3xwy Blog

Reuters – Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda had a “cordial and open” meeting on Thursday with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood before thanking workers in Kentucky for supporting him during his appearance before Congress.

AP – It’s something Egyptians rely on daily: the “ambooba,” the steel canister of government-subsidized cooking and heating gas, hooked to the stove or water heater in the cramped homes of nearly everyone in this country’s large population of poor.

AP – Yahoo is selling its online help-wanted site, HotJobs, to rival Monster Worldwide for $225 million in cash.

France has moved a step closer to outlawing the full Islamic veil that covers a woman’s face. A parliamentary commission has stopped short of calling for a full ban, but recommended that lawmakers bar wearers of the garment from public buildings like schools and hospitals.

Reuters – New York City can revive its economy by helping Haitians and other immigrants get small business loans, creating jobs and other programs for at-risk youths, boosting anti-foreclosure efforts, and setting up neighborhood credit unions, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Wednesday.

It has been two days now since a magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, to its core. The Red Cross Federation now estimates the death toll at 45,000 to 50,000. For the tens of thousands of injured, many of the region’s hospitals have been severely damaged — and outside medical and rescue groups are still struggling to reach the hardest-hit areas. Robert Siegel talks to NPR’s Carrie Kahn, who is in Port-au-Prince, about the unfolding humanitarian crisis there.

The rate of nearsightedness among Americans is rising, by as much as 66 percent since 1970, according to one study. But why? Researchers working to unravel the mystery think it may be linked to the amount of time spent outdoors during childhood.

Carjackings are a fact of life in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. And anyone who takes to the road there risks being a victim. This particular crime has spawned a growing industry — defensive driving schools.

Host Guy Raz explores some of the fallout from the “climate-gate” e-mail hack with Dr. Judith Curry, chairwoman of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech. And she says the e-mails reveal a lack of transparency and a lot of “locker room talk” in the climate research community.

A new study finds that there has been an increase in the number of children born with Down syndrome. One reason for the increase may be that women wait longer to have children, which increases the chances of a child being born with Down syndrome. Another could be that more families choose not to terminate a pregnancy.