Fizzy Milk

Coca-Cola is preparing to launch fizzy milk on the world.

The drink contains skim milk mixed with sparkling water, flavored with fruit and sweetened with cane sugar.

Scientists have developed the drink at the firm’s laboratories in Atlanta, Georgia, ensuring it will not curdle in its 8 oz. aluminum bottle.

Going under the name Vio, Coca-Cola has begun test-marketing the carbonated drink at natural food stores and delis in New York. It sells for about $2.50 a bottle, no chilling required. One of Coke’s copywriters claims it tastes "like a birthday party for a polar bear."

It comes in four "natural" flavors — peach mango, berry, citrus and tropical colada — and could even be marketed as a healthy nutritional drink. But it has 26 grams of sugar a bottle, on a par with other non-diet Coca-Cola products, and 1.5 grams of fat.

"It’s big on milk flavor and, as a result, has a somewhat creamy body," said a flavor tester for BevNET.com, a drink industry research site. "It didn’t seem sweet until you consumed almost a whole bottle."

Teaser

A promo image for the new season revealed all the show’s characters (both dead and alive) lined up in a long row. John Locke is in the center, with his back turned toward us, looking over his shoulder. Josh Holloway told me his thoughts on the placement: “I guess Locke’s become Satan. I’ve really enjoyed his sudden change into becoming the evil guy.”

http://www.sl-lost.com/2009/07/26/season-6-promo-image-shown-at-comic-con/

Same Old Vegas...

Police in Las Vegas say a tamed tiger that escaped from a magic act has been captured.

Police say the residents in the city's northwest section reported seeing the tiger wandering their streets Thursday night.

Police Lt. Les Lane says the cat belongs to Fernando's Brothers magic act. He says the cat got loose, but "they got it back into custody."

The cat was found in a resident's backyard.

Curing The Blues

A common and safe blue food dye might provide the best treatment available so far for spinal cord injuries, U.S. researchers reported on Monday.

Tests in rats showed the dye, called brilliant blue G, a close relative of the common food dye Blue no. 1, crossed into the spinal fluid and helped block inflammation, Maiken Nedergaard of the University of Rochester Medical Center and colleagues reported.

"We have no effective treatment now for patients who have an acute spinal cord injury," Dr. Steven Goldman, who worked on the study, said in a statement.

When nerve cells in the brain or spine are damaged, they often release a spurt of chemicals that causes nearby cells to die. No one is sure why, and stopping this process is key to preventing the damage that continues to build after a stroke or spinal cord injury.

One of the chemicals is ATP. Nedergaard's team looked for something that would interfere with this and found the blue dye, which they called BBG, would do this via the P2X7R receptor or doorway.

"We found that IV administration of the P2X7R inhibitor BBG significantly reduced the severity of spinal cord damage without any evident toxicity," they wrote. "Remarkably, BBG is a derivative of the widely used food additive FD&C Blue number 1. Currently, more than 1 million pounds of FD&C blue dye No. 1 are consumed yearly in the United States, corresponding to a daily intake of 16 mg per person."

Favorite Cheese

Friday Buggery - Enjoy!

A South Carolina man was charged with having sex with a horse after the animal's owner caught the act on videotape, then staked out the stable and caught him at shotgun point, authorities said Wednesday.

But this wasn't the first time Rodell Vereen has been charged with buggery. He pleaded guilty last year to having sex with the same horse after owner Barbara Kenley found him in the same stable and was sentenced to probation and placed on the state's sex offender list.

Kenley said she noticed several weeks ago her 21-year-old horse Sugar was acting strange and getting infections again. She noticed things in the barn had been moved around — dirt piled up and bales of hay stacked near the horse's stall at her Lazy B Stables in Longs, about 20 miles northeast of Myrtle Beach.

She spent several nights at the stables, which are about four miles from her home, but didn't find anything. So she installed surveillance cameras, and when she reviewed the footage from July 19, she couldn't believe she was seeing the same man doing the same thing to her horse.

Kenley didn't call police because she was certain the man would come back to the stable, and she wanted to make sure he was arrested. So she staked out the barn and caught Vereen inside Monday night, chasing him to his truck and holding him with her shotgun until police came.

"He said he wasn't there to do anything, and I said, 'I know you were. I have you on tape.' And then he said he was sorry if he hurt me," Kenley said.

