Brain image study: Fructose may spur overeating

This is your brain on sugar — for real. Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn't register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found.It's a small study and does not prove...

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GOP balks at lack of spending cuts, House could vote tonight

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., left, with Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, head into a closed-door …Updated 7:27 pm ETRepublican House leaders are giving their fractious caucus a choice: Try to amend a fiscal cliff compromise passed in the Senate early Tuesday morning or go for a straight up-or-down vote on the original deal.Either way, it apppeared the fate of the measure...

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NKorea's Kim wants better living standards, arms

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says his people must pursue economic improvement with the same urgency scientists put into the launch of a long-range rocket last month.Kim said in a speech Tuesday that boosting living standards is the new year's most important task. But he's also calling for the development of more advanced weapons.North Korea struggles to grow enough...

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Armstrong better, Green Day to resume tour in 2013

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Green Day is going back on the road.The Grammy-winning punk band announced new tour dates Monday.The band canceled the rest of its 2012 club schedule and postponed the start of a 2013 arena tour after singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong's substance abuse problems emerged publicly in September when he had a profane meltdown on the stage of the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las...

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Clinton's blood clot an uncommon complication

The kind of blood clot in the skull that doctors say Hillary Rodham Clinton has is relatively uncommon but can occur after an injury like the fall and concussion the secretary of state was diagnosed with earlier this month.Doctors said Monday that an MRI scan revealed a clot in a vein in the space between the brain and the skull behind Clinton's right ear.The clot did not lead to a stroke or neurological...

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Fiscal cliff tumble looms despite Senate efforts

By Richard Cowan and Roberta Rampton WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States was on track to tumble over the "fiscal cliff" at midnight on Monday, at least for a day, as lawmakers held back from supporting an eleventh-hour plan from Senate leaders to avert severe tax increases and spending cuts. The U.S. House of Representatives looked unlikely to vote on a Senate "fiscal...

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Car bombing targeting Shiites in Pakistan kills 19

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — A car bomb targeting a bus carrying Shiite Muslim pilgrims killed 19 people in southwest Pakistan, officials and eyewitnesses said.Earlier Sunday, 21 tribal policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban were found shot dead in Pakistan's troubled northwest tribal region, government officials said.Reports conflicted about whether the car bombing was a suicide attack...

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'The Hobbit' stays atop box office for third week

LOS ANGELES (AP) — "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" continues to rule them all at the box office, staying on top for a third-straight week and capping a record-setting $10.8 billion year in moviegoing.The Warner Bros. fantasy epic from director Peter Jackson, based on the beloved J.R.R. Tolkien novel, made nearly $33 million this weekend, according to Sunday studio estimates, despite serious competition...

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Kenya hospital imprisons new mothers with no money

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The director of the Pumwani Maternity Hospital, located in a hardscrabble neighborhood of downtown Nairobi, freely acknowledges what he's accused of: detaining mothers who can't pay their bills. Lazarus Omondi says it's the only way he can keep his medical center running.Two mothers who live in a mud-wall and tin-roof slum a short walk from the maternity hospital, which is affiliated...

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Fiscal cliff negotiations stall; Senate to resume talks New Year's Eve

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid speaks on the Senate floor. (Reuters/C-SPAN/Handout)Bottom line: Still no "fiscal cliff" deal. And none seems imminent.The U.S. Senate on Sunday ended the day still sharply divided over how to avoid the automatic  income-tax hikes and deep government spending cuts set to kick in Jan. 1 that could plunge the economy into a new recession.Despite pleas...

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