In an effort to compete in a crowded market, credit card companies are moving beyond tangible rewards–such as airline tickets and gift certificates–when trying to appeal to their wealthier customers. Now it's all about experiences. Visa offers customers the chance to hobnob with rock stars like Elvis Costello and NFL draftees, American Express sends clients up into space on suborbital jets, and MasterCard invites people to name the experience they want the company to arrange.
If former Sen. Fred Thompson enters the GOP presidential race in the next few weeks, as expected, he must avoid the pitfalls endured by Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois?a meteoric rise and then a stall that undermines the power of his candidacy.
As many as 40 percent of older adults suffer from depression?often alongside other health conditions like heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's?and many turn to antidepressants to help lift their mood. Yet, two new studies linking antidepressants with bone loss may give them pause. Both studies, published in today's Archives of Internal Medicine, found that seniors who use selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (i.e., Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft) had more bone loss compared with those who don't use the drugs. Those taking an older class of antidepressants, called tricyclics, did not suffer the added bone loss. SSRI medications may interact with certain receptors on bone cells, triggering the cells to release calcium at a faster rate, says Susan Diem, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota who was involved in both studies.
AP - A wildfire raged out of control near Lake Tahoe on Monday, forcing hundreds of residents to flee towering flames that destroyed more than 200 buildings, turned the sky orange and fouled the lake's famously clear waters with falling ash.
AP - A police officer accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend and her nearly full-term fetus made his first court appearance Monday and was ordered held on $5 million bond.
AP - Ex-EPA chief Christie Whitman was bombarded by boos and a host of accusations Monday at a hearing into her assurances that it had been safe to breathe the air around the fallen World Trade Center.
For 5-year-old Jackson Manford-Roach, Mother's Day means it's time to see his grandmothers. Jackson is one of 65,000 adopted children being raised by same-sex parents in the United States, according to a March 2007 report. But laws and rights of same-sex parents vary wildly from state to state and prejudice remains a problem.
Firefighters emboldened by better weather began an aggressive campaign from the ground and air today to battle a 2,500-acre blaze raging near South Lake Tahoe, California. The fire has burned more than 220 homes and buildings, authorities said.
![[logo]](http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/img/bbc_news_120x60.gif "BBC News")
![[logo]](http://www.csmonitor.com/images/logo_88x31.gif "Christian Science Monitor"){kind=logo}
![[logo]](http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/section/NytSectionHeader.gif "NYT > Home Page")
![[logo]](http://www.usnews.com/usnews/images/rss/logo_rss.gif "USNews.com"){kind=logo}
![[logo]](http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/us/nws/th/main_142b.gif "Yahoo! News")
![[logo]](http://image.guardian.co.uk/sitecrumbs/Guardian.gif "Guardian Unlimited")
![[logo]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/.element/img/1.0/logo/cnn.logo.rss.gif "CNN.com"){kind=logo}
