Wal-Mart on track to reverse 2-year US slump

NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart's effort to reverse a two-year sales slump at its U.S. namesake stores is working.

The world's largest retailer said Wednesday during a meeting with analysts that revenue at its namesake stores in the U.S. that have been open at least a year rose three months in a row in July, August and September. Wal-Mart had promised a quarterly increase by the end of this year, ending nine quarters of declines, and Wednesday's news indicates it could make good on that vow in the current quarter, which ends Oct. 28.

"We have had very positive momentum in the back half, especially in the U.S," said Charles Holley, Wal-Mart's executive vice president and chief …

Comparison of DPPC and DPPG Environments in Pulmonary Surfactant Models

ABSTRACT

Deuterium nuclear magnetic resonance was used to monitor lipid acyl-chain orientational order in suspensions of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and dipalmitoylphosphatidylglycerol (DPPG) containing Ca^sup 2+^ and the lung surfactant proteins SP-A and SP-B separately and together. To distinguish between protein-lipid interactions involving the PC and PG lipid headgroups and to examine whether such interactions might influence spatial distribution of lipids within the bilayer, acyl chains on either the DPPC or the DPPG component of the mixture were deuterated. The lipid components of the resulting mixtures were thus either DPPC-d^sub 62^/DPPG (7:3) or DPPC/DPPG-d^sub …

Roadside bomb kills senior police officer in northwest Pakistan

A roadside bomb killed a senior police officer and his driver Friday as they drove through a militancy-plagued region of northwestern Pakistan, police said.

The bomb killed Javed Iqbal, the deputy police chief of the Lakki Marwat district of North West Frontier Province, and his driver as they were driving through the district, said Khaled Khan, a police official. It was unclear who was behind the attack.

The government last year deployed thousands of extra security forces to Lakki Marwat and neighboring districts to prevent it from falling under the control of Taliban-style militants.

The district borders South Waziristan, a tribally governed …

Students get green light from shire FA Aberdeen University have been accepted into the Aberdeenshire and District FA.

Aberdeen University have been accepted into the Aberdeenshire andDistrict FA.

The move means that the students will be able to play againstHighland League sides and Junior outfit Banks o' Dee in the variousAberdeenshire competitions next season.

But despite being eligible to play in the Aberdeenshire League andEvening Express Aberdeenshire Cup, the Varsity will only play in theAberdeenshire Shield.

Although the decision will have to be ratified by the SFA, it isbelieved the students will be accepted.

Club captain Alex Petrie said: "It is absolutely brilliant that wehave been accepted to the ADFA.

"We will start off playing in the Aberdeenshire …

Ailing back earns Guillen a day off (sort of)

Ozzie Guillen, bothered by a sore back and having started allbut two games this season, asked for and received Sunday off, thoughhe was a pinch hitter in the ninth inning.

"With the four games coming up on artificial turf (atMinnesota), and (Saturday) night's game hurt so much, he came to meand asked," manager Jeff Torborg said.

Torborg said he wanted out of Comiskey Park in a hurry afterSaturday night's loss. "I just wanted to go home and be with my wifeand watch TV." But he ended up watching "The Monty Stratton Story,"about the former White Sox pitcher who lost a leg in an accident. "Ithelped," he said. "It put things in perspective in a hurry." Jack …

Egypt's 1st post-Mubarak election to begin Nov. 28

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's state media say the country's first parliamentary elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster will begin Nov. 28.

The announcement by the country's state news agency and state television on Tuesday quoted a …

Fighting the odds to keep Indian tongues alive

In his first year at San Marcos University, Hermenegildo Espejo barely spoke, and certainly not in class.

His Spanish was rudimentary, his accent an embarrassment. Classmates in Lima, a two-day trip from his Amazon home town, laughed at his grammatical stumbles, his odd pronunciation.

"I didn't understand anything. I couldn't pronounce words well," the 22-year-old Peruvian Indian recalls, wincing as he gazes out a taxi window on a rutted jungle road near his home.

Six years later, Espejo is a thesis away from an undergraduate degree in linguistics at Peru's top public university. And while his Spanish is now excellent, it is not his …