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A Hong Kong researcher says a wild animal considered a dining delicacy is the carrier of a virus that causes SARS. The finding fits earlier speculation that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome originated in wild animals. Hong Kong University revealed Friday that the civet cat, a wild animal indigenous to southern China, is the likely source of the virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Dr. K.Y. Yuen said researchers at the Shenzhen Center of Disease Control found four strains of the virus in a large percentage of civet cats. "From a special type of civet cat, we are able...

<p>BAGHDAD — U.S. military inspection teams have concluded that material looted from Iraq's main nuclear facility at Tuwaitha poses little or no danger to the people who stole it and cannot be converted into an effective "dirty bomb."</p> <p>After cleaning up two small areas of spillage outside the facility, the Washington-based Nuclear Disablement Team determined that the radiation level was no more than double the dosage every human absorbs daily, officials said.</p>

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer VATICAN CITY - Pope John Paul II has used prayer to cope with his advancing age and Parkinson's disease, a top Vatican official said in published remarks Saturday — the first time a senior official has publicly acknowledged the pontiff suffers from the degenerative disease. Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Congregation of Bishops, made the comments in an interview with the Milan daily newspaper Corriere della Sera on the eve of the pope's 83rd birthday. "If we want to look for the secret weapon that has allowed him to beat the years...

Employees facing downsizing get sick more often, a large-scale study shows  The harder you work and the more stressed you are, the sicker you get, a large-scale Dutch study has confirmed. And if you're threatened with downsizing, you get sick even more often. The research, part of the long-term Maastricht Cohort Study, involved 12,140 people - more than half of whom were followed over three years. Results were recently released by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, which financed the work. "A large percentage of absenteeism is caused by infections," wrote Dr Danielle Mohren of Maastricht University, who led...

Directions for a Peaceful Death By Richard Baxter Comfort is not desirable only as it pleases us, but also as it strengthens us, and helps us in our greatest duties. And when is it more needful than in sickness, and the approach of death? I shall therefore add such directions as are necessary to make our departure comfortable or peaceful at the least, as well as safe.Direct. I. Because I would make this treatise no longer than I must; in order to overcome the fears of death, and get a cheerful willingness to die, I desire the sick to...