CHICAGO – A so-called “smart drug” popular with young people may carry more of an addiction risk than thought, a small government study suggests. Scans of 10 healthy men showed that the prescription drug Provigil caused changes in the brain’s pleasure center, very much like potentially habit-forming classic stimulants. Modafinil, the drug’s generic name, is [...]

WASHINGTON – Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday, in asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week. If the change happens, that doesn’t necessarily mean an end to Saturday mail delivery. Previous [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A rare genetic abnormality found in people in an insular Amish community protects them from heart disease, a discovery that could lead to new drugs to prevent heart ailments, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
About 5 percent of Old Order Amish people in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County have only one working copy rather than [...]

NEW ORLEANS – People with low cholesterol and no big risk for heart disease had dramatically lower rates of heart attacks, death and stroke if they took the cholesterol pill Crestor, a large study found.
The results, reported Sunday at an American Heart Association conference, were hailed as a watershed event in heart disease prevention. Doctors [...]

WASHINGTON – A growing number of economists believe the country is on the brink of – or already in – its first recession since 2001 and that it will be longer lasting.

That’s part of the latest outlook from forecasters in a survey being released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics, also know by [...]

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Regular, moderate exercise may help improve memory in older people and delay the onset of dementia, a study in Australia shows.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, involved 170 participants aged 50 and over who reported some memory trouble but who did not have dementia.
Half engaged in [...]

Over the last few days, thanks to the rising tension in Georgia and the weakening dollar, oil has regained some of the lost ground. Yet, most people believe that the markets are in for further erosion provided indeed, the geopolitical issues don’t get out of hand.
Tehran’s Opec governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi says that the cartel [...]

Today, the Sharia finance and banking industry is one of the fastest growing markets in the world and is estimated to be worth more than US$1 trillion in the next 2 years, according to the UK-based Securities & Investment Institute.
Unaffected by the subprime crisis, projections suggest that this market will grow by 15 per cent [...]

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) retail prices are expected to fall in the next few days to Rs70 per kg with the availability of extra supplies, the LPG Association of Pakistan announced here on Thursday.
“The prices are expected to fall nationwide next week,” said Fasih Ahmed, a spokesman for the association.
“The initial import of 2,500 metric [...]

Today, the Sharia finance and banking industry is one of the fastest growing markets in the world and is estimated to be worth more than US$1 trillion in the next 2 years, according to the UK-based Securities & Investment Institute.
Unaffected by the subprime crisis, projections suggest that this market will grow by 15 per cent [...]