Voters are anxious to hear what Clinton and Obama would do about the faltering economy, about soaring gas and food prices, about a costly war. There is talk in the opposing camps of the campaign getting ugly from here on out. What Pennsylvanians don't need is seven weeks of negative ads, and seven weeks of two highly qualified candidates trying to tear each other down. Obama and Clinton should give Pennsylvanians the kind of meaningful campaign voters have been waiting 32 years to see. .

The week in seven stories

But it was his talk with Bush that might have had the most impact on the situation in Afghanistan. Soon after the telephone call to the White House, NATO's Canadian-born spokesman James Appathurai told journalists in Brussels that alliance countries would meet Canada's concerns. It also emerged that Washington was putting new pressure on Germany and France to send combat troops to the battlefields of southern Afghanistan.

What can't have helped Harper's case to stay the course in Kandahar were more warnings that Afghanistan was again at risk of becoming a failed state. In the United States, two reports prepared by high-level panels called on Washington to provide more money and more leadership in Afghanistan. The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Thomas Pickering, headed one of the studies.

Your Health This Week The shocking end to that big diabetes study ...

Remarkably, these benefits continued for many years even after patients relaxed the blood sugar controls. Another large and important study of the effects of blood sugar control on type 2 diabetics in Britain showed a substantial reduction in most complications, though little or no cardiovascular effect. A few earlier and much smaller studies suggested that blood sugar control for type 2 diabetics might have harmful cardiovascular consequences, but the results of the large British study were very reassuring on that score. That's why the ACCORD results were so shocking.

Conclusion (or lack thereof): Alas, we will probably be grasping for an explanation for some time. The cardiovascular problems showed up while the study was ongoing and still await detailed consideration. That is still probably a year or two away.

Selling sex to study

What we can definitely say is that as long as student debt increases so will the numbers of students entering the industry. Since the introduction of tuition fee’s in 1998 there has been an increase in students undertaking this kind of work."

Dr Roberts said the French government is taking a much more proactive step towards tackling the problem compared with the British NUS: "Improving financial support [is] obviously a better way as it recognises it’s something to do with students having no money.

Travel Troubleshooter: What’s this mystery charge?

Question: Im trying to get a refund for my car rental insurance and I could use a hand. My wife rented a car online through Alamo for pickup in Madrid. The agreement clearly stated that the daily charges, taxes and collision damage waiver, were included.

Snow piling up in the moutnains

A spate of recent winter storms has yielded a bumper crop of snow for Western Washington mountains. The Cascades, including the areas around Snoqualmie Pass, White Pass and Mount Rainier, have almost double the snow than is typical for this time of year, the National Weather Service said Saturday. A few figures:

What Darwin Teaches About the Drug War

The U.S. government responds by pumping billions more dollars into the war on drugs. Federal spending for this "war without end" is more than twenty times what it was in 1980 and still the drug traffickers appear to be winning. Despite more than six billion dollars spent on "Plan Colombia" alone, cocaine production has actually increased in that country. Now the Bush Administration is asking for $1.4 billion more to aid the Mexican government's drug crackdown through the "Merida Initiative."

As illegal drugs become easier to obtain and more potent, politicians respond in a knee-jerk manner by ramping up law enforcement.

The Blotter

Further investigation revealed the child was not injured during the first diaper change by daycare staff. The injury to the child was noticed by the daycare staff but no one notified the police department or child protective services.