Having identified a genetic variant linked with aggressive prostate cancer, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, North Carolina, may soon pave the way for determining at an early stage if the cancer is aggressive or slow-growing - a finding which will help doctors take treatment decisions for the patients affected by the disease.

With North Carolina’s ‘indoor’ smoking ban – preventing smoking in bars and restaurants – coming into effect Saturday onwards, patrons and businesses are gearing of the big change that has, since long, been considered impossible in the leading tobacco producing state in the US.

Convicted swindler Bernard Madoff has been shifted to the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina.

As per reports, the Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley informed that Mr. Madoff was getting treatment for dizziness and hypertension.

Traci Billingsley also denied reports that Mr. Madoff was assaulted in the prison. 

Succumbing under the economic crunch, FairPoint Communications, a rural telecom services provider, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U. S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York, post which the company plans to cut its debt by $1.7 Billion. Ownership will be transferred completely to lenders.

Red Hat, commercial Linux distributor, has shunned the economic meltdown once again by reporting an increase of 37 per cent in profit for the second quarter of running year.

For the second quarter ended August 31, Red Hat posted net profit of $28.9 million, or 15 cents a share, up from $21.1 million, or 10 cents a share in the same period of 2008.

According to information forwarded by AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel, the company's new 3G Microcell devices, launched on Monday, are available to its customers in Charlotte, North Carolina.

According to a Sunday report by News & Observer of Raleigh, the Carteret County tax supervisor has said that former North Carolina governor, Mike Easley, was one of the buyers of property whose price was exaggerated in tax records.

The first case of drug resistant swine flu has been reported by The Centers for Disease and Prevention. It was spotted at a summer camp in North Carolina in two girls, which is probably the first case of drug resistant swine flu that spread from one person to another.

In its recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Bank of America Corp. said that three more of its board directors - John T. Collins, William Barnet III and Gary L. Countryman - have resigned. The bank said that while Collins' resignation was effective July 29, Barnet and Countryman decided to call it quits on July 31.

New research suggests that older adults who have no history of dementia reduce their chances of developing dementia by regular moderate drinking.

However in people 75 and older who have been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment or memory loss alcohol, irrespective of the amount alcohol accelerates the rate of memory decline.