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According to a new study that found first-rate treatment for cancer but insufficient primary care for other ailments, the U.S. healthcare system is more effective at delivering high costs than quality care.

The study disclosed Americans pay more than $7,900 per person for healthcare each year, which is far more than any other OECD country but still die earlier than their peers in the industrialized world.

From Reuters.com:

The cost of healthcare in the United States is 62 percent higher than that in Switzerland, which has a similar per capita income and also relies substantially on private health insurance.

Meanwhile, Americans receive comparatively little actual care, despite sky-high prices driven by expensive tests and procedures. They also spend more tax money on healthcare than most other countries, the study showed.

An “underdeveloped” U.S. primary care system is plagued by shortages of family doctors and high rates of avoidable hospital admissions for people with asthma, lung disease, diabetes, hypertension and other common illnesses.

The study was released on Wednesday by the 34-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD.

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The United Nations said in a report that the AIDS epidemic is leveling off and the number of people newly infected with the virus that causes it has remained unchanged since 2007.

The report from UNAIDS, the joint United Nations program on HIV and AIDS, revealed that there were 2.7 million new HIV infections last year, approximately the same figure as in the three previous years.

From news.yahoo.com:

At the end of last year, there were about 34 million people with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. While that is a slight rise from previous years, experts say that’s due to people surviving longer. Last year, there were 1.8 million AIDS-related deaths, down from 1.9 million in 2009.

The outbreak continues to hit hardest in southern Africa. But while the number of new infections there has fallen by more than 26 percent since the peak in 1997, the virus is surging elsewhere.

In eastern Europe and central Asia, there has been a 250 percent jump in the number of people infected with HIV in the past decade, due largely to the spread among injecting drug users. In North America and western Europe, the outbreak “remains stubbornly steady,” according to the report.

“It’s looking promising, but the numbers are still at a scary level,” said Sophie Harman, a global health expert at City University in London. She was not connected to the UNAIDS report.

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On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice said that drug maker Merck will pay $950 million to resolve investigations into its marketing of the painkiller Vioxx.

Merck will pay $321.6 million in criminal fines and $628.4 million as a civil settlement agreement, the agency said.

From news.yahoo.com:

Merck stopped selling Vioxx in 2004 after evidence showed the drug doubled the risk of heart attack and stroke. In 2007, the company paid $4.85 billion to settle around 50,000 Vioxx-related lawsuits.

The Justice Department said the settlement resolves allegations that Merck made false, unproven, or misleading statements about Vioxx’s safety to increase sales and made false statements to Medicaid agencies about its safety.

Merck said the settlement does not constitute an admission of any liability or wrongdoing, and it said the government acknowledged that there was no basis to conclude that Merck’s upper-level management was involved in the violations.

Merck will also plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge that it marketed Vioxx as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis before getting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.

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The Archaeology Institute of Mexico downplays theories that the ancient Mayas predicted some sort of apocalypse would occur in the year 2012.

On Thursday, the institute acknowledged that a second reference to the date exists on a carved fragment found at a southern Mexico ruin site.

From news.yahoo.com:

Most experts had cited only one surviving reference to the date in Mayan glyphs, a stone tablet from the Tortuguero site in the Gulf coast state of Tabasco.

But the National Institute of Anthropology and History said in a statement that there is in fact another apparent reference to the date at the nearby Comalcalco ruin. The inscription is on the carved or molded face of a brick. Comalcalco is unusual among Mayan temples in that it was constructed of bricks.

“Some have proposed it as another reference to 2012, but I remain rather unconvinced,” David Stuart, a specialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin, said.

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On Tuesday, a human rights group said it has filed claims with the United Nations seeking damages on behalf of more than 5,000 Haitian cholera victims and their families.

The claims filed by the Boston-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti argue that the United Nations and its peacekeeping force are liable for hundreds of millions of dollars for failing to adequately screen peacekeeping soldiers.

From news.yahoo.com:

“The sickness, death and ongoing harm from cholera suffered by Haiti’s citizens are a product of the U.N.’s multiple failures,” the complaint reads. “These failures constitute negligence, gross negligence, recklessness, and deliberate indifference for the lives of Haitians.”

Cholera has sickened nearly 500,000 people and killed more than 6,500 others since it surfaced in Haiti in October 2010, according to the Haitian Health Ministry. Evidence suggests that the disease was inadvertently brought to Haiti by a U.N. battalion from Nepal, where cholera is endemic. A local contractor failed to properly sanitize the waste of a U.N. base, and the bacteria leaked into a tributary of one of Haiti’s biggest rivers, according to a study by a U.N. appointed panel.

The Institute is also seeking a minimum of $100,000 for each bereaved family and $50,000 for each cholera survivor.

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A new study has warned that viewing your car as an extension of yourself could lead to aggressive driving.

“It explains much of the phenomenon we knew existed,” lead author Ayalla Ruvio, an assistant professor of marketing at Temple University Fox School of Business in Philadelphia, said in a university news release.

From news.yahoo.com:

Ruvio and a colleague used 134 surveys of men and women in Israel, average age 23.5 years, to examine the influence of personality, attitudes and values on driving. The researchers also looked at the factors of risk attraction, impulsivity, driving as a hedonistic activity and perceptions about time pressures among another 298 people.

The study authors found that people who believe their car is a reflection of their self-identity are more likely to drive aggressively and disobey the rules of the road, and that people with compulsive tendencies are more likely to drive aggressively without regard for potential consequences.

The study is published in the November issue of the journal Psychology & Marketing.

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Yahoo has begun to distribute an iPad magazine that illuminates ambitions of the Internet Company and the chronic hiccups that have thrown its fate into doubt.

Livestand, the free magazine, has intriguing potential as its software can be customized to pull a deep pool of content from Yahoo’s website and other participating publishers to cater to each user’s interests.

From news.yahoo.com:

But the magazine didn’t arrive until Wednesday, well behind Yahoo Inc.’s own timetable for the product and 19 months after Apple Inc. began selling the iPad.

Since its launch last year, the iPad has thrust tablet computers onto the cutting edge of both technology and media.

Yahoo is counting on Livestand to keep its brand and services relevant as more people embrace the iPad and other mobile devices to consume digital content. The company also hopes that the magazine’s customization tools make it easier to determine what each reader likes so advertisers can target their messages at people mostly likely to buy their products.

Livestand may become a key piece of Yahoo’s latest comeback attempt if Yahoo remains independent.

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