National / International News

The US space agency (Nasa) has reported that its Curiosity rover has made another significant discovery on Mars.

Rep. Paul Ryan's budget plan would repeal the Affordable Care Act. But the 2012 vice presidential nominee's dislike of the health care law doesn't appear to extend to the $800 billion in new taxes it raises over the next decade.

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The settlement stems from what Cardinal Roger Mahony, who is in Rome helping elect the next pope, called "the most troubling case of his tenure."

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit invalidated three appointees, saying Obama overstepped his authority by making "recess appointments."

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A portrait by the Dutch master painter Rembrandt is recovered by police in Serbia, seven years after it was stolen.

Under pressure from the New York state comptroller — who oversees one of its largest shareholders — the doughnut chain has agreed to set a goal of using only 100 percent sustainable palm oil to make its doughnuts. Production of palm oil has caused serious deforestation in Indonesia.

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Barcelona make Champions League history in knocking out AC Milan to reach the quarter-finals.

Victims of the fighting in Syria have been helped to walk again by a West Midlands surgeon using artificial limbs made from drainpipes.

Racing pundit John McCririck is taken to hospital after falling ill at the Cheltenham Festival, officials at the course have said.

Diners at a Dunkin' Donuts restaurant in Philadelphia had a lucky escape when a woman accidently reversed her car through the front of the premises.

In 1944, Von Kleist volunteered to wear a suicide vest. After another bombing plot went wrong, Von Kleist ended up in a concentration camp. Somehow — and inexplicably — he was let go and he lived to see 90.

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Nearly 200 smaller airports, including Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pa., are set to have their control towers closed this year as the FAA makes sequestration cuts. Although commercial flights will continue, some say safety is a concern.

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The proposal describes changes to the Medicare program in Obamacare-like terms. One change would be to the choices seniors would have as part of a "new Medicare exchange" — similar to the insurance exchanges now being built under the Affordable Care Act.

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A former Canadian Mountie banned from possessing weapons is arrested after police found an arsenal of machine guns, grenades and a cannon.

In his annual assessment of threats, the director of national intelligence also cited Iran and North Korea. He warned the spending cuts mandated under the sequestration jeopardized the nation's safety.

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The longtime activist hasn't quite overcome the reputation of his early career, but the Rev. Al Sharpton now commands a uniquely powerful platform.

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A charity worker is sacked after his bosses saw footage of him wrestling a shark in Australia while he was on sick leave for stress.

The Welshman who became famous for helping to pull a shark away from children at a beach in Australia says he has been sacked from his job while on that holiday.

As part of a conversation with author Melanie Warner, we asked how to avoid processed food in your daily diet, especially if 70 percent of the caloric intake in the U.S. is processed food. Here are Warner's tips:

1. Shop the perimeter.Most of the fresh and minimally processed foods at the supermarket reside along the edges. This means the produce section, the fresh meat counter or cooler, and the dairy area. If you venture into the middle aisles, only do so sparingly and mostly in search of healthy, minimally processed choices (canned beans, natural peanut butter, frozen vegetables, etc.). If you're following that advice, then you’re probably already avoiding a lot of processed food.
2. Read ingredient labels.Calorie counts and sugar totals can only tell you so much. But if a product is made with an ingredient list that runs for three paragraphs or reads like a chemistry textbook, then it’s a highly engineered product of modern food science likely to have minimal levels of naturally occurring nutrition. Added vitamins and minerals are also a marker for products with paltry nutrition. After all, if it’s a healthy product, why does it need synthetic nutrients?
3. Demand that restaurants provide information about what’s in their food.
   Unlike packages at the grocery store, restaurants are under no obligation to reveal what they put in their food. The largest chains like McDonald’s, Burger King and Subway print that info on their web sites, but places like Applebee’s and Chili’s have decided to keep their customers in the dark. Andit’s something you may want to know, since much of the food at these chain restaurants isn’t being freshly prepared in the kitchen, but centrally produced and then delivered to the restaurants pre- or partially made.
4. Cook for an army on the weekends (or whatever day of the week might contain a little free time).
   Weekdays are hectic, but homemade meals don’t have to be an impossibility. Food made ahead of time and either stored in the fridge or freezer can be your own version of fast food, and often at a lower cost than what it would take to hit the drive thru or order Domino’s.
5. Think simple.Cooking doesn’t have to mean gourmet. It doesn’t even need to mean cooking. Lots of chefs, from Rachel Ray to Jamie Oliver, have web sites and cookbooks featuring recipes truly anyone could make, and quickly. Sites like 100 days of real food offer loads of great, practical advice for kicking the processed food habit.

An inspector general investigation exposed deep fissures within the unit for the past dozen years and gave rise to perceptions of politicized and partial behavior by lawyers there.

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