Year: 2013

Tour de France champion Chris Froome has been cleared of the parasitic disease bilharzia that has troubled him for four years, he told Friday’s Independent newspaper in an interview. “At last I am free of the debilitating disease bilharzia,” said the Kenya-born Froome, who this year became the second Briton to win the Tour de France after Bradley Wiggins in 2012. “When I was first diagnosed they said it had been in my system for at least two years, but it could have been there even longer, five or six years possibly.” Froome will begin his quest to retain the Tour de France title next year when the race starts in England on July 5.

By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration asked insurers on Thursday to be flexible with Americans trying to buy new health policies through the federal website HealthCare.gov, as officials race to fix problems still plaguing the enrollment process. U.S. officials laid out a series of steps to help prevent disruptions in coverage for health policies due to start January 1, including the possibility of retroactive coverage. Widespread stories of coverage gaps could pose new political problems for President Barack Obama, whose signature domestic policy has already sparked a public uproar over the botched launch of the website and the millions of cancellation notices sent out for policies that do not comply with the law. The administration said it would consider further extensions of the enrollment deadlines if required by "extraordinary circumstances," having extended its December 15 enrollment deadline for obtaining benefits on January 1 to midnight December 23 (0500 GMT December 24).

My weight loss story: Don't label me a 'fat American' … affairs of processed foods and obesity in America, I joined the ranks of the rabid organic foodies, … I ate no processed foods, made basic foods myself (chicken stock, tomato sauce, yogurt) …

For many of us this is a season when it feels that we are going faster and faster. Everything's racing, through school semesters, wrapping up work commitments, entering the holidays, the currents of life are in full tilt. Given the time of year, one student fell into a period of intense stress resulting from a cycle of classes, studying, working and little sleep. He didn't realize how long he had neglected to write home until he received the following note: Dear Son, Your mother and I enjoyed your last letter. Of course, we were much younger then and more impressionable.

Continued from Part 3 of 4 My fondest memories of growing up was when we bought that house just across the road from you, and spent our summers there. On the weekends, Dad made Wayne and I mow and weed-eat your grass. Following, Dad would present watermelons from the farmer's market and Grandmother brewed Luzianne sweet tea for everyone. Dad invited all of your sons and daughters to join us, his brothers and sisters, who never left town, who all had found clerk and desk and teaching jobs in order to be near one another. Once we ate, drank, and

So I made a pact with myself: to live in this winter, not just through it. To play more and complain less. And to appreciate each white winter day for how peacefully alive it can make you feel if you get outside long enough to really feel it.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a two-year, bipartisan budget plan that would end some automatic spending cuts on federal agencies and replace them with more targeted government savings. By an overwhelming margin, the House passed the measure that also aims to end the partisan fighting between Republicans and Democrats over fiscal affairs, which led to last October's 16-day partial government shutdown. The budget deal must next pass the Democratic-controlled Senate before being sent to President Barack Obama for signing into …