Ïîïóëÿðíûå ñîîáùåíèÿ

вторник

The good news, Stewart says, is that the lessons learned in the West — especially about early screening and prevention — could help to stem the expansion of cancer in other parts of the world.

i i

The next round of Iranian nuclear talks with world powers is fast approaching, and there's still a lot of skepticism in the air over the prospects for a comprehensive deal.

Iran will sit down with the U.S. and five other major powers in Vienna on Feb. 18 as they try to hammer out a long-term agreement on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. By most every estimate, it won't be easy to build on the success of a temporary deal drawn up last November given the lingering, visceral mistrust between the United States and Iran.

Those feelings were on display at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, where officials from both countries lobbed accusations at one another.

Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who spoke to the conference about the future of the Middle East, accused the Iranians of repeatedly lying and cheating when it comes to their nuclear program.

"Our beloved Ronald Reagan used to say: 'Trust, but verify,'" McCain said. "Well in the case of Iran, don't trust and verify.

He said this is why he expects Congress to impose more sanctions if the talks with Iran drag on for more than six months. But he suggested waiting that long may be a mistake.

"There are three components to nuclear weapons – warhead, delivery system and the material itself," McCain said. "They are achieving the first two without any restraints whatsoever."

More On Iran

Middle East

Nuclear Inspectors Enter Iran, With Eyes Peeled For Cheating

Quite possibly, you've noticed some new food labels out there, like "Not made with genetically modified ingredients" or "GMO-free." You might have seen them on boxes of Cheerios, or on chicken meat. If you've shopped at Whole Foods, that retailer says it now sells more than 3,000 products that have been certified as "non-GMO."

But where does non-GMO food come from? After all, 90 percent of America's corn and soybeans are genetically modified, and producers of eggs, milk and meat rely on those crops to feed their animals. Soy oil and corn starch are used throughout the industry. Can big food companies really avoid GMOs?

Looking for the answer, I ended up at one of the first links in the non-GMO supply chain: a corn processing facility just north of the small town of Cerro Gordo, in west-central Illinois.

понедельник

If your New Year's Resolution was, "I am going to prepare for retirement by moving my savings into stocks," then you must be very sad now.

Broncos-fan-level sad.

On Monday, the Dow Jones industrial average plunged another 326 points, down about 2 percent to 15,373. That was the seventh triple-digit drop so far this year. Back on Dec. 31, the Dow was at 16,577.

And the day was even worse for the S&P 500, which lopped off another 2.3 percent to slump to 1742. As recently as Jan. 15, that stock index was at 1848.38.

In other words, your stock portfolio has been getting killed so far this year. Experts have been tossing out lots of explanations. Among the ones cited often are:

Fund managers' decisions to sell shares to lock in profits after last year's big gains.

Worries about slowing growth in emerging market.

Possible changes in the Federal Reserve's plans for interest rates.

Weakening U.S. corporate profits.

Slowing auto sales.

Weaker-than-expected growth in manufacturing.

So where do we go from here? Predictions are all over the place.

Some analysts think this is just a short-term pull back. They say the market is headed for a fairly typical "correction," a period when the market may drop 10 percent before investors start plowing money back into the market.

This slump could be seen as a "healthy" pullback, coming early in the year and allowing mutual funds to lock in profits from 2013's huge gains. Once stock prices are back down to lower, more attractive levels, the investors will come back, so the argument goes.

Optimists point out that both December and January were unusually cold, so that might have slowed auto sales, construction and retail sales. When the weather warms, the economy and the stock market will snap back, they believe.

But pessimists are worried. They fear interest rates will be heading higher, China will keep slowing and conditions will not be as favorable to corporate profits. Currency problems will keep hurting emerging markets and Europe will slow again, they argue.

Blog Archive