Vereen, 50, was first charged with trespassing, but police added a buggery charge after watching the surveillance tape. He faces up to five years if convicted. Vereen was already on probation after pleading guilty to buggery last year and was sentenced to three years of probation, ordered to stay away from the Lazy B Stables and declared a sex offender. He remains in jail, awaiting a hearing Monday to determine if he violated his probation.

Chill Winston!!

Killer Whale? ...Try Savior Whale

A beluga whale saved a drowning diver by hoisting her to the surface, carrying her leg in its mouth.

Terrified Yang Yun thought she was going to die when her legs were paralyzed by crippling cramps in arctic temperatures. Competitors had to sink to the bottom of an aquarium's 20-foot arctic pool and stay there for as long as possible with the beluga whales at Polar Land in Harbin, north east China.

But when Yun, 26, tried to head to the surface she struggled to move her legs.

"I began to choke and sank even lower and I thought that was it for me - I was dead. Until I felt this incredible force under me driving me to the surface," Yun said.

Beluga whale Mila had spotted her difficulties and using her sensitive dolphin-like nose guided Yun safely to the surface.

A.I.

Cancer Bed

International cancer experts have moved tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation into the top cancer risk category, deeming them as deadly as arsenic and mustard gas.

For years, scientists have described tanning beds and ultraviolet radiation as "probable carcinogens."

A new analysis of about 20 studies concludes the risk of skin cancer jumps by 75 percent when people start using tanning beds before age 30. Experts also found that all types of ultraviolet radiation caused worrying mutations in mice, proof the radiation is carcinogenic. Previously, only one type of ultraviolet radiation was thought to be lethal.

The new classification means tanning beds and other sources of ultraviolet radiation are definite causes of cancer, alongside tobacco, the hepatitis B virus and chimney sweeping, among others.

The research was published online in the medical journal Lancet Oncology on Wednesday, by experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, the cancer arm of the World Health Organization.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535220,00.html?test=latestnews

Money Train

Four financial whizzes forged a bond at NYU — then joined forces to devise an incredibly simple ATM scheme that wound up bilking up to $1 million from scores of banks, authorities said yesterday.

The conniving quartet included a well-connected lawyer who interned with the Queens DA's Office, a Vietnamese refugee-turned-financial-broker, and a married bank-executive couple, officials said yesterday.

The scheme involved the four setting up bank accounts, then disguising themselves when they went to withdraw the money at ATMs and later claiming they were the victims of theft-by-ATM, officials said.

They would demand that the banks refund their money as required by law. If the banks balked, the ringleader, Manhattan lawyer Eric Manganelli, 36, would call and pressure them until they coughed up the dough, authorities said.

"Their excuses of how they lost their ATM cards were absolutely absurd," said prosecutor Karen Turner. "Manganelli [told one bank] he took a leather case with all his cards and a sheet with all his PIN numbers and he decided to put them in a safety deposit box.

"He said he left it on the counter instead of locking it in the box and, unbenownst to him, all the accounts were looted."

Still, the four college pals managed to keep the scheme going from 2003 to last August, authorities said.

"Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Huddled Masses Yearning To Breathe Free..."

...and we'll ship em somewhere else!

New York City is buying one-way plane tickets for homeless families to leave the city.

It's part of a program by Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration to keep the homeless out of the expensive shelter system, which costs $36,000 a year per family.

More than 550 families have left the city since 2007. All it takes is for a relative to agree to take them in.

The city employs a travel agency for domestic travel and the Department of Homeless Services handles international travel.

City officials say there are no limits on where a family can be sent and families can reject the offer.

Families have been sent to 24 states and five continents, mostly to Puerto Rico, Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. City officials say none of the relocated families have returned to city shelters.

St Joseph's - live in Jackson Hole Gondola

GPS or GSP?

Officials say a Swedish couple looking for the pristine waters of the popular island of Capri ended some 400 miles (660 kilometers) away in the northern industrial town of Carpi after misspelling the destination on their car's GPS.

Angelo Giovannini, a spokesman for the Carpi town hall, near Modena, said Tuesday the couple drove into the main square last week and asked the local tourist office how to reach Capri's famed Blue Grotto sea cave.

Giovannini said "we thought they might mean a restaurant. Capri is an island, they did not even wonder why they didn't cross any bridge or take any boat."

He said the couple, who were not identified, arrived from Venice and later set off to their planned destination at the other end of the Italian peninsula.

Log Jam

An Australian woman was rescued after spending a week wedged between her toilet and the bathroom door, an official said Tuesday.

The 67-year-old woman, suffering from dehydration, was taken to a hospital after firefighters in the eastern city of Ipswich ended her ordeal Sunday by removing the bathroom door from its hinges, Queensland state government spokesman Chantelle Rule said. The woman, who is diabetic, was not seriously ill, Rule said.

The woman, who has not been named, fell during the early hours of July 19 and somehow became trapped with her feet stuck on either side of the toilet bowl and her body wedged against the inward-opening door, Rule said.

Neighbor Michael Hibberd said he heard her cries for help as he hung his washing in his backyard Sunday morning. He could not open the door to her house and called police.

From The "Who Cares" File...

The winner of Daisy of Love.....

LONDON (...this douche >>>)

The winner of Charm School 3 (with Ricki Lake)...

RISKY (...this bitch >>>)

Whale Wars

A cruise ship arrived at the Port of Vancouver with a dead whale lodged in its bow.

The Princess Cruise Lines' Sapphire Princess was docked at the Canada Place terminal Saturday with the whale stuck to its front. It wasn't immediately known when it arrived or when the collision occurred.

Some tourists visiting one of the city's most impressive downtown destinations took pictures of the whale. Several employees at Canada Place, home to the Vancouver Convention Centre and the Pan Pacific Hotel, also trickled over to stare at the animal.

The Bikini Bandit

A 24-year-old woman has been charged with carjacking and assault after taking a car and trying to rob a Southaven business, all while wearing swimming attire, police said.

Police Chief Tom Long said Morgan Haley of Horn Lake forced a woman to give up her car Thursday.

Long said the victim gave up the car without a fight to a bikini-clad Haley, asking only for time to remove her young children from inside.

Long said Haley then drove the stolen car to a business, where she told employees she had a gun and demanded money. The employees did not believe Haley's claim and restrained her until officers arrived.

Police said Haley appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the carjacking and attempted robbery.

Not Quite Sure...

A Journey To The New

Parents in Florida are complaining about a sculpture of a nude family outside a shopping center west of Delray Beach.

Parents of children who attend a nearby elementary school say the bronze statue is inappropriate, and the PTA president e-mailed parents Wednesday asking them to complain.

The sculpture is by artist Itzik Asher and titled "Journey to the New." It is supposed to represent the journey of Russian and Ethiopian Jews from their homes to Israel. It was previously displayed at other locations in the area.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that Asher's sculptures have drawn criticism before. In 1995, the Boca Raton City Council made him cover the private parts of several of his sculptures with cardboard fig leaves. The leaves were later removed.

Who Nose?

Michael Jackson wore a prosthetic nose, according a report — and it was missing from his surgically mangled face as he lay in an LA morgue.

Left behind was a small, dark hole surrounded by bits of cartilage, Rolling Stone magazine said, citing witnesses who saw the King of Pop's body on the autopsy table.

Jackson, who was notoriously shy about his appearance, wore the prosthetic to mask the effects of decades of plastic surgery, according to the magazine, due to hit newsstands today.

Meanwhile, a Texas search warrant unsealed yesterday indicates that Jacko's doctor, Conrad Murray, is the target of a manslaughter probe into the singer's death.

The document authorized cops who searched the doctor's clinic and storage unit on Wednesday to look for "items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad Murray committed said criminal offense."

Murray was with Jackson when the singer went into cardiac arrest on June 25 after ingesting a cocktail of powerful drugs.

A Decent Mug

A Mississippi fugitive accused of molesting young girls in the 1990s was arrested Thursday while tending sheep in the remote and rugged Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming, the FBI said.

Edward Eugene Harper, 63, was arrested without incident near his mountain camp, FBI spokeswoman Kathy Wright said. Harper had an unspecified number of handguns and rifles in his truck but was not carrying them when he was apprehended, she said. He was alone at the time.

Harper was a fugitive for nearly 15 years after failing to appear at a court hearing in DeSoto County, Miss., in October 1994. He was indicted in April of that year on charges of conspiracy to commit sexual battery, child fondling and sexual battery. Prosecutors alleged Harper befriended and then molested two girls — ages 3 and 8 — in Hernando, Miss.

The FBI believes Harper had been living a nomadic lifestyle out of his camper truck, doing odd jobs and herding sheep. He was working not far from the drainage of the Middle Fork of the Powder River, known as Outlaw Canyon, Lawson said. Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang used to hide out in the area in the late 19th century, according to the Kaycee Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Masked Angel

A Turkish official says restoration workers have uncovered the never-before-seen mosaic face of an angel at Istanbul's Haghia Sophia — a former Byzantine cathedral.

The cathedral's Christian mosaics were covered up in line with Muslim custom shortly after Constantinople — the former name for Istanbul — fell to the Ottomans in 1453 and the cathedral was turned into a mosque.

Some of the mosaics were revealed after it was turned into a museum in 1935, but the angel image remained covered.

Ahmet Emre Bilgili, the head of culture and tourism affairs for Istanbul, told the Associated Press on Friday that restoration workers will now work to uncover a second mosaic angel image.

HAL

Armed And Dangerous

The recipient of the world's first complete double arm transplant scratched his head and back and beamed at his doctors Wednesday, saying he was on the path to independence a year after the pioneering operation.

Farmer Karl Merk, who lost his arms just below the shoulder in a 2002 combine harvester accident, demonstrated the progress he has made by scratching the back of his head with his right hand and squeezing rubber discs at a press conference near his home in southern Germany.

http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,5289,00.html

Ah...The Memories...

In a Twitter video, which was posted Tuesday, the Republican governor is sitting at his desk in the Capitol admiring a 2-foot-long folding knife before looking up to thank followers for their budget-balancing ideas.

French Jimmy Soup

A Mission Viejo man is suing an Orange County based restaurant chain after he says he found a condom in a bowl of french onion soup.

According to court documents filed Tuesday, Philip Hodousek and his wife, Sherry, along with their eighteen year old daughter went to the "Claim Jumper" restaurant in Mission Viejo to enjoy an Easter Brunch on Sunday, April 12, 2009.

Hodousek says they ordered drinks, appetizers and a couple of main courses from the server. Among the items ordered was a bowl of french onion soup.

After the server brought the soup to the table, Hodousek says he immediately began eating the cheese which was spread across the top portion of the bowl.As he ate the soup, he felt what he believed was a tough piece of cheese on the side of his mouth. When he couldn't chew it into pieces, he told his family that it felt like rubber, according to the court filing.Hodousek says he spit it out into his napkin, at which time his wife said, "Oh my God, it's a condom."

After speaking with the server, the restaurant's general manager, Marc Hadley, came over to the table and explained that the item was a rubber glove used by employees to prepare food and apologized, the documents say.

After further inspection, it was clear the item was not a rubber glove, but clearly a condom, Hodousek says.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ktla-condom-soup-lawsuit,0,7309197.story

Jackson Jr.?

A dancer thought to be Michael Jackson's secret lovechild was given a seat in the front row at the King of Pop's Los Angeles memorial service, The Sun reported on Wednesday.

Devastated Omer Bhatti (far left), 25, sat with his head bowed and wore dark glasses alongside the star's grieving brothers and sisters during the poignant tribute two weeks ago.

The British tabloid report has fueled suspicion that he is Jackson's fourth child and childhood photos show an uncanny likeness to Prince Michael II, 7 — known as Blanket — the youngest of the star's three "official" children.

Michael Jackson, who died last month at age 50, is said to have told pals in 2004 that Norwegian Bhatti was born following a one-night stand in 1984. Bhatti is now believed to be seeking a DNA test to discover the truth.

Yesterday, Bhatti's family in the Norwegian capital of Oslo refused to rule out Jackson as his father.

The Apple Of Secrecy

An employee at a factory that makes iPhones in China killed himself after a prototype went missing, and Apple Inc. responded Wednesday by saying its suppliers are required to treat workers with dignity and respect.

The dead worker, Sun Danyong, 25, worked in product communications at Foxconn Technology Group, a Taiwanese firm that makes many Apple products at a massive factory in the southern city of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

There's tremendous pressure on employees dealing with Apple's new products to maintain a high-level secrecy over the gadgets, traditionally launched amid great suspense and a big marketing buzz.

Apple is also a constant target of prying journalists, rabidly faithful customers and competitors who make great efforts to try to steal a peek at its latest technology.

Sun was responsible for sending iPhone prototypes to Apple, and on July 13 he reported that he was missing one of the 16 fourth-generation units in his possession, the newspaper reported. His friends said company security guards searched his apartment, detained him and beat him, the paper reported.

In the early morning of July 16, Sun jumped from the 12th floor of his apartment building, the paper said.

Sun Gazing

The longest solar eclipse of the 21st century pitched a swath of Asia from India to China into near darkness Wednesday as millions gathered to watch the phenomenon.

