National / International News

Lord Sugar has "no intention" of paying out to Apprentice winner Stella English "unless instructed to do so", he tells a tribunal.

Scotland's coal mining industry is warning that the impact of cheap imports is putting jobs at risk.

Female graduates are still likely to earn thousands of pounds less than men, according to a new report.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans pay their last respects to the late President Hugo Chavez, who is lying in state before his funeral on Friday.

A man admits killing his mother and battering his dad during a violent attack at their home in South Ayrshire.

Security Council members voted to impose tough new financial and trade restrictions on Pyongyang in hopes of halting its nuclear program.

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Tracey Emin, once the wild child of the art world, receives her CBE from Princess Anne at Buckingham Palace.

This country has a weight problem, which has created a disease problem. Namely, diabetes. And that, in turn, has created an economic problem. A new study by the American Diabetes Association says the disease cost the economy an estimated $245 billion last year, a 41 percent increase since 2007.

And that big jump spending can’t be blamed on runaway medical costs. In fact, the cost of treating diabetes is actually rising slower than health care inflation in general. The big increase is the number of folks with the disease; five million people have been diagnosed with diabetes in the last five years.

“This is the heart of the health care crisis in terms of expenditures,” says Robert Ratner, chief scientific and medical officer at the American Diabetes Association.

His study found that one of every five health care dollars in the U.S. goes to treating diabetics.

“Individuals with diabetes are recommended to see a physician four times per year. They are on average taking anywhere from three to nine medications per day,” says Ratner.

Taxpayers pick up some of those costs.

“Already, one in three Medicare dollars is spent on people with diabetes. It’s an enormous cost to our health care system and to our economy,” says Cynthia Rice with Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.

Treating the disease is big business for drug-makers.

“Two of the top 20 drugs sold in the country are drugs that treat diabetes,” says Ira Loss, executive vice president of Washington Analysis, a federal policy research group.

According to Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News, a diabetes drug called Januvia, for instance, saw its sales jump 22 percent year to year. Lantus, another huge seller, was up almost 20 percent over the year before.

But diabetes also exacts high a high price in terms of absenteeism, reduced productivity and unemployment due to disability. According to the American Diabetes Association, that cost the economy $69 billion last year.

What can be done?

Robert Ratner believes the key to reducing diabetes is reducing obesity.

“Clearly we have a food industry that is out to sell food that people want to eat, not necessarily looking at the health qualities of those foods,” says Ratner.

Americans are attracted to restaurants that offer big portions because we’re looking for value. But to save money in the long run, it’s better to minimize, rather than Super-Size.

Facebook has had its ups and downs since it went public last year, and today it announced another tweak to the design of its main page. CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a new and, according to him, improved, newsfeed that will display photos better and offer users a better way to interact with news and information about their "friends."

He likened it to a "personalized newspaper." The news feed will be broken down into sections so you can have a file for your friends, your close friends, you music, and so on.

"We believe that the best personalized newspaper should have a broad diversity of content -- high-quality content from world renowned sources and socially and locally relevant updates from family, friends and those around you," Zuckerberg said. "It should also enable you to be able to drill into an topic that you want to discuss."

It is designed to make us happier and, not coincidentally, to make Facebook more money. As usual, Facebook did not address the money question directly. Recent data suggest that Facebookers are using the site less -- and with all the tweaking going on, some analysts have expressed concern that Facebook is worried about losing customers.

Then again, if Facebook wasn't making changes, analysts would probably be second-guessing the company as well.

The Dow is still in record territory in early trading this morning. The surge comes on the heels of strong jobs data from the Labor Department, which show applications for unemployment benefits have fallen to a five-year low.

As home prices rise, more owners are preparing housing for sale -- and construction companies and building supply chains are hiring again.

