SAN FRANCISCO - APPLE on Monday is expected to unveil a next-generation iPhone and possibly provide a glimpse at long-absent chief executive Steve Jobs as it kicks off a software developers conference here.

The northern California maker of iPods, iPhones, and Macintosh computers has remained tight-lipped as usual about what announcements it has in store, but speculation and rumor are rampant.

BALTIMORE - AT ONE of the top US trauma hospitals, a nurse circles a patient's bed, humming and waving her arms as if shooing evil spirits. Another woman rubs a quartz bowl with a wand, making tunes that mix with the beeping monitors and hissing respirator keeping the man alive.

They are doing Reiki therapy, which claims to heal through invisible energy fields. The anaesthesia chief, Dr Richard Dutton, calls it 'mystical mumbo jumbo.' Still, he's a fan. 'It's self-hypnosis' that can help patients relax, he said. 'If you tell yourself you have less pain, you actually do have less pain.'

TOKYO - A FEW months from now, a highly contagious disease will spread through a Japanese elementary school. The epidemic will start with several unwitting children, who will infect others as they attend classes and wander the halls.

If nothing is done, it will quickly gain momentum and rip through the student body, then jump to parents and others in the community.