Toe Jam

Three people have been accused of letting rats bite a 6-week-old girl and chew off her toes at their cluttered Ohio mobile home.

Pike County prosecutor Rob Junk says the baby's toes on one foot were gone when sheriff's deputies went to the home Sunday after receiving an anonymous tip.

The baby is in fair condition at a Columbus hospital.

A married couple and the 18-year-old boyfriend of the baby's mother are charged with felony child endangering. They were in court for an initial hearing Tuesday. They're jailed pending a plea hearing in two weeks.

The prosecutor says they all lived in the mobile home west of Piketon, a village noted for its old uranium enrichment plant.

He says the baby's mother is a juvenile. He won't identify her or say if she'll be charged.

Passing The Time

A man whose relatives say had been sniffing gasoline burst into flames after a police officer Tasered him as he ran at officials carrying a container of fuel, police said Tuesday.

Western Australia police said they were responding to a complaint at a house when Mitchell ran outside the house carrying a cigarette lighter and a large plastic bottle containing what they believe was fuel. When he refused to stop running toward them, one officer Tasered him, police said in a media release.

The man was immediately engulfed in flames. The officer threw him to the ground and smothered the blaze with his hands, the statement said. Mitchell was charged with assault to prevent arrest and possession of a sniffing substance.

An 18-year-old woman threw rocks at the officer as he tried to help, and he was later treated for a cut on his head and burns to his hands, police said.

Mitchell's sister, Morinda West, told The Australian newspaper that her brother had been sniffing gasoline and that when he ran out of the house he was carrying a lighter and an orange juice container full of gasoline.

Police spokeswoman Susan Usher said Mitchell appeared to have received third-degree burns to about ten percent of his body.

Hot Beef Injection?

"Putting the hot dog in the bun."

The famed Oscar Mayer Wienermobile crashed Friday into the deck and garage of a home in Mount Pleasant, about 35 miles south of Milwaukee.

Police say the driver was trying to turn the Wienermobile around in the driveway and thought she was moving in reverse. But she instead went forward and hit the home. It sat in the driveway as if it were stuck in the garage Friday afternoon.

No one was home and no one was injured. No citations were immediately issued.
Both the home and vehicle suffered moderate damage, which Oscar Mayer spokeswoman Sydney Lindner says insurance will cover.

Kelly Kelly Kelly Kelly

Kelly Hildebrandt will marry Kelly Hildebrandt.

This isn't a joke. An engaged Florida couple has the same first and last name.

Here's how it all started: 20-year-old Kelly Hildebrandt decided to search Facebook for other people with her name. Up popped Kelly Hildebrandt of Lubbock, Tex. For the next three months the two exchanged e-mails and then started calling each other.

Then he decided to visit, and the couple soon began dating. Eight months after Kelly Hildebrandt sent her first e-mail, he proposed. The couple plans to marry in October.

It hasn't been all smooth sailing. A trip on a cruise ship almost got canceled when the travel agent deleted one ticket from the system, thinking someone had plugged in the same information twice.

Booger

Mufasa?

A Colorado man used a chain saw to fight off a mountain lion that attacked him during a camping trip with his wife and two toddlers in northwestern Wyoming.

The adult male lion, described as emaciated and showing other signs of starvation, was later killed by wildlife officials after it attacked a dog brought in to track it.

Dustin Britton, a 32-year-old mechanic and ex-Marine from Windsor, Colo., said he was alone cutting firewood about 100 feet from his campsite in the Shoshone National Forest when he saw the 100-pound lion staring at him from some bushes.

The 6-foot, 170-pound Britton said he raised his 18-inch chain saw and met the lion head-on as it pounced — a collision he described as feeling like a grown man running directly into him.

"It batted me three or four times with its front paws, and as quick as I hit it with that saw, it just turned away," he said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.

The wounded animal retreated after Britton inflicted a six- to eight-inch gash on the lion's shoulder, leaving him with only a small puncture wound on his forearm.

"You would think if you hit an animal with a chain saw it would dig right in," he said. "I might as well have hit it with a hockey stick."

After the confrontation, Britton and his wife, Kirsta, decided to spend the night in their pop-up camper with their two children rather than risk packing up with the lion still on the loose. The family later carried on with their vacation, continuing to camp at sites in Wyoming and Montana.

Dead Uncle Walter

Walter Cronkite, the CBS anchorman known as "Uncle Walter" for his easygoing, measured delivery and "the most trusted man in America" for his rectitude and gravitas, died Friday night in his New York home, CBS reported.

