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Obesity is surpassing malnutrition as a major health problem in many parts of the world.Weight problems have long been recognized as a health hazard in the United States, Europe and other industrialized countries, but in recent years the same worries have begun to emerge in many less well-off places.

?Obesity has penetrated the remotest places on Earth,? says Stanley Ulijaszek of the University of Oxford. However, a recent Vatican conference concluded that about 800 million people worldwide are still malnourished, while the International Obesity Taskforce estimates that 300 million people are obese.
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New satellite data shows that tiny airborne particles are changing rainfall patterns around the world. These man-made particles, mostly from burning fossil fuels, make it more difficult for clouds to form and less likely to rain if they do form.

Daniel Rosenfeld of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem says that because they block sunlight, these tiny particles slow down the evaporation from lakes and oceans ?so they suppress clouds in the first place.? The particles are too small to form the seeds of raindrops, the way dust usually does, ?so the clouds that do form?have a hard time [producing] rain.?
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Thanks to pollution, our days will be getting longer in the future. We could be slowing down the rotation of the Earth by steadily releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a team of Belgian researchers. They used climate models to simulate a 1 percent increase in the primary greenhouse gas each year, a rise they said goes along with current trends, and found that there will be a shift in the Earth?s spin over the course of the next few decades.

?The Earth?s rotation is an interesting quantity as it is global. Meteorological data are mainly local,? says Michel Crucifix. ?Consequently, the Earth rotation is a useful tool for looking?at the effects of global climate change.?
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Hundreds of youngsters in seven states have broken out in a mysterious rash, and some investigators believe it may be caused by a new virus. ?We sat there itching and then it got all red and bumpy and then it started stinging. I put a paper towel on it so it wouldn?t burn that much,? says 8-year-old Samantha Makl, who went to the hospital to have her rash treated.

Students in Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia, Virginia, Ohio, Oregon and Washington state are complaining about rashes on their faces, arms, legs and body. The red, itchy rash is more of an annoyance than a serious health threat, but it has temporarily closed down some schools. The rash usually goes away when the students leave school.
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