Soda sales continued to hit the skids in the U.S., according to data released yesterday by "Beverage Digest," with overall sales declining 3% last year, and leading no-cal brands with artificial sweeteners slipping at more than twice that rate. Meanwhile, a widely reported new study that suggests that diet soda may "hurt the heart," as a CBSnews.com hed put it, came under attack as junk science exacerbated by ignorant headline writers.