NEW YORK (AP) -- The mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and 15 other cities are reviving a push against letting food stamps be used to buy soda and other sugary drinks.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- If doctors and patients used prescription drugs more wisely, they could save the U.S. health care system at least 213 billion dollars a year, by reducing medication overuse, underuse and other flaws in care that cause complications and longer, more-expensive treatments, researchers conclude.

(The New York Times News Service) -- Unbeknownst to them, insured patients are responsible for nearly a fourth of their doctor bills, according to a study of health insurance claims released this week.

WASHINGTON (The New York Times News Service) -- The doctor's face told Toni Mayes everything she needed to know.

ATLANTA (AP) -- A vaccine against a cervical cancer virus cut infections in teen girls by half in the first study to measure the shot's impact since it came on the market. The results impressed health experts and a top government top health official called them striking.

CHICAGO (AP) -- A nonprofit that's helping spread the word about President Barack Obama's health overhaul is launching a campaign that will target states with high numbers of uninsured Americans.

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singaporeans rolled back military training, kept cough-stricken children indoors and considered wearing protective masks to work Tuesday after a smoky haze triggered by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia caused air pollution to briefly hit its worst level in nearly 16 years.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Medicare begins a major change next month that could save older diabetics money and time when they buy crucial supplies to test their blood sugar -- but it also may cause some confusion as patients figure out the new system.

NEW DELHI (AP) -- Health officials in Mumbai are investigating reports that Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and his wife know the sex of a baby they are having through a surrogate mother.

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- When the time came to vaccinate her 4-year-old daughter, Yelena Hlushko hesitated, spooked by widespread fears in Ukraine about vaccines and by a boil her older child developed after an immunization shot. Eventually she decided to follow the government's recommendation -- only to find her local health clinic was out of the vaccine.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- There's good news for most companies that provide health benefits for their employees: America's slowdown in medical costs may be turning into a trend, rather than a mere pause.

ATLANTA (AP) -- Fewer U.S. adults are smoking, a new government report says.

GORAKHPUR, India (AP) -- A mosquito-borne disease that preys on the young and malnourished is sweeping across poverty-riven northern India again this monsoon season, with officials worried it could be the deadliest outbreak in nearly a decade.

ISLAMABAD (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) -- Two volunteers working for a polio vaccination campaign were shot dead Sunday by unidentified gunmen in Pakistan's north-western province of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, officials said.

SEATTLE (AP) -- For the activists who led the effort to legalize recreational marijuana in Washington state last fall, Jamen Shively was one of their biggest fears: an aspiring pot profiteer whose unabashed dreams of building a cannabis empire might attract unwanted attention from the federal government or a backlash that could slow the marijuana reform movement across the country.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A federal judge in San Francisco is considering whether an airborne fungus that occurs naturally in the San Joaquin Valley presents enough of a public health danger that thousands of vulnerable state prison inmates should be moved to other locations.

(Associated Press) -- A Boston hospital is starting the world's first hand transplant program for children, and doctors say it won't be long until face transplants and other radical operations to improve appearance and quality of life are offered to kids, too.

DALLAS (AP) -- Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced Monday that it has a new CEO.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Eli Lilly and Co. said Thursday that it stopped a mid-stage clinical trial of an experimental Alzheimer's disease drug because of potential side effects on patients' livers.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl who fought for a lung transplant has a difficult journey ahead. The transplant isn't a cure for her cystic fibrosis, and new lungs don't tend to last as long as other transplanted organs.

PHOENIX (AP) -- Ending a six-month legislative session, Arizona lawmakers endorsed a key element of President Barack Obama's health care law in a huge political victory for Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, after a lengthy fight over Medicaid expansion that divided the state's Republican leadership.

NEW YORK (AP) -- President Barack Obama's administration can go forward with its new plan to make the morning-after pill available to buyers of any age without prescriptions, but it needs to do it promptly or face potential sanctions in the long-running dispute over access to the emergency contraceptives, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

DUBLIN (AP) -- A miscarrying woman who died in an Irish hospital should have had her blood poisoning detected much sooner and been offered an abortion to improve her odds of survival, an experts' report concluded Thursday in a case that is forcing Ireland to modernize its abortion laws.

