LONDON (Reuters) – The delicate balance of the Caribbean’s coral reefs is in jeopardy as more parrotfish end up on dinner plates, international scientists said on Wednesday.

The colorful grazing fish, named for their parrot-like beaks which are used to scrape up algae, play a vital role in stopping seaweed from [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Google Inc, which is used to dominating the Web search advertising business, may find negotiating its way into the cell phone market a tougher task.

Dealing with America’s largest mobile companies, which keep control of devices and features, could force the Web search leader to make concessions that cut into future [...]

OSLO (Reuters) – Nordic nations sounded the alarm on Wednesday about a quickening melt of Arctic ice and said the thaw might soon prove irreversible because of global warming.

Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland also urged all governments to agree before the end of 2009 a broader U.N. plan to curb greenhouse gases [...]

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The taxman in Iowa is going after jack-o’-lanterns this Halloween.

The new department policy was implemented after officials decided that pumpkins are used primarily for Halloween decorations, not food, and should be taxed, said Renee Mulvey, the department’s spokeswoman.

“We made the change because we wanted the sales [...]

MALIBU, California (AP) — Pierce Brosnan is being investigated by sheriff’s officials for an alleged battery in Malibu.

Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said the 54-year-old former James Bond star allegedly committed the battery Friday night outside a Mexican restaurant.

Whitmore said Brosnan wasn’t arrested or detained. [...]

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – A 19-year-old man suspected of killing a woman who answered an online ad for a baby sitter was charged Tuesday with second-degree murder.

Michael John Anderson is accused of shooting Katherine Ann Olson in the back at his home in suburban Savage, according to the criminal complaint filed in Scott County District [...]

LAKE LANIER, Georgia (Reuters) – A large, man-made lake in north Georgia is at the center of a political storm over how to distribute water resources between three states in the face of the region’s worst drought in decades.

Lake Lanier stands near the head of a watershed that feeds the booming city of [...]

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – “The Exorcist” was voted the scariest movie of all time in a Halloween poll published on Wednesday.

The 1973 horror classic, starring Linda Blair as a possessed child, came out ahead of the Jack Nicholson movie “The Shining” in a survey conducted online among 6,500 customers of British music [...]

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore Airlines, the first operator of the new Airbus A380, has dashed the hopes of sexual thrill-seekers planning to engage in amorous activity aboard the world’s biggest jumbo jet.

The carrier said it would ask passengers on the A380 to refrain from sex while ensconced in one of its 12 first-class suites, [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Hospitals seeking to keep patients from picking up infections should focus as much on cleaning up invisible germs as on removing the visible dirt, a British doctor argued on Tuesday.

Clean hands can only go so far in protecting patients from infection if doorknobs, bed rails and even sheets are [...]

TORONTO (Reuters Life!) – While adults may relish the gore of Halloween, most children enjoy the night for another reason — the vast amount of candy they receive which is prompting warnings to parents.

With concern growing about rising childhood obesity rates, medical experts advised parents to limit how much candy they allow their children [...]

NEW YORK (Reuters) – General Electric Co said it is developing a control panel that should allow homeowners to trim rising utility bills by helping manage power and water consumption.

The “eco-dashboard” will be available in December in new home developments in southern and western U.S. states, areas where power and water [...]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The AIDS virus invaded the United States in about 1969 from Haiti, carried most likely by a single infected immigrant who set the stage for it to sweep the world in a tragic epidemic, scientists said on Monday.

Michael Worobey, a University of Arizona evolutionary biologist, said the 1969 U.S. entry date [...]

NEW YORK (AP) – Her trip to Rwanda has been postponed, but Paris Hilton is still determined to use her celebrity status for good causes.

“I want to travel the world,” the 26-year-old socialite says in an interview posted on the Web site of the syndicated entertainment TV show “Extra.” “I feel like [...]

CLEVELAND—How can some people live at high altitudes and thrive while others struggle to obtain enough oxygen to function?

The answer for Tibetans who live at altitudes around 14,000 feet is increased nitric oxide (NO) levels. High levels of NO circulate in various forms in the blood and produce the physiological mechanisms that [...]