"Walter was always more than just an anchor. He was someone we could trust to guide us through the most important issues of the day; a voice of certainty in an uncertain world," President Obama said in a statement Friday.

"He was family. He invited us to believe in him, and he never let us down. This country has lost an icon and a dear friend, and he will be truly missed."
His career spanned much of the 20th century, as well as the first decade of the 21st.

The native of St. Joseph, Missouri, broke in as a newspaper journalist while in college, switched over to radio announcing in 1935, joined the United Press wire service by the end of the decade and jumped to CBS and its nascent television news division in 1950.

Cronkite covered World War II's Battle of the Bulge, the Nuremberg trials, several presidential elections, moon landings, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Watergate scandal of President Richard Nixon's administration.

Just Let Go

South Florida kicker Maikon Bonani has been hospitalized after falling 35 feet from the Skyride at Busch Gardens in Tampa, Fla.

Nursing supervisor Janelle Hoskins told The St. Petersburg Times that Bonani was in fair condition.

The park issued a statement saying that after sending a gondola out of the station, Bonani, who was working as an attendant for the ride, thought the door might be unlocked and held onto the door to check it. He hung on as the gondola took off -- authorities say -- then let go about 35 feet above the ground into a landscaped area.

"He was trying to make sure they were safe," park spokeswoman Jill Revelle said of those on the ride. She added that no one else was injured.

Leavitt told The St. Petersburg Times that he believed Bonani injured his T12 vertebra in the fall. Leavitt told the newspaper that if Bonani faced a long recovery, the kicker could redshirt this season.

The 20-year-old sophomore won the Bulls' starting kicking job after two games last season. He finished 15-for-21 on field goals.

Southern Freedom

Buy a truck and get a free AK-47 gun.

That's the deal a Missouri truck dealer is offering new customers who buy a pick-up truck in August.

Mark Muller, owner of Max Motors in Butler, says he knows people will be bothered by the promotion.

But not to worry, Muller is not handing out free guns. Instead, he will give buyers a voucher to use at a gun store after they obtain a license to carry a concealed weapon.

The AK-47 is an upgrade on a previous promotion in which Muller gave away vouchers for the price of a Caltec pistol.

The retail value of an AK-47 is $450 dollars but Muller says customers can spend their voucher on the gun of their choice.

15th Avenue Coffee and Tea

Starbucks Corp. said Thursday it is wiping its name from one of its Seattle-area stores and adding alcohol to the menu.

The Seattle-based gourmet coffee chain said it is changing the name of one of its existing stores in its hometown to a name that reflects the neighborhood location. The store will be called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea. It will open next week and will serve coffee and tea as well as wine and beer.

The company said it will then open two more Seattle-area stores without the Starbucks name in locations that aren't currently Starbucks stores. The chain said if the rethought coffee shop is a success it will consider replicating it in other cities.

The company has been unable in recent months to keep its sales growing as more consumers cut out small luxuries to save money. Starbucks is slated to report its fiscal third quarter financial results on Tuesday and analysts have largely predicted another same-store sales decline, particularly, in particular, that competition with lower-priced rivals like McDonald's Corp. has heated up.

Andrew Hetzel, the founder of coffee consulting group Cafemakers, said Starbucks may also be renaming its stores to provide a testing ground for changes and, possibly, to bring in a new brand of consumer.

Helping Out

Two red panda cubs abandoned by their mother at birth are thriving at a northern China zoo thanks to milk and loving care from an unlikely surrogate mother — a dog, state media reported on Thursday.

The cubs, born June 25, were abandoned immediately by their mother after giving birth in front of a crowd of visitors at the Taiyuan Zoo in northern China's Shanxi province, according to Ha Guojiang, a zoo employee quoted by the official Xinhua News Agency.

"No one knew she was pregnant. Her plump body and bushy hair disguised her protruding belly until the babies were born," said Ha. "We hurriedly went about to find a wet nurse for them."

The dog wet nurse, belonging to a farmer from a nearby suburb, was selected from two other candidates that had recently given birth. The dog is now raising the two panda cubs like its own pups, sometimes even refusing to feed its own pup, said Ha, cited by Xinhua.

At 3-weeks-old, the baby cubs have yet to open their eyes and have doubled in length to 20 centimeters (8 inches), Xinhua reported.

Unlike the more well-known, bear-like giant pandas, red pandas resemble raccoons with long bushy tails. There are believed to be fewer than 2,500 adult red pandas in the world.