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SEOUL (Reuters) - The U.S. periodical that published a landmark May 2005 paper on tailor-made embryonic stem cells -- a study since debunked as a fabrication -- will retract the article, according to a statement received on Friday. A South Korean panel dealt a devastating blow to discredited scientist Hwang Woo-suk on Thursday, concluding his once-celebrated team provided no data to prove they had produced tailored embryonic stem cells. "There is no question in our minds that the stem-cell pap ...

By Deena Beasley LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Stephen Bollenbach, chief executive of Hilton Hotels Corp. said on Thursday that the company's acquisition of its U.K. counterpart's lodging business offers "wonderful" international opportunities, even though the company's debt will fall to junk status. Hilton has agreed to buy the hotel assets of Hilton Group Plc for about $5.7 billion to become, by its own calculations, the world's largest hotel operator in terms of operating earnings. "We've been w ...

LONDON (Reuters) - A drunken passenger on a holiday flight from England to Spain was dropped at a tiny island off the African coast after he swore at the cabin crew, a newspaper reported on Friday. The plane's captain decided to leave the man at Porto Santo, a volcanic outcrop in the Atlantic, after he became abusive when he was refused more alcohol, the Daily Mail said. The Airbus plane, headin ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Most Britons back an outright ban on smoking in all workplaces and support action to ensure all pubs and bars are also smoke-free, according to a poll released on Friday. Anti-smoking campaigners said the findings would add to pressure from health officials and parliamentarians for Prime Minister Tony Blair's government to bring in a total ban because it could no longer argue the public would not back such a move. Earlier this year, amid an unusually open bout of ministerial ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- The National Security Agency's Internet site has been placing files on visitors' computers that can track their Web surfing activity despite strict federal rules banning most of them. These files, known as "cookies," disappeared after a privacy activist complained and The Associated Press made inquiries this week, and agency officials acknowledged Wednesday they had made a mistake. Nonetheless, the issue raises questions about privacy at a spy agency already on the defensive  ...

(CNN) -- The man responsible for fatally shooting four people, including his mother, on Christmas before taking his own life also shot at two houses four days earlier, police said Thursday. Nathan Cheatham, 27, reportedly killed himself at the scene of three of the slayings -- the Price family's spacious home in Great Falls, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. It was there, in Great Falls, that Cheatham and one of his Christmas victims, 19-year-old Adam Price, shot at two homes December 2 ...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- The body of Officer Robert Nguyen, who died along with another officer Christmas night when their truck plunged off a drawbridge and into the Hackensack River, was found Thursday afternoon. The 30-year-old's body was found amid debris from the crash, about 90 feet from where the vehicle hit the water, said John Drzal, a diver with the New York City Police Department. The truck was about 50 feet below the surface of the frigid water, and because it was almost impossible to s ...

OTTAWA, Ontario (Reuters) -- A police inquiry into the possible leak of news about Canadian tax changes has given opposition parties new ammunition in the election campaign, renewing attention on the ethics of the Liberal government. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said on Wednesday they had launched an investigation into whether the government or its officials improperly leaked news about Fina ...

By Arthur Spiegelman LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Call it the wrong phrase at the wrong time but "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" was named on Thursday as U.S. President George W. Bush's most memorable phrase of 2005. The ill-timed praise of a now disgraced agency head became a national punch line for countless jokes and pointed comments about the administration's handling of the Hurricane Katri ...

(CNN) -- In what may be a sign that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's terror group is expanding its operations, Al Qaeda in Iraq has posted a statement claiming responsibility for firing missiles from Lebanon into northern Israel earlier this week. The statement, posted Thursday on Web sites used previously by al Qaeda in Iraq, cannot be independently verified by CNN. The three rockets were fired late Tuesday from Lebanon into the Israeli town of Kiryat Shimona. The attack resulted in minor damage and no ...