And here’s a little mystery, Wall Street style. What gives with the NASDAQ? The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 are at or near historic highs. But the NASDAQ -- the index that tracks mainly tech stocks -- isn’t reaching the same height. It’s true the NASDAQ did reach a 12-year high this week. It’s just nowhere near its historic level. And given the stratospheric height it reached during the 1990’s tech bubble,  some analysts think that’s a long time off.

Canadian Arctic Archipelago glaciers could lose up to 20% of their volume if warming projections hold true, according to a new study.

A Bolshoi soloist accused over an attack on the ballet's artistic director tells a court he did not mean for acid to be used, but discussed beating him up.

Fifa writes to the Nigerian Football Association about claims that lesbians are now banned from playing football there.

South Korean phone-maker Samsung loses another patent fight against rival Apple, in the UK High Court.

Tennis will implement an Athlete Biological Passport programme to support the fight against drug cheats.

A judge backs campaigners who claimed the consultation over changes to children's heart surgery in England and Wales was flawed.

The president dined Wednesday with Republicans. He has lunch today with the 2012 GOP vice presidential nominee. Next week: More discussions with Republicans over a meal.

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Australia coach Robbie Deans says the British and Irish Lions will be better prepared for the first Test of the series.

"Swan Lake." It’s one of the most well-known ballets of all time. And it may be at the heart of the attack on the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director. There’s speculation the attack was instigated by the boyfriend of a spurned ballerina -- who had hoped for the lead role.

Dancing as Odette/Odile is the sort of role that young ballerinas dream of.

Moving, swan like, delicately, across the stage. “I would think that being the lead in 'Swan Lake' would have to be the highlight of a classical dancer’s career,” says Alice Pascal Escher, a dance professor at Tulane University.

She says it’s the quintessential role for a ballerina. “From the earliest days when you take ballet, when you go to ballet class, whether you have recorded music or an accompanist playing the music,” she says, “you hear the music from 'Swan Lake.' You dance to the music from 'Swan Lake.'” Dancers learn the variations from their very earliest ballet classes, starting with the four little swans, slowly working up to the evil, perfect, black swan.

It’s technical. It’s dramatic. It’s poetic. “It’s just a beautiful ballet start to finish,” says Septime Webre, artistic director of the Washington Ballet. He says it can also be pretty beautiful for a ballet company’s ticket sales. “When you’ve got something like Swan Lake,” says Webre, “that really helps at the box office, it’s a really important vehicle for financial stability for an arts institution.”

Ballet is an expensive art form. "Swan Lake" helps pay the rent by drawing new audiences into the world of ballet, with its intrigue, magic and its lovely lead ballerina.

"Swan Lake." It’s one of the most well-known ballets of all time. And it may be at the heart of the attack on the Bolshoi Ballet’s artistic director. There’s speculation the attack was instigated by the boyfriend of a spurned ballerina -- who had hoped for the lead role.

Dancing as Odette/Odile is the sort of role that young ballerinas dream of.

Moving, swan like, delicately, across the stage. “I would think that being the lead in 'Swan Lake' would have to be the highlight of a classical dancer’s career,” says Alice Pascal Escher, a dance professor at Tulane University.

She says it’s the quintessential role for a ballerina. “From the earliest days when you take ballet, when you go to ballet class, whether you have recorded music or an accompanist playing the music,” she says, “you hear the music from 'Swan Lake.' You dance to the music from 'Swan Lake.'” Dancers learn the variations from their very earliest ballet classes, starting with the four little swans, slowly working up to the evil, perfect, black swan.

It’s technical. It’s dramatic. It’s poetic. “It’s just a beautiful ballet start to finish,” says Septime Webre, artistic director of the Washington Ballet. He says it can also be pretty beautiful for a ballet company’s ticket sales. “When you’ve got something like Swan Lake,” says Webre, “that really helps at the box office, it’s a really important vehicle for financial stability for an arts institution.”

Ballet is an expensive art form. "Swan Lake" helps pay the rent by drawing new audiences into the world of ballet, with its intrigue, magic and its lovely lead ballerina.