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A psychiatric patient has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in Nevada accusing state officials of giving him a one-way bus ticket to Northern California, where he arrived, scared and disoriented, without money and identification in a city where he didn't know anyone and had never been.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation spurred public debate over how organs are allocated underwent a successful double-lung transplant on Wednesday, the girl's family said.

BANGKOK (Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)) -- Health officials in the US and Europe may soon be visiting South-East Asia for updates on the most effective means of fighting dengue fever, traditionally a poor countries' disease.

PHOENIX (AP) -- The Arizona House passed an $8.8 billion state budget that includes Medicaid expansion early Thursday and puts Gov. Jan Brewer one Senate vote away from a huge political victory as she embraces a signature part of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law.

LONDON (AP) -- Britain will start regulating electronic cigarettes and other products containing nicotine as medicines, according to the country's top regulator.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Don't look for the morning-after pill to move next to the condoms on drugstore shelves right away -- but after a decade-plus fight, it appears it really will happen. Backed into a corner by a series of court rulings, the Obama administration has agreed to let the Plan B One-Step brand of emergency contraception sell over the counter to anyone of any age.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A 10-year-old girl whose efforts to qualify for an organ donation drew public debate over how organs are allocated was getting a double-lung transplant Wednesday after a match with an adult donor was made.

ATLANTA (AP) -- U.S. health officials say doctors should consider giving a daily AIDS drug to another high risk group to prevent infection -- people who shoot heroin, methamphetamines or other injection drugs.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A state appeals court panel had few sweet words Tuesday for a city health regulation that would fight diabetes and obesity by setting a size limit on sugary beverages sold in restaurants.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Faced with a federal judge's order in the heart-wrenching cases of two terminally ill children seeking lung transplants, a national review board sought a balance that will keep such decisions in the hands of doctors, not lawyers or judges.

NEW YORK (AP) -- After setting off a storm of criticism from abortion rights groups upset that a Democratic president had sided with social conservatives, the Obama administration said it will comply with a judge's order to allow girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without prescriptions.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Arena Pharmaceuticals says its weight loss drug Belviq will be available to U.S. patients beginning next week, nearly a year after the drug was officially approved by federal regulators.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal health experts are recommending changes to safety restrictions on former blockbuster diabetes pill Avandia, in light of a new analysis suggesting that the drug may not increase the risk of heart attack as previously believed.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A dying Pennsylvania girl has been placed on the adult waiting list for donated lungs amid a court fight over the nation's transplant rules with help from a judge who granted another petition Thursday from a boy at the same hospital.

(The New York Times News Service) -- During the past couple of decades, cancer researchers have sought to understand how the disease corrupts cells and then proliferates through the body.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Don't expect to see morning-after pills for all ages on drugstore shelves anytime soon. A federal appeals court decision allowing girls of any age to buy emergency contraception without a prescription won't immediately change access.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's a life or death matter: Who gets the next scarce donated organ? In an unprecedented challenge to the nation's transplant system, a federal judge has allowed one dying child -- and a day later another -- to essentially jump the line in rulings that could have ramifications for thousands of people awaiting new organs.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- New Hampshire health officials say the hepatitis C outbreak associated with a former hospital technician has spread beyond his patients to a person who is believed to have had sexual contact with one of them.

