US – Sunday, July 5
National
Assets go into trust for family
Details of Michael Jackson’s will began to emerge Wednesday with all of his multimillion-dollar estate being placed in a family trust, even as plans for his highly anticipated funeral remained sketchy.
 
International
Last will of Michael Jackson
I, MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON, a resident of the State of California, declare this to be my last Will, and do hereby revoke all former wills and codicils made by me. 
 
The Word
The Beckhams’ island getaway
GOSSIP. According to the Sun, David Beckham is planning a trip to Necker Island, Richard Branson’s private island hideaway, to celebrate his 10th wedding anniversary with Victoria Beckham. And the best part? It only costs $51,000 a night to have the whole island to themselves.
 
Movies
The gangster of Hollywood
FEATURE. Johnny Depp doesn’t know what time it is. Though he technically calls an adorable village in France home and owns an island in the Caribbean, the mercurial actor spends so much time working that his internal clock is all out of whack.
 
 
Business
Sales pressure seen hurting consumers
Consumer and labor groups demanded Bank of America Corp. and other lenders reform their sales practices so that workers under pressure to meet sales quotas do not saddle customers with costly and unnecessary products.
 
Consumer Trends
Got smart-phone envy?
You’re in an elevator, on the subway or waiting in a line, and while those around you are tapping away on their BlackBerrys and iPhones, you take out your plain old cell phone and can’t help but feel a little … inadequate. Worry no more. Here are a handful of phones and programs that will help you quash those feelings of cell phone shame.
 
Published 21:43, January the 12th, 2009
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Prenatal autism test spurs ethics debate

1944

The year Asperger syndrome was first described. Owing to the condition’s late discovery, some experts think such geniuses as Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton might have suffered from it. 

 

Calls have been made for an urgent debate on the ethics of a new test that doctors say will soon detect autism in unborn children.

Researchers at the U.K.’s Cambridge University autism research center followed 235 children from birth to the age of eight and found that high levels of testosterone in amniotic fluid surrounding a fetus in the womb suggested a strong link to autism in the unborn child.

The test would be similar to those undertaken by women who think they may be carrying a child with Down syndrome, which has led to an increase in the number of babies with the syndrome being aborted.

Doctors worldwide have reported a dramatic increase in the last two decades in the number of children, especially boys, being diagnosed with various forms of autism, which is a spectrum disorder.

Autism can manifest itself in a range of ways, from children with no speech or social interaction, to those which high-functioning forms of the condition, such as Asperger syndrome, where the only symptoms are slight difficulties in social interaction, which can often be overcome by learned behavior.

People with autism have been among the world’s greatest mathematical and musical minds.   

METRO