As diabetes rates rise worldwide, so does the illegal trade in human kidneys.The World Health Organization estimates that 10,000 black-market operations a year are being performed in places like China, Pakistan, and India, as doctors transplant kidneys purchased from poor donors for as little as $5,000 into richer patients paying up to $200,000.
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The top 20 percent of taxpayers—those earning $134,300 or more—account for about 84 percent of all federal income tax revenue. When you include all federal taxes, including those on Social Security and Medicare, the top quintile’s share drops to 67 percent. The top 20 percent earn about 51 percent of total U.S. income.
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Knowing your limits, after Molly Schuyler, a 120-pound mother of four, won a Texas eating competition by wolfing down 13 pounds of steak in four minutes, 18 seconds. Schuyler said she had room for more steak but got sick of the taste.
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A cybersecurity firm has traced scores of attacks on U.S. corporate and government computers to a single building in Shanghai. The security firm, Mandiant, found that the attacks originated in a 12-story building known as the headquarters of People’s Liberation Army Unit 61398. Intelligence analysts say that the unit has about 2,000 employees and 1,000 servers, and is the most […]
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A California man has paid off a $14,000 property-tax bill using only dollar bills and loose change. Larry Gasper says he wasn’t deliberately trying to inconvenience county officials with the unorthodox payment, which he transported to county offices in a wheelbarrow—causing the clerks’ jaws to drop. It’s just that he’s very short of money, and had to scrape up the […]
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About a dozen inmates die behind bars each day, or about 4,400 jail and prison inmates each year. In jails, suicide is the leading cause of death.
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25%: Share of the world’s population that the U.S. is legally bound to defend thanks to pacts and treaties signed with over 60 countries, according to a report from the Harvard Belfer Center.
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Average number of hours a U.S. child aged 8 to 18 spends using an electronic device or watching television each day: 7.6
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. . . the Ukrainian navy, after the Russian military seized control of the country’s combat-dolphin program, which had been based in Crimea. “Dolphins get used to the people they work with,” said a Ukrainian official. “It’s not so easy for them to change allegiance.”
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After eight years of war, bombings, and brutal sectarian violence, Iraq’s civilian population is now suffering an epidemic of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental illnesses, health officials there say. But there are only 100 psychiatrists to serve a population of 39 million.
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