ENCINITAS, Calif. (AP) -- Geoff Soza was celebrating his 30th wedding anniversary in Yellowstone National Park when the 64-year-old man learned the hard way that his seemingly healthy breakfast habit of mixing thawed berries with Greek yogurt had exposed him to a national outbreak of hepatitis A.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The national organ transplant network has complied with a judge's unusual order and placed a dying 10-year-old girl on the adult waiting list for a donated lung.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Despite the well-known advantages to breast milk and vigorous campaigns around the world championing breast as best, Mexican mothers say the bottle is better.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Generic versions of emergency contraception can be sold without a prescription or age restrictions while the federal government appeals a judge's ruling allowing the sales, a federal appeals court said Wednesday.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Obesity surgery worked much better at reducing and even reversing diabetes than medication and lifestyle changes in one of the most rigorous studies of its kind. But the researchers and others warn that possible serious complications need to be considered.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- GE Capital Retail Bank's CareCredit LLC subsidiary will add consumer protections to its health care credit card - which can carry interest rates of nearly 27 percent - under a settlement announced Monday by the state attorney general's office.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- Thirteen years ago, voters amended the Nevada Constitution to legalize the use of medical marijuana, but there has been no way of legally getting the drug in the state aside from growing it at home. The Legislature acted to change that Monday, advancing a proposal that would pave the way for dispensaries.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- If worry about skin cancer doesn't make you slather on sunscreen, maybe vanity will: New research provides some of the strongest evidence to date that near-daily sunscreen use can slow the aging of your skin.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House passed legislation Tuesday designed to make it easier for veterans to obtain financial compensation for injuries or illness linked to sexual abuse while in the military.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An Oregon company is recalling a frozen berry mix sold to Costco and Harris Teeter stores after the product was linked to at least 34 hepatitis A illnesses in five states.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services says she doesn't want to intervene in transplant decisions about a dying Pennsylvania girl when other children are just as sick.

LONDON (AP) -- For decades, health officials have battled malaria with insecticides, bed nets and drugs. Now, scientists say there might be a potent new tool to fight the deadly mosquito-borne disease: the stench of human feet.

CHICAGO (AP) -- New research suggests that bad genes may be responsible for more breast cancer cases in black women than has been previously known. About 1 in 5 African-American women with the disease have an inherited mutation that drastically raises their risk for breast and ovarian cancer, according to a study released Monday.

ATLANTA (AP) -- Doctors have known for some time that a sexually spread virus can cause some types of oral cancer. But actor Michael Douglas' comments on his own throat cancer in a newspaper story Monday threw a spotlight on a subject not often discussed.

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) -- Nevada lawmakers want to give medical marijuana users a legal way to obtain the drug 13 years after voters legalized medicinal pot in the state constitution.

LONDON (AP) -- Actor Michael Douglas taught the world at least one thing Monday: oral sex can sometimes cause cancer.

PRAGUE (AP) -- A 23-year-old Czech woman has given birth to quintuplets for the first time in the Czech Republic.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Gene flaws that raise the risk of breast cancer are surprisingly common in black women with the disease, according to the first comprehensive testing in this racial group. The study found that one-fifth of these women have BRCA mutations, a problem usually associated with women of Eastern European Jewish descent but recently highlighted by the plight of Angelina Jolie.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama on Monday called for a more robust national discussion on mental illness, saying the time had come to bring the issue "out of the shadows."

MUMBAI, India (AP) -- A simple vinegar test slashed cervical cancer death rates by one-third in a remarkable study of 150,000 women in the slums of India, where the disease is the top cancer killer of women.

CHICAGO (AP) -- New research raises fresh questions about which cancer patients benefit from Avastin, a drug that lost its approval for treating breast cancer nearly two years ago.

SEATTLE (AP) -- Washington state businessmen who say they're trying to create the first national brand of marijuana received some heartfelt support Thursday from the former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox.

DAYTON, Ohio (The New York Times News Service) -- Margarette Shegog knows she won't be "making the big bucks" as a primary care doctor working in an underserved minority community, but that's exactly what she plans to do after graduating from Wright State University's Boonshoft School of Medicine.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Many people who buy their own health insurance could get surprises in the mail this fall: cancellation notices because their current policies aren't up to the basic standards of President Barack Obama's health care law.

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) -- A New Mexico health clinic has confirmed that some of its patients received potentially tainted anti-inflammatory injections prepared by a compounding manufacturer in Tennessee, but it says no negative reactions have been reported.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Infections in U.S. hospitals kