Of Human Interest: News lite

KNOWING THE COST OF CREDIT

"Credit cards can be detrimental to your financial health" probably never will be a warning consumers will see on their favorite plastic. However, Charles Tabb, law professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says there is a growing movement to force credit card companies to spell out to customers the high cost of using credit.

"A lot of credit card users don't have a clue as to how the monthly minimum payment is calculated," Tabb says. "Paying the monthly minimum means paying slightly more than interest, which means the consumer can spend decades paying off even relatively small sums."

A new California law -- which has been delayed by the lending industry -- would require companies to include timetables showing the cost and time it takes to repay the balance.

Tabb, who teaches bankruptcy law, says better disclosure may help stem the rising tide of consumers defaulting on their debts.

ZAPPING LIVER CANCER WITHOUT SURGERY

What has become a standard treatment for heart arrhythmias, radio frequency ablation now is used to zap cancerous liver tumors.

A week after Carlton Harris, 78, underwent RFA at the Duke University's Comprehensive Cancer Center in Durham, N.C., to destroy three cancerous liver tumors, he was back at the gym huffing, puffing and lifting. With no stitches, Harris had only a small bandage over three tiny holes.

RFA in cancer treatment is used for patients who cannot endure surgery. For some, it is a cure; for others it extends the length and quality of life. Doctors say it is proving to be a successful alternative because it's done on an outpatient basis, with little pain and minimal recovery time.

RFA uses radio wave energy to heat the tumor and destroy it. Scanners guide a small probe through a tiny incision in the skin and directly to the site of the tumors.

BANNING PORN ON FRENCH TV

French audio-visual watchdog group CSA is recommending pornography be banned from French television.

The group says there has been a significant increase in porn available in the early morning hours to television views -- including minors -- who have decoding devices.

Christian Jacob, French minister for family affairs, tells Le Parisien newspaper there are some 950 violent or pornographic films each month on French TV and "we have to stop this drift."

"It would be simple to apply existing laws (to enforce a ban) and that would let us avoid having youths find images on their screens that are upsetting and poisonous at an age when they are developing their sexual identities," he told the paper.

CSA said a poll finds 64 percent of those surveyed would support a ban on pornography on television.

ATM FOR MOBILE PHONES

In Great Britain, mobile phone users can top off their minutes at an ATM.

The British Broadcasting Corp. says the service is available to Abbey National customers and the first of its kind in the United Kingdom. About 1 million people are eligible to use the cash machines to add minutes to their phones.

Since the service was launched in Belgium three years ago, about 30 percent of customers now use ATMs to add phone time, the BBC reports.

The service is offered in seven countries worldwide, including Indonesia, along with six European countries, which include Hungary and Poland.