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Preparing for the future under health care reform, the parent of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will shed 650 jobs amid the economic downturn that has caused its employer customers to reduce employees and a demand from Congress and President Obama to reduce administrative costs. Chicago-based Health Care Service Corp, which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas today confirmed plans to reduce its workforce by about 4 percent across the country. Jobs will be eliminated by the first quarter of 2010.

Krystian Zimerman, the great Polish concert pianist, is usually a man of few words. He doesn't, as a rule, talk to the audience during performances. He says little or nothing in the press between his all-too-rare concert tours - not even about his habit of travelling everywhere with his own Steinway grand piano. He rarely grants them the pleasure of an encore. So he triggered more than the usual rumble of discomfort when he raised his voice in the closing stages of a recital at Los Angeles' Disney Hall on Sunday night and announced he would no longer perform in...

The Iron Dome anti-rocket shield passed a critical test in the past 48 hours, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday evening, in a message that will be welcomed by residents of the rocket-battered western Negev. During the test, a number of rockets were launched, "of the same type that were fired in recent years at Israel," and the Iron Dome system responded "accordingly," the Defense Ministry said, using terminology indicating a successful interception of the projectiles. The Iron Dome system is slated to defend southern and northern Israel from Hamas and Hizbullah rockets, and be a key component in a...

If anyone is under the illusion that Russia has become insignificant in the international stage better think again. To day, they still pose the greatest threat to the United States. What's worse, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the general threat of terrorism throughout the globe, as well as a soon to be nuclear Iran, have caused many of our politicians to settle into complacency. No more is this evident than the utter silence of any political talk on the current negotiations by the White House with Russia to back off the deployment of the missle shield in Eastern...

Members of a Gaza family whose farm was turned into a "fortress" by Hamas fighters have reported that they were helpless to stop Hamas from using them as human shields. Palestinians search through the rubble of their home in the northern Gaza Strip. Photo: AP Slideshow: Pictures of the week They told the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper that for years Hamas had used their property and homes as military installations from which the group would launch rockets into Israel, dig tunnels and store arms. According to the victims, those who tried to object were shot in the legs by...

This was by far my favorite show. I really don't watch TV at all anymore except at break on work, but I would always go out of my way to catch up with "The Shield". Thoughts: When Mackey confesses to his crimes, hearing everything he's done at once is a real shocker. We have seen some of the things he has through the episodes, but he always has something "good" he does as well (like saving that priest from blackmail, getting that young gang banger into a juvi program, etc). But when we hear everything at once, it really hits...

Alexander the Great's "Crown," Shield Discovered?Sara Goudarzi for National Geographic NewsApril 23, 2008 An ancient Greek tomb thought to have held the body of Alexander the Great's father is actually that of Alexander's half brother, researchers say. This may mean that some of the artifacts found in the tomb—including a helmet, shield, and silver "crown"—originally belonged to Alexander the Great himself. Alexander's half brother is thought to have claimed these royal trappings after Alexander's death. The tomb was one of three royal Macedonian burials excavated in 1977 by archaeologists working in the northern Greek village of Vergina (see map of...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian concerns over Washington's plan for a missile shield in Europe will only be eased if Russian officers have permanent access to the shield facilities, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. Russia says the planned shield is a threat to its own security and the row over the issue has helped to drive diplomatic relations with the United States to their lowest point since the Cold War. Moscow has, however, agreed to consider a set of confidence-building measures proposed by Washington to allay Moscow's concerns. "In all these many proposals we are interested only in two...

Poland Questions the Missile Shield The formerly staunch US ally has shifted its tone, and now an ambitious pet project of the Bush administration -- a missile shield to protect Europe and the United States -- is no longer a sure thing in Poland. Until recently, it looked like the US missile defense shield was a done deal when it came to cooperation with Poland. Although no formal agreement had been signed, the government under Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski seemed eager to make the Americans happy -- and was even willing to ignore European Union concerns when it came to...

Russia may have to retarget some of its rockets at the missile defenses that the U.S. is planning to deploy in Central Europe, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. "Our experts believe the system threatens our national security," Putin said at his final annual news conference in the Kremlin echoing comments he made on Tuesday. "If it appears, we will be forced to respond appropriately - we will have to retarget part of our systems against those missiles." He also said Russia could be forced to redirect its missiles at Ukraine if NATO bases are deployed in the country. "We...

· Scientists simulate solar wind in Oxfordshire lab · Magnets give protection against cancer risk "Shields up!" barks Captain James T Kirk as the Starship Enterprise braces itself for another blast from the Klingon cruiser, referring to that essential accessory without which the crew could never have ventured beyond the final frontier. And while real astronauts are not thought to face quite the same risk from alien species, engineers are developing a similar shield to protect them from the solar wind, a stream of high-energy charged particles from the sun travelling faster than the speed of sound. They say protecting...

A US F-16 fighter used an air-to-air missile to destroy a sounding rocket in its boost phase for the first time this week in a test of a new missile defense concept, US spokesmen said Tuesday. The system -- named the Net-Centric Airborne Defense Element (NCDE) -- breaks new ground in that it would arm fighter aircraft or drones with missiles fast enough to intercept a ballistic missile as it lifts into space. The aircraft would have to get to within a 100 miles of the launch site to catch the ascending missile in the first two to three minutes...

Atlantis Astronauts Inspect Shuttle Heat ShieldTariq Malik Staff Writer SPACE.com 37 minutes ago A torn insulation blanket (upper right) on the port side of the Shuttle Atlantis is shown in this video grab from the orbiter's end effector camera during a survey of the spacecraft's thermal protection system June 8, 2007. (NASA TV/Reuters) Astronauts aboard NASA's shuttle Atlantis scanned their spacecraft's heat shield for any signs of damage Saturday as they continue on course towards the International Space Station (ISS). Atlantis launched into orbit late Friday on a planned 11-day construction mission to the orbital laboratory. Commanded by veteran shuttle...

WASHINGTON, May 3, 2007 – The Defense Department will take “every action necessary for as long as possible,” to ensure that troops fighting in Iraq are not affected by the delay in approval of its supplemental war funding, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday. The longer the supplemental funding goes unapproved, the greater the financial disruptions on the Army, but most of those will be absorbed as monies are transferred from accounts for U.S. construction, training, hiring and travel and funneled to supporting the war, Gates told Pentagon reporters. President Bush on May 1 vetoed an emergency war-funding...

KALININGRAD, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - Deployment of U.S. missile-defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic is an attempt by the U.S. to control Europe, the former Soviet president said Thursday. "It is all about influence and domination in Europe," Mikhail Gorbachev said. "I believe it is wrong that America did not even bother to consult its NATO allies." Asked how Russia could respond to these plans, he only said: "Time will show." The U.S. revealed plans in January to deploy elements of its missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland to counter possible attacks from Iran...

A senior Russian lawmaker called Saturday for Russia to be included in US plans to build a missile defence system in Europe, warning Moscow will otherwise view the antimissile shield as a threat. "Russia has every reason to be interested in close cooperation in creating Eurasian missile-defense systems," Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the State Duma, wrote in an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune. "And any attempt to build them without Russia (which is not only an interested party but also geographically and technically the most suitable place for an effective antimissile defense) automatically...

The United States is trying to reassure Russia that an American missile defense shield in central Europe will not undermine Russia's national security, but the Kremlin's reaction so far has been deeply skeptical. The United States says the rockets it plans to build will carry no warheads, and are intended only to intercept attacking missiles. Authorities in Russia say the U.S. plan could drag the world into a new arms race. Anya Ardayeva reports for VOA from Moscow.

WARSAW -- The U.S. proposal to place radar and interceptor sites for a new missile defense system in Central Europe -- respectively, in the Czech Republic and Poland -- may generate a new security partnership with the countries of the region. Or it could provoke a spiral of misunderstanding, weaken NATO, deepen Russian paranoia [...] Early omens are worrisome. Some genius at the State Department or the Pentagon sent the first official note describing possible placement of the facility with a draft reply attached -- a reply that contained a long list of host countries' obligations and few corresponding U.S....

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22, 2007 – Basing missile defenses in Eastern Europe would protect the United States, deployed U.S. troops and Europe against Iran and other rogue nations, but would pose no threat to Russia’s missile deterrent, the director of the Missile Defense Agency said here today. Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering briefed media members at the National Press Club here about plans to deploy missile defense capabilities to Poland and the Czech Republic. The United States could put the first of a projected 10 interceptors in place by the 2011 time frame if the details are hammered out...

A top advisor to President Bush left for Moscow Tuesday to deal with rising tensions between the US and Russia over American plans to build missile defense bases in Poland and the Czech Republic. The International Herald Tribune reports that national security advisor Stephen Hadley set out for talks in Moscow just a day after a Russian general warned that Poland and the Czech Republic could become targets if they played host to US antimissile bases, meant to defend against Iranian ballistic missiles. The trip by the adviser, Stephen Hadley, was planned weeks ago. But it now comes in the...