Anyone who still thinks chocolate is just for eating -- and maybe drinking -- is well behind the times. Just talk with friends or browse the Internet: People are using chocolate to make soap, finger paint, candles and even sculptures. And chocolate skin-care products, for use in spas and at home, also have made their way into popular culture.

For many raw foodies, it's not just about feeling great. They contend that people can get the benefit of chocolate's healthful properties by putting it on their skin. "It didn't make sense to be pure on the inside, eating a diet that was 90 percent raw, and then put all these products with preservatives on my skin," said Lisa Lennon, 40, an artist and co-founder of U.K.-based Raw Gaia, which has a Raw Chocolate Face Pack. The company specializes in organic and raw skin care products.

Stars join effort to protect skin from sun

At least two celebrities are shunning the sun for skin cancer awareness.

Marcia Cross of "Desperate Housewives" is promoting the joint campaign between the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery and beauty brand Olay for a free skin-cancer screening program, while Kristen Bell of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" has pledged to get her glow from a bottle.

Bell signed on to the Glow in the Dark campaign on the Jergens.com Web site. For every similar pledge made by the public, Jergens -- known for its Natural Glow self-darkening skin products -- donates $1 to The Skin Care Foundation.

"It's an oxymoron to say you've got a healthy tan," Bell, 27 says. "You want to glow."

Even with the looks of a beach-loving starlet, Bell says she has pale Polish skin under her tinted moisturizer.

De-aging products help women remove years and icky spots from faces

During sleep, skin is supposedly at its most receptive to regeneration and repair, and the beauty industry profits from those precious de-aging hours. But even night owls can benefit from nighttime skin care products that erase the telltale signs of the sleep-deprived: puffy eyes, dark circles, lifeless skin. I like to think my own mature epidermis knows of my superior time-management skills and equates "night" with "shuteye." Even when I'm up checking e-mail at 3 a.m., I can still take advantage of the time to de-age my face.

Achillion and FOB Synthesis Announce Collaboration for the Development of Carbapenem Compounds

NEW HAVEN, Conn. and KENNESAW, Ga., April 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NasdaqGM:ACHN - News) and FOB Synthesis, Inc. today announced that the companies have signed an exclusive agreement granting Achillion worldwide rights for the research, development and commercialization of certain FOB compounds for the treatment of serious bacterial infections. The licensed carbapenem compounds show excellent activity against a broad spectrum of bacterial isolates, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.

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Dog survives on his own

LEWISTON - The Greater Androscoggin Humane Society is caring for a dog that was found nearly starved to death after its owner died away from home. The dog was found at home last week by a man who had gone to clean out his dead brother's Lewiston-Auburn area residence. Shelter officials believe the gentle mixed-breed hound had been alone there for up to a month. "Nobody knew he had a dog," shelter Executive Director Steve Dostie said. The dog was dirty, painfully skinny and so weak he couldn't walk and could barely stand. He was rushed to the animal shelter by the man who found him. Shelter workers rushed him to a local veterinarian. "He was just a skeleton with skin and fur," Dostie said. The dog weighed 28 pounds, less than half of the 60 pounds he should have weighed. He was so sick, officials said, that he would have died within two or three days if he hadn't been found.