By Janet Morrissey Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2009

For many consumers, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the weeks that follow will be a good time to sit on their hands.

Cash-conscious shoppers are hoping to see a repeat of 2008's eye-popping discounts, when markdowns, even on high-end fashion duds, exceeded 75% in the weeks leading up to Christmas. Although retailers are insisting that they won't resort to jaw-dropping discounts this year, what happens will ultimately depend on how much and how quickly they get consumers to start spending. And it won't be easy.

By AP / SETH BORENSTEIN Monday, Nov. 23, 2009

(WASHINGTON) — Since the 1997 international accord to fight global warming, climate change has worsened and accelerated — beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.

As the world has talked for a dozen years about what to do next, new ship passages opened through the once frozen summer sea ice of the Arctic. In Greenland and Antarctica, ice sheets have lost trillions of tons of ice. Mountain glaciers in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa are shrinking faster than before.

By Andrew Marshall / Ulu Masen Monday, Nov. 30, 2009

There are two important things to know about tracking wild elephants, and it's better to learn both of them before you're actually in the jungle, tracking wild elephants. First, elephants are fast. In thick forest — in this case, the vast Ulu Masen ecosystem in the Indonesian province of Aceh, where leeches writhe beneath your feet and white-handed gibbons hoot from the treetops — they can outpace even deer. Second, elephants can't climb trees. This is good, because that's precisely what you're meant to do if one of them charges.

By BRYAN WALSH Friday, Nov. 20, 2009

Like the vast forests of the world, which continually suck carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and release oxygen, the planet's oceans serve as vital carbon sinks. Last year the oceans absorbed as much as 2.3 billion tons of carbon, or about one-fourth of all man-made carbon emissions. Without the action of the oceans, the CO2 we emit into the atmosphere would have flame-broiled the planet by now.

But a new paper published in the Nov. 19 issue of Nature demonstrates that the oceans' ability to absorb man-made carbon may be dwindling — and that has worrying ramifications for future climate change. While the ocean is now absorbing more carbon in total than ever before, the waters are sucking up a smaller percentage of the CO2 emitted by humans. That could mean that there's a limit to the ocean's capacity — and that we might be hitting it.

LOS ANGELES, Nov 20 — A Florida jury yesterday ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris USA to pay US$300 million (RM1 billion) in damages to a 61-year-old ex-smoker named Cindy Naugle who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema.

The Broward Circuit Court jury assessed US$56.6 million in past and future medical expenses against the company, part of Altria Group Inc, as well as US$244 million in punitive damages.

The verdict is the largest of the so-called Engle progeny cases that have been tried so far, both sides said.