The makers of the famous Blackberry, Research in Motion Ltd., said on Thursday that they have slashed their sales forecast for this quarter because they saw a significant decline in their sales. They further said that they are selling cheaper and less phones than they originally expected.

Jim Balsillie, co-CEO of the company said that the decrease in sales is due greatly on the delay of the release of their high-end phones. He also confirmed that the company is transitioning to a new line of phones.

In a conference, Balsillie told reporters that the company is in the process of shifting over to a new product line. The co-CEO said he, along with the rest of the company, is very excited for the upcoming changes. They are committed to strategies that will yield long term results.

This is the second hit on their stocks in a month. On the 24th of March they announced that they are expecting total sales of $1.47 to $1.55 per share for this quarter. That is lower than what analysts predicted earlier this year. On Thursday, they further lowered the range to $1.30 to $1.37. The company also confirmed that they will also lower the number of shipment to around 13.5 million.

Balsillie promised that the company will amaze everyone during their Orlando, Florida World Conference. Analysts take Balsillie’s word as BlackBerry has been strongly trusted for providing email devices. However, they are still yet to keep up with Apple’s iPhones and other Android phones.

Robert Bobb, the emergency manager of Detroit, said Thursday that he will send layoff notices to 5,466 unionized employees. This is in line with their attempt to regain the public school system’s financial stability.

Bobb which is a temporary head in the district announced that in order to match Detroit’s declining enrollment rate, he will send notices to all the members of Detroit Federation of Teachers. He added that they somehow need to reduce their number of teachers since there is also a significant decline in enrollees.

He, however, said that not all teachers will be laid off. They are just required to send the notice under the union’s current contract. 2,200 notices were also sent last year but only a portion of them were actually laid off. He assured the teachers that any layoffs will only take effect around the end of July.

The Public Act 4 says that Bobb, as the emergency financial manager, has the power to do whatever means necessary to make sure that the financial emergency in the district be resolved; even if it means they need to layoff a few teachers, and even throw away current union contracts.

Robert Bobb was appointed the position for Detroit’s schools about two years ago by Governor Jennifer Granholm after a long-standing budget deficit due to the decline in the number of enrollees per year. Since then, he has laid off workers and closed schools and yet, Detroit still faces a whooping $327 million deficit.

A new report indicated that cancer rates in the US are continually dropping by at almost one percent per year. Moreover, the same study found out that cancer-related deaths are also going down by 1.6 per cent annually. This trend was observed between 2003 and 2007.

The researchers also noted that this is the first time they observed a decrease in the death rate of women with lung cancer. Lynn Ries, co-author of the report, said that the decline we are seeing right now is caused by women quitting smoking.

The report was conducted by several researchers from different groups; one of which is the American Cancer Society. The report was published online on the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Thursday.

Unfortunately, even though there is a notable decrease in cancer rates among adults, the same is not true among children. In fact, there are increasing numbers of diagnosed cancer patients in children. Ries, however, pointed out that death rates among children decreased. She also said that the reason for the rise in the occurrence of cancer among children is still unclear.

If there are changes in variables among women and children with cancer, the numbers remained the same among men. The report said that there could have been a decrease in cancer diagnosis among men, only that the statistics of prostate cancer has raised.

Ries said that this report was particularly difficult to organize because cancer is not just one disease. There are different kinds of cancer and some of them increase in number, while others decrease. She also said that men and women follow different kinds of trends in terms of cancer diagnosis.

Hawaii is facing another problem after a tsunami brought by the massive earthquake in Japan hit the shores of Hawaii and damaged many establishments and homes last week. At the moment, the island is bracing for a decline in the number tourists from Japan.

The island, whose economy depends mostly on tourism, is a top U.S. travel destination for many Japanese citizens.

Japanese account for more than 1.2 million of the total 16.6 million tourists in Hawaii last year. They had dispensed around $1.9 billion in Hawaii or around 17 percent of the state’s $11.4 billion total visitor revenue in 2010.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie said the consequences of the downturn in Japanese travelers in the economy of Hawaii might be severe. The state is already experiencing an expected shortfall of almost $1 billion for the next couple of years.

The Japanese are well favored in Hawaii because of their fondness for dining and shopping. Every day, about 13 direct flights travel to the Aloha State from Japan. They bring about 3,000 to 5,000 visitors.

Hawaii has already had several canceled flights from Japan. As a consequence, arrival of thousands of visitors has been hampered. After the March 11 earthquake, new bookings from Japan decreased by half and cancellation of flights tripled, based on the information gathered from H.I.S Hawaii travel agency.

However, the company’s assistant manager Naomi Hashizume said the cancellation rate has decreased to less than 10 percent since Wednesday. Hashizume is still optimistic that the travel market will rebound soon when Japan is fully restored.