he average hospital baby delivery in the US costs $9,775—$15,041 if it’s a Caesarean—more than any first-world country in the world, the New York Times reports. It’s $3,541 in France, and $2,641 in Britain. And the price hike is not because US mothers-to-be are getting better or more high-tech care; the US actually has one of the highest rates of infant and maternal death in the developed world. It’s because of the unique way health care in America is billed: item by item. LINK

The calendar may show spring is only a couple weeks away, but it certainly doesn’t feel like that in most parts of the country. Most major Canadian cities have experienced their coldest and snowiest winters in decades, and for the second time this winter, Niagara Falls is mostly frozen. On the plus side, the cold provides some stunning images.LINK

The numbers: RWE, Germany’s largest power generator, reported a €2.8 billion ($3.9 billion) net loss in 2013, the company’s first loss in its history, which stretches back more than 60 years to the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. LINK

Nothing like bringing more of “God’s wrath” upon our nation

President Obama was joined by 131 Republicans in urging the Supreme Court to overturn California’s gay marriage ban on Thursday. In a separate friend of the court brief, the signers — called amici — argued that gay marriage promotes conservative values of strong family and limited government. LINK

Should we say, welcome to democracy?

South Africa — South Africa’s high walls, electric fences and lurid headlines are all part of the country’s obsession with violent crime. But the release of national crime statistics is an annual ritual that sparks anxiety like little else. The 2012-13 statistics released Thursday are the worst in a decade, analysts said. The figures show increases in the crimes South Africans fear most: murder; attempted murder; violent, armed house robbery; and carjacking. LINK

Japan pledged more than $200 million in aid Saturday to help the Palestinian Authority, as representatives from 22 nations reiterated their support of the Palestinians’ quest for their own state. The pledge was announced by Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida at the second Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development, LINK

What ever happened to “Preaching the Gospel

Remember when children were an economic asset? No, you probably don’t, because that was back in the 1800s, when kids labored on farms and in factories and kicked in a few pennies to help cover the family expenses. “The more [children] you had, the better off you were,” Jennifer Senior, author of the new book All Joy and No Fun: The Paradox of Modern Parenthood, LINK

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN senior medical correspondent: Yakima Valley, Washington, a horrible medical mystery has unfolded — An alarming rate of birth defects. Sara Barron, a nurse in the region and was the first to report cases of anencephaly, babies born with much of their brain and skull missing.
Barron: “I was just stunned. 3 in a couple month period of time, that’s unheard of, and they’re such tragic, terrible outcomes.”LINK

For the first time in nearly a century, a married priest has been ordained by the Maronite Catholic Church in the United States — and his wife and daughter were on hand to support him.

Wissam Akiki was welcomed by hundreds of supporters during a ceremony Thursday night at St. Raymond’s Maronite Cathedral in St. Louis. He called it a “historic day” and said he had been given two great blessings: marriage to his wife of 10 years, Manal, and “the dream to serve the Lord thanks and church as a priest.” LINK

The Roman Catholic Church is enjoying some of its best press in decades, and hundreds of thousands of alienated Catholics are returning, thanks in large part to the new, and in some cases revolutionary, leadership of Pope Francis. LINK

The severity of California’s current drought has been realized by the release of two NASA pictures of Folsom Lake and the desolation it has suffered in just two and a half years.
The reservoir, located northeast of Sacremento, California, can be seen almost full on July 20, 2011, measuring a capacity of 97 percent. But in a shot taken just last month, the lake had a capacity of just 17 percent. LINK