Spending for Guard reaches record level

BALTIMORE - Funding for the National Guard has reached a record level amid the largest mobilization of America's citizen soldiers since World War II, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday. With the increased spending, nearly 80 percent of Army National Guard equipment will be fully modernized by the end of budget year 2013, he said. In the budget year starting next month, the Defense Department helped the Guard's budget reach just over $30 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion from the previous year. (AP)

NEW YORK - Before New Yorkers light up, the city health department wants them to have a look at the ravaged lungs, rotting gums, and large tumors smoking can cause. Graphic images of such health problems are printed on a new line of matchbooks issued by the health department. Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden says they're designed to get New Yorkers to think twice about smoking. (AP)

DALLAS - Federal prosecutors are trying again to convict leaders of a Muslim charity on charges of financing terrorism. The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was back on trial yesterday in Dallas. The charity is accused of funneling millions of dollars to the Middle Eastern group Hamas, which the US government considers a terrorist organization. Attorneys for Holy Land said the group was not political and dedicated only to providing humanitarian aid to victims of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (AP)

Shorter, more intense courses of radiation treatment work just as well as more drawn-out therapy for early-stage breast cancer patients, researchers reported yesterday. The treatments took only one to three weeks, as opposed to five to seven weeks for standard therapy, two teams of researchers told a meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology in Boston. Canadian researchers tested the approach, called accelerated hypofractionated whole breast irradiation, in 1,200 women between 1993 and 1996. (Reuters)