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Sleaze, leaks and an indictment add up to the worst presidential crisis since Nixon. And it will get worse. The White House has lost one key man but the whole chain of command may be engulfed by a scandal slowly revealing the lies that led to war. By Andrew Buncombe in Washington Presidential second terms are prone to scandals, from Bill Clinton's embarrassments over Monica Lewinsky to Ronald Reagan's implication in the Iran-Contra imbroglio. But the troubles now circling George Bush's White House could be even worse than Watergate. It might not appear that way at first. Mr Bush is unlikely to have to join Richard Nixon, the only president in US history forced to resign from office. But the issues raised by "Plamegate" - the leaking of the identity of Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA agent - are far more significant than those involved in the "second-rate burglary" of the Democratic National Committee's offices in Washington's Watergate complex i...

Americans are bone-deep into a fight over evolution thanks in large part to a new script that has defined the issue in a way not seen since the "monkey trial" in rural Tennessee 80 years ago, academic and other experts say. "There are two factors in American society coming to a head right now. One is the long-running opposition to evolution in this culture," said Robert Boston, a spokesman for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "The second is a well-coordinated, well-crafted, slick campaign to repackage creationism. They've stripped it of its more outlandish claims ... their new package is significantly more attractive since it doesn't have all this pseudo-scientific baggage," he added. Religious and societal changes may also be factors, others say. The question being debated in more than two dozen states is whether schools should be required to teach some sort of creation concept alongside Charles Darwin's 146-year-old theory...

Oct 6th 2005 -From The Economist print edition The world's biggest drinks firm tries to fend off its green critics “WATER is to Coca-Cola as clean energy is to BP .” So declares Jeff Seabright, Coca-Cola's manager of environmental affairs, when asked about the firm's new global water strategy. The fizzy-drinks maker unveiled that strategy as part of its annual environmental report, released this week. “We need to manage this issue or it will manage us,” says Mr Seabright. At first sight, the analogy with oil may seem odd, but it is not so far-fetched. Big Oil has long been the target of activists clamouring for action on global warming. BP stole a march on its oily brethren by accepting that climate change is a real problem, making smallish investments in clean energy, and grandly proclaiming itself “beyond petroleum”. Coca-Cola has also been targeted by activists, but over the issue of water rather than energy. The firm has been hit hardest in India. First, experts fro...

MANAGED CARE April 1996. It's all well and good to know that H. pylori causes peptic ulcer disease. But putting this knowledge to work curing ulcers–and saving money–means making sure the patient actually takes the pills. By Linda Wolfe Keister Contributing Editor Persuading physicians and patients to change their thinking about ulcers and to comply with new treatment protocols has been a major challenge since 1983, when Australian physicians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren first advanced the notion that the Helicobacter pylori bacterium might be involved in the development of peptic ulcers. Because the medical community for many years believed ulcers were caused by stress and spicy foods, it disregarded Marshall's findings, especially when he couldn't reproduce the bacteria in his laboratory. Determined to make his point, Marshall swallowed a pure culture of H. pylori, subsequently developed gastritis, and proved that the bacterium was alive and well in his stoma...

I remember watching a programme on BBC - back in 1993, can't remember whether it was in Panorama or what! It has taken another 12 years for mankind to salute Dr Marshall for his pioneering work on Ulcers. www.helico.com Nobel discovery 'bloody obvious' Robin Warren and Barry Marshall's work on ulcers was pioneering An Australian scientist who has won the 2005 Nobel prize for medicine has said his discovery was "bloody obvious". Robin Warren, who shares the prize with his colleague Barry Marshall, said he was "thrilled" to be recognised, but had always believed in their work. The two scientists have described how they were initially shunned for insisting stomach ulcers were caused by a bacterium, not stress. Dr Marshall finally swallowed the bacterium himself to prove his point. Th...