INTernationaL NEWS in brief

Obama to sign student loan bill today

WASHINGTON (AP):

The White House says President Barack Obama will sign a bill Friday to lower the costs of borrowing for millions of students.

The bipartisan bill has been awaiting Obama's signature since earlier this month when the House gave it final congressional approval after a drawn-out process to reach a compromise in the Senate.

The bill links student loan interest rates to the financial markets. It would offer lower rates for most students now, but higher ones down the line if theeconomy improves as expected.

NOAA trims forecast for busy hurricane season

WASHINGTON (AP):

Federal forecasters are slightly reducing their prediction of a busy Atlantic hurricane season.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) updated its hurricane season forecast Thursday, trimming back the number of hurricanes they expect this year to between six and nine.

The forecast calls for three to five of those hurricanes to be major, with winds greater than 110 mph.

Forecasters say there remains a 70 per cent chance that the season will be busier than normal. A normal year has 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major storms.

Study ties higher blood sugar to dementia risk

Higher blood-sugar levels, even those well short of diabetes, seem to raise the risk of developing dementia, a major new study finds. Researchers say it suggests a novel way to try to prevent Alzheimer's disease by keeping glucose at a healthy level.

Alzheimer's is by far the most common form of dementia and it's long been known that diabetes makes it more likely. The new study tracked blood sugar over time in all sorts of people, with and without diabetes, to see how it affects the risk for the mind-robbing disease.

The results challenge current thinking by showing that it's not just the high glucose levels of diabetes that are a concern, said the study's leader, Dr Paul Crane of the University of Washington in Seattle.

A person with diabetes tests his blood-sugar level.

Retailers see slow start to back-to-school season

NEW YORK (AP):

Shoppers are holding off on back-to-school shopping, and those who delay long enough might be rewarded with some steep discounts from desperate retailers.

Revenue at stores open at least a year - an industry measure of a retailer's health - rose 3.8 per cent in July, the slowest pace since March, according to a preliminary tally of 10 retailers by the International Council of Shopping Centers. The figure, which excludes drugstores, was below a 5.5 per cent increase in June.

Costco Wholesale Corp, typically a strong performer, was among the retailers reporting disappointing figures.