Gov't to pay more than half of U.S. Health Costs

Federal and state programs will pay slightly more than half the tab for health care purchased in the United States by 2012, says a report by Medicare number crunchers released Thursday.

The Transportation Department launches an investigation into brake problems with the 2010 Toyota Prius.

The human race began as microbes brought to Earth by comets millions of years ago according to a British scientist, The Sun reported Wednesday.

British professor Chandra Wickramasinghe said: "We are all aliens. We share a cosmic ancestry. Each time a new planetary system forms, a few surviving microbes find their way into comets. These then multiply and seed other planets. We are thus part of a connected chain that extends over a large volume of the cosmos. Evidence is pointing inexorably in this direction."

The debt measure set for a House vote Thursday would raise the cap on federal borrowing to $14.3 trillion.

The number of newly laid-off workers filing initial claims for jobless benefits rose unexpectedly last week, evidence that layoffs are continuing and jobs remain scarce.

NATO does not intend to bribe Taliban guerrillas to defect to the Afghan government side as a way to end the war, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday, dismissing concerns over the latest plan to end the country's growing insurgency.