Meeting

When roasted at 475 degrees, coffee beans are sometimes described as rich and full-bodied. But for the full-bodied person who is not so rich, unroasted coffee beans - green as the day they were picked - may hold the key to cheap and effective weight loss, new research suggests. In a study presented Tuesday at the American Chemical Society's spring national meeting in San Diego, 16 overweight young adults took, by turns, a low dose of green coffee bean extract, a high dose of the supplement, and a placebo.

Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol were in the Lakers' training facility on the same day, possibly for the last time. They arrived several hours apart for their exit interviews Wednesday and then stepped into the sunshine afterward, though nothing looked overly bright about the Lakers' future. "There will be some change," said Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak, the sting still fresh from another ouster in the Western Conference semifinals. "When you lose before you think you should have lost, you have to open up all opportunities.

It was billed as a "shocking tell-all" and a "world exclusive," but the National Enquirer's March 26 cover story landed with a thud. TMZ, Page Six and other major players in celebrity gossip ignored the article in which a masseur claimed John Travolta offered money for sex. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article used the term "masseuse"; it should have said "masseur. " Five weeks after the issue left the checkout aisle, a DUI attorney from Pasadena put the anonymous masseur's tawdry tale in a lawsuit and it became an overnight pop culture sensation, topping Google News, trending on Twitter and meriting a segment on "Good Morning America.

The heads of Apple Inc.and Samsung Electronics Co. will sit opposite each other in settlement talks this week, even as the rival smartphone makers continue to blast each other with patent infringement claims. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook was scheduled to participate in a mediation conference with Samsung Chief Executive Gee-Sung Choi in front of a San Francisco judge Monday and Tuesday to discuss how to speed the resolution of a high-profile U.S. patent case. The 13-month-old case in the U.S. District Court in Northern California is one of many around the world that are amounting to a bruising patent war. The two companies have repeatedly accused one another of copying the look and function of their rival's tablets and smartphones.

The most ballyhooed name change of the year became official Friday morning when a Los Angeles County Superior Court commissioner approved the former Ron Artest's request to become Metta World Peace. Amid labor discord that threatens to delay, if not wipe out, the NBA season, there is World Peace. Photos: Famous name-changers He is 6 feet 7, wears No. 15 for the Lakers and once participated in the infamous "Palace brawl. " Anyone now making his acquaintance will be meeting Metta World Peace.

CINCINNATI - The Rev. Chris Beard is a theological conservative, make no mistake about it. He believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes the Holy Spirit speaks to him directly. He believes, as an article of faith, that abortion and same-sex marriage are wrong. Still, when a group of religious leaders in Ohio held two days of meetings in Cincinnati recently to talk about economic and racial justice, issues usually associated with the political left, there was Beard, a fourth-generation Pentecostal preacher with a disarming smile, a shaved head and a set of convictions that knock holes in the stereotypes about white evangelical Protestants.

CHICAGO - When the White House sent a last-minute invitation for Asif Ali Zardari to attend the two-day NATO summit, they were taking a highly public gamble. Would sharing the spotlight with President Obama and other global leaders induce the Pakistani president to allow vital supplies to reach alliance troops fighting in Afghanistan? But long before the summit ended Monday, the answer was clear: No deal. Zardari's refusal to reopen the supply routes left a diplomatic blot on a summit that NATO sought to cast as the beginning of the end of the conflict in Afghanistan.

A new study showing an estimated 7% of American teens and adults carry the human papillomavirus in their mouths may help health experts finally understand why rates of mouth and throat cancer have been climbing for nearly 25 years. The evidence makes it clear that oral sex practices play a key role in transmission. The new data, published online Thursday by the Journal of the American Medical Assn., are the first to assess the prevalence of oral HPV infection in the U.S. population.

'Life is short. Have an affair." That's the slogan of the Ashley Madison dating service, a website for people who want to cheat on their partners. That's right, unlike traditional Internet dating sites -- where you're expected to say you're unattached no matter what the truth is -- Ashley Madison is honest about its duplicity. Unlike match.

BEIJING - "Beijing power struggle heralds end of China Communist Party," screams one headline. More sensational headlines purport to reveal how the wife of recently sacked Politburo member Bo Xilai poisoned an Englishman, who may have been her lover. And if that weren't enough, other stories claim that "Bo planned airline crash" and "slept with more than 100 women. " It's payback time for Chinese exiles, especially those with a printing press, television station or just a computer at their disposal.

Ramon Sessions, Jordan Hill and Devin Ebanks are all potential free agents in July, with the Lakers showing varying degrees of interest in them. Tuesday was the first day of the rest of the Lakers' off-season. Already, there were very few answers. Six players went through annual exit meetings with Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak and Coach Mike Brown, most of them saying the same thing afterward to reporters: See you in training camp ... maybe? Ramon Sessions and Metta World Peace were the headliners Tuesday, with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum scheduled to appear Wednesday at the Lakers' training facility for individual 30-minute sessions.

CAMP DAVID, Md. - In a significant political victory for President Obama, the leaders of Germany and other European nations endorsed a policy of economic growth over austerity and emphasized that Greece, which is trying to battle its way out of a crippling debt crisis, should remain in the Eurozone. Meeting on the cloistered grounds of the presidential retreat here, the leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations said in a joint statement that Eurozone economies should work to narrow deficits through "fiscal consolidation" and that each country must decide for itself the best mix of policies for promoting economic recovery.

CHICAGO - As thousands of protesters marched in the streets, President Obama welcomed more than 60 world leaders to his heavily guarded hometown for a NATO summit that will start the clock for America and its allies to begin pulling combat troops from Afghanistan. The two-day summit, the largest in the 63-year history of the military alliance, came as White House officials made it clear they were furious overPakistan's continued refusal to reopen ground routes used to move fuel and other war supplies into Afghanistan, a six-month standoff that the White House had hoped to resolve before Obama arrived in Chicago.

Ian and I watched the planes come in and shared a wedge salad at Encounter, the Space Age-themed restaurant overlooking Los Angeles International Airport. I asked how it made him feel. "Fine," he shrugged. "It's not eating at airports that I'm afraid of. " We weren't there to catch a flight. We were completing homework from Ian's therapist, who was trying to desensitize him to the airport environment. The next month, I was returning to my home state of Michigan for a good friend's wedding.

What happens if you start a political party and nobody comes? Six months ago, a newfangled third party burst onto the scene, full of hope and promise. It was called Americans Elect, and it sought to give voters a choice many said they were looking for: "centrist" candidates who could break the partisan gridlock paralyzing Washington. In its founders' heads danced visions of middle-of-the-road candidates who could transform American politics: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Colin Powell, Michael Bloomberg, Jon Huntsman Jr. Wealthy donors invested millions in a fancy website for an Internet primary, signed up 420,000 would-be "delegates" and got on the ballot in 29 states.

Plenty of restaurants have been advertising their efforts to offer healthful choices, and it's possible to eat carefully just about anywhere. But researchers say nearly all the entrees they reviewed at 245 U.S. chains fail to meet federal guidelines. Think about it, and you can figure out some likely culprits: burgers with cheese, bacon and sauce; pastas with four cheeses and sausages; outsize servings of meat; salads covered in fatty, salty dressings. For a study published online in the journal Public Health Nutrition, researchers looked at the nutritional content of 30,923 menu items, including those from children's menus, from 245 brands of restaurants.

Peyton Manning is back where it all started for him -- at least for a look around. Manning, the former University of Tennessee star, is in that state to meet with the Titans, perhaps the last stop on his tour to visit with NFL teams courting him. According to the Nashville Tennessean, Titans Coach Mike Munchak, along with General Manager Ruston Webster and Chief Operating Officer Mike Reinfeldt, flew to Raleigh-Durham, N.C., on Wednesday morning...

Reporting from Seattle -- When the Angels hit a mini-skid earlier this season, Torii Hunter shrugged off suggestions he call a team meeting. "Team meetings," he said "are like panic." In that case, consider the Angels panic-stricken. A day after meeting briefly behind closed doors with Manager Mike Scioscia in Boston, the team called a players-only meeting Friday afternoon in Seattle, then ended their seven-game losing streak by beating the Mariners. No one would discuss what went on in the 20-minute meeting, but before the gathering, which took place in the visitors' weight room, pitcher Joe Saunders said the Angels just needed to relax and stop pressing.

WASHINGTON — As President Obama welcomed congressional leaders for a White House chat over hoagies about setting aside differences to improve the economy, a far different scenario was unfolding at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue. Republicans in the House and Senate were conducting a series of partisan maneuvers Wednesday on legislation that has no chance of reaching the president's desk. The votes in the Senate on budget measures, which would slash social programs and revamp Medicare, were designed to underscore the GOP's alternatives to Obama's policies in advance of the November election.

PARIS - France's new president, Francois Hollande, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have opposing ideas of how to solve Europe's crippling public debt crisis - she austerity, he spending and growth - so a clash was in the cards Tuesday. Instead, Hollande's welcome to Berlin just hours after he took office was brisk but warm, even if he was late for dinner. Hollande - whose initial flight to Berlin was hit by lightning, causing him to briefly return to an air base outside Paris to switch planes - and Merkel met for an hour before dining together.