carbon dating shows it is one of the oldest structures ever found in the Americas.

A team of Peruvian and German archeologists uncovered the circular plaza, which was hidden beneath another piece of architecture at the ruins known as Sechin Bajo, in Casma, 229 miles north of Lima, the capital. Friezes depicting a warrior with a knife and trophies were found near the plaza.

"It's an impressive find; the scientific and archeology communities are very happy," said Cesar Perez, the scientist at Peru's National Institute of Culture who supervised the project. "This could redesign the history of the country.">>>>

Brazilian Shantytown Has $1M Views

Ignore Their Reputations, Favelas Worth Visiting

Favela: It's a word that arouses both fear and fascination. Its feral side has been captured in films such as "City of God" and more recently, the award-winning "Elite Forces."

In Rio, there are an estimated 700 of these shantytowns clinging precariously to the city's hills. About 1 million people inhabit these poverty-stricken enclaves, often at the mercy of the drug trafficker.

Every so often, police conduct raids to clear the area of traffickers but these actions often result in the dead bodies of innocent bystanders. >>>>

German police dogs to wear shoes

Police dogs in the western city of Duesseldorf will no longer get their feet dirty when on patrol — the entire dog unit will soon be equipped with blue plastic fiber shoes, a police spokesman said Monday.

"All 20 of our police dogs — German and Belgian shepherds — are currently being trained to walk in these shoes," Andre Hartwich said. "I'm not sure they like it, but they'll have to get used to it."

The unusual footwear is not a fashion statement, Hartwich said, but rather a necessity due to the high rate of paw injuries on duty. Especially in the city's historical old town — famous for both its pubs and drunken revelers — the dogs often step into broken beer bottles.>>>>

Former Thai PM Thaksin back home

Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has been released on bail shortly after his arrival in Thailand after spending 17 months in exile.

He said he would beat what he called politically motivated corruption charges from the years he was in power.

The 58-year-old billionaire businessman was briefly detained by police on his arrival at Bangkok airport.>>>>

Yahoo battling 7 shareholder suits

Yahoo Inc. is facing seven shareholder lawsuits alleging the slumping Internet pioneer bungled its response to Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited takeover bid.

The Sunnyvale-based company provided a breakdown of the suits in an annual report filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange. The documents didn't provide any new information about Yahoo's attempts to shoo away Microsoft, which is threatening to pursue a hostile takeover unless a friendly deal can be negotiated.>>>>

Marine Stings and Scrapes

Walking on a beach or swimming in the ocean can be fun and relaxing. But just like any other activities, accidents can happen. This topic will help you determine the next steps to take if you have a jellyfish or Portuguese man-of-war sting, seabather's eruption, or a coral scrape.

Stings

Jellyfish and Portuguese man-of-wars are members of a large group of venomous marine animals that also includes fire coral and sea anemones. They are present all over the world and cause injury and illness through the release of venom when their tentacles come in contact with skin (stinging). While the sting of a jellyfish or Portuguese man-of-war can cause severe illness and extreme pain, documented deaths are rare.>>>>

Ohio school suspends boy over Mohawk

A kindergarten student with a freshly spiked Mohawk has been suspended from school.

Michelle Barile, the mother of 6-year-old Bryan Ruda, said nothing in the Parma Community School handbook prohibits the haircut, characterized by closely shaved sides with a strip of prominent hair on top. The school said the hair was a distraction for other students.>>>>

Snow, thunderstorms black out thousands

A broad storm system spread heavy snow across the Great Lakes region Tuesday and fired up violent thunderstorms that knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses in the Southeast. At least two deaths were blamed on the stormy weather. Fallen trees and other debris on roads slowed travel and several traffic accidents brought morning rush hour traffic to a standstill in Birmingham, authorities said.

A falling tree struck a mobile home and killed a 71-year-old woman in Leeds, a town outside Birmingham, The Jefferson County coroner's office said. Utilities said about 42,000 homes and business lost electrical service across central Alabama early Tuesday.>>>>

Has Apple found the magic Touch?

Apple is betting that the iPhone's breakthrough in the way we interact with mobile phones will transfer over to notebooks.

The new MacBook Pros and MacBooks introduced Tuesday aren't all that much different from the ones that were on sale yesterday. Sure, they've got Intel's new Penryn chips, and more potent configurations, but for the most part, it's the same laptop. That is, with one notable exception.>>>>

Serbs bury US Embassy fire victim

Thousands of Serbs gathered Tuesday to bury a 20-year-old engineering student killed when a mob set fire to the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade during protests last week over Kosovo's independence. Students, teachers and relatives wept as they spoke of Zoran Vujovic while surrounding his flower-laden white casket in Novi Sad, about 50 miles north of Belgrade. Shocked relatives said he wanted only to protest U.S. support for Kosovo's secession. "His motive was only to protest Kosovo," said Zoran's uncle, Milorad Vujovic.

Meanwhile, violence continued in other Serb-dominated regions in the Balkans. In nearby Bosnia, police fired tear gas to prevent Bosnian Serb rioters from storming the U.S. consulate in Banja Luka, located in the ethnically divided country's Serbian area.>>>>

Pam Anderson cites ‘fraud’ in split from hubby

Actress wants judge to annul her marriage to Rick Salomon

Pamela Anderson has filed papers, asking a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to annul her marriage to former Paris Hilton sex-tape co-star, Rick Salomon.

In the filing, obtained by Access Hollywood, Anderson is seeking the annulment after only two months of marriage, citing "fraud” as the reason for the split. >>>>

Celebrity

Jane Fonda uses vulgar slang on 'Today'

NBC News is apologizing again — this time for Jane Fonda. The 70-year-old actress used a vulgar slang term on the "Today" show Thursday while talking about the play "The Vagina Monologues." Fonda is appearing in a 10th-anniversary performance and was on "Today" with author Eve Ensler. Fonda told co-host Meredith Vieira that she was asked to perform a monologue with a slang term for vagina as the title — and Fonda used the term itself on the air in explaining why she said "no.">>>>

Health

Danish scientists find way to tell age through eyes

A new way to decipher a person's age by looking into the lens of the eye could help forensic scientists identify bodies, Danish researchers said on Tuesday. Their new technique uses radiocarbon dating to measure special proteins known as lens crystallines that develop around birth and remain unchanged for the rest of our lives. They are the only part of the body apart from teeth that do so.>>>>

Humanity

Bush shaken by memorial to 800,000 Rwanda dead

George Bush, the US president, yesterday visited mass graves of Rwanda genocide victims, announcing that they were a reminder of the need to resist "violence and genocide in Darfur" and that a memorial for the 800,000 people who were massacred had shaken his emotions to the "very foundation". Choosing Rwanda to publicise the US's $100m (£51m) of aid for training and equipping African peacekeepers in Darfur, Bush said in Kigali: "It's not surprising at all that the first nation to step up and say we want to deploy peacekeepers was Rwanda." >>>>

Lifestyle

A single cigarette can cause addiction, says study

Smoking just one cigarette can cause tobacco addiction in some people, according to a New Zealand study published on Wednesday. Medical researchers asked 96,000 youngsters aged 14-15 to fill in questionnaires about whether they smoked and whether they felt the need to continue smoking. Those who smoked frequently replied, as expected, that they felt the urge to continue smoking.>>>>

• Mysterious creatures found in Antarctica
• Lunar eclipse to occur Wednesday night
• Scientists find 'Devil Toad' fossil
• Atlantis aims for Wednesday landing
• Oxford to study faith in God
• Laser could provide breath test for cancer, asthma
• Ancient "devil frog" may have eaten baby dinosaurs
• Astronauts prepare for third spacewalk
• Your Steak, Sir -- Medium, Rare or Cloned?
• Atlantis to race home out of Navy's field of fire

News

Old JFK documents may stir controversy

A batch of old documents linked to the slaying of President John F. Kennedy has reportedly been unearthed, including a highly suspect transcript of a conversation between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald's killer Jack Ruby, the Dallas Morning News said on Sunday. >>>>

Lifestyle

Why Your Workouts Don't Work

How to Change Your Workout to Get the Results You Want

Did you know the average health club exerciser quits after just six months for one of the following reasons:

>>>>

Nature

New Dwarf Salamander Found in Costa Rica

Two new pinky-sized salamander species and one the size of a fingernail have been discovered crawling around in a remote Costa Rican forest. >>>>

• Times Topics: Princess Diana
• Paul Krugman: Poverty Is Poison
• A Big-Time Injury Striking Little Players’ Knees
• Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location
• Frank Rich: The Grand Old White Party Confronts Obama
• Novelties: Learning From a Native Speaker, Without Leaving Home
• Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?
• Editorial: A Rip-Off by Health Insurers?
• Taking Play Seriously
• Largest Recall of Ground Beef Is Ordered
• After China Ships Out iPhones, Smugglers Make It a Return Trip
• Lindsay Lohan recreates Marilyn Monroe last, nude photo shoot with Bert Stern
• Allan Grant, 88, photographed Marilyn Monroe

Celebrity

Pamela Anderson to perform at Paris nude revue

Former "Baywatch" star and Playboy model Pamela Anderson takes to the stage in one of France's most famous nude revues this month, when she performs for two nights at the Crazy Horse in Paris.

Anderson, who has recently been performing in a magic show in Las Vegas, follows Arielle Dombasle, an actress and wife of one of France's leading intellectuals, in appearing at the Crazy Horse, a fixture in Paris night life for half a century.>>>>

People

Nancy Reagan hospitalized after falling

Former first lady Nancy Reagan was hospitalized Sunday after falling in her home in Bel-Air but is doing well, her spokeswoman said. Reagan, 86, was taken to St. John's Health Center, where doctors determined she did not break a hip as feared, spokeswoman Joanne Drake said.>>>>

Health 

Study Links Stress to Cervical Cancer

The negative effects of stress on the human body are already common knowledge, but a new study revealed that might be a link between stress and cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is the second most common form of cancer among women after breast cancer. Almost 250,000 people suffering from this disease die every year, according to the World Health Organization. >>>>

News

Winners, losers in digital TV transition

TV's big switch from analog to digital broadcasts will be complete in just one year, on Feb. 17, 2009, and many consumers are puzzling over how the shift will affect them: Do they need a new converter box, a new TV, a better antenna? But it's pretty clear which business interests stand to gain. Cable and satellite TV companies could see a wave of new subscribers as people with older TVs pass on hooking up converter boxes to older televisions or buying new sets. Local stations are already using some of the extra capacity digital broadcasting frees up by launching auxiliary TV channels with weather and traffic reports, and they're looking for ways to bring programming to portable devices. >>>>

News

Government to Control Struggling British Bank

The British government announced on Sunday that it would bring Northern Rock, the struggling mortgage lender, under its control. It was the first nationalization of a bank in more than a decade and a huge blow for the administration of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The government rejected two takeover proposals for the lender, which ran into trouble last year because of a money shortage that followed a subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. The government was forced to shore up the company with about £55 billion, or $107 billion, in loans and guarantees.>>>>

Worldrecord

The Top 20 Sandwiches in Search

Consider the sandwich. Seemingly simple, yet undeniably complex. From the aristocratic "tea party sandwich" to the decidedly less refined "deep fried ham sandwich," there are dozens of ways to create a meal out of two pieces of bread and something in between. Clearly folks know this. Lookups on "sandwich recipes" are significant and "kid sandwich ideas" post respectable numbers week after week. There are also a few inventors out there—we noticed searches on "what to name my sandwich" and the eerily specific "ideas on what to call a pork and cherry sandwich.">>>>

Celebrity

Experts question Spears lawyer's moves

An attorney who claims to represent Britney Spears has filed papers to move her conservatorship case from the Los Angeles County Superior Court to federal court, but legal experts question whether his legal strategy is viable and whether he can represent the troubled pop star at all.

In a document filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, attorney Jon Eardley writes that Spears has not "received the benefit of a single hearing before the court," and "is being confined by the conservator to the private prison of her own home," in violation of her civil rights.>>>

Tips

Sharpening Up Your New HDTV

A little knowledge can help get you up and running sooner

Getting a brand new high-definition TV should be an enjoyable experience, but when you open up that big box you could also be opening up a frustrating can of worms. HDTVs are complicated gadgets. It's not like the old days when you could just plug a TV into the wall and everything magically worked. HDTVs require a little nuance and a little knowledge.>>>>

Ethics 

Valentine's Dinner Date Etiquette

While food is an important part of any dinner date, there's still the whole date part to consider. With Valentine's Day quickly approaching, I asked relationship experts--and davidburke & donatella regulars--Kristina Grish and Scott Mebus to offer some advice on dating etiquette. The recently married pair compiled a he said/she said list for each gender that will impress a first date or long-time flame. >>>>

News

Gunman opens fire at N. Illinois U. hall

A man dressed in black opened fire with a shotgun and two handguns from a stage of a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday, injuring as many as 18 people, four critically, before he killed himself, the school's president said.

Witnesses in the geology class said "someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun," according to school President John Peters.>>>>

Worldrecord

Top 10 Most Incredible Animal Journeys

Animals will make extraordinary and often mysterious expeditions to find a good meal, sexy mates, and the perfect place to raise a family. This month, billions of cicadas will burst out from their 17-year-old hiding places to complete one of the longer journeys in time, while moving only a few inches from burrow to daylight. Other migrations cover thousands of miles.>>>>

Lifestyle

British researchers link obesity to more cancers

Obesity can double the risk of several cancers, according to a study published on Friday that for the first time also links being overweight with a number of less common forms of the disease. The analysis of 144 published studies incorporating some 282,000 men and women also showed that gender can make a difference in the relationship between obesity and some cancers, the researchers reported in the Lancet medical journal.>>>>

Celebrity 

Spencer Pratt: Heidi’s Next Video Will ‘Blow People’s Minds’

Heidi Montag music video is nothing if not a conversation starter. Remember the flurry of criticism surrounding the clip for her single “Higher?” (You know, the one that showed her chasing seagulls and writhing around in the surf in a pink bikini.) Well, the Hills star is planning another video, one that will “blow people’s minds very soon,” Montag’s former fiancé (and sometimes director) Spencer Pratt told PEOPLE at a pre-Valentine’s Day celebration for the video game “EA’s Burnout Paradise.” Promising that the video will be out “within the month,” Pratt says the new project will be more conceptual but still “very simple, [and] very entertaining, just like the last one.”>>>>

Health 

Many Prostate Cancers Will Not Need Treatment

One of the largest studies of its kind concludes that most older men with early prostate cancer do not shorten their survival odds if they adopt a "wait-and-see" approach to the disease.

In fact, most such patients will die of other causes or they simply won't develop any complications from the cancer, the researchers found.

"Many elderly men with lower risk cancer may do well with conservative management," concluded study author Grace Lu-Yau, a cancer epidemiologist at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey, and an associate professor at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and School of Public Health. >>>>

Humanity

Boy calls 911 after mom chokes on chip

A 5-year-old kindergartner is being credited with saving his mother's life when he dialed 911 after she choked on a potato chip. Mathew Rissler dialed 911 at 8:22 p.m. Monday. He said he learned at school how to dial the emergency number.

His mother, Sandy Rissler, said she was eating nachos when a chip got stuck in her throat during a sneeze.>>>>

Marriage

Are You and Your Valentine Compatible? 

In happy, successful relationships, both partners seem to be on the same page and to really enjoy life together. The more you have in common with the other person on the things that count, the more successful you are likely to be in the relationship. I call this the "compatibility factor."

Here are seven forms of compatibility to look for in your valentine.

1. Personality Compatibility. What's inside the person is the most important factor, because that is going to be there always. Decide what personality types you are most attracted to. Many people enjoy a great sense of humor, for example. Others look for someone with certain spiritual values.>>>>>

Law

Two Tunisians and a Dane were arrested in Denmark on Tuesday to prevent what the Danish police said would have been “a terror-related assassination” of one of 12 cartoonists behind caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published in 2005 that provoked fury across the Muslim world.

But the authorities said that the Dane would probably be charged and released and that the two Tunisians would simply be expelled, raising questions about how much evidence had been gathered in the case. >>>>

News

Kenya violence threatens flower exports

In a country strangled by anger and fear, it is taking armed escorts and emergency airlifts to make sure that Kenya's most warmhearted export — the rose — arrives in time for Valentine's Day.

Kenyan flowers — mostly roses — account for a quarter of Europe's cut flower imports, and Kenyan growers have been pushing to keep exports up for the holiday despite ethnic violence that has paralyzed the East African country.

They've chartered planes to embattled western cities, enlisted police to protect flower-truck convoys and made pleading cell phone calls to frightened workers urging them to return.>>>>

Humanity

"Stolen" Aborigines weep for lost families

Aborigine Lola Edwards wept on Wednesday when she heard Australia's prime minister say sorry for the country's past assimilation policies, under which black children were forcibly taken from their parents.

Edwards, 61, still remembers the taste of blackberries in her mouth the day she was "stolen" at the age of four from her mother's arms by a welfare officer.

"To this day, I have this, this feeling about the taste of blackberries. I was holding on to mum's dress, she took me blackberry picking, and the welfare officer said that we were going to a circus," Edwards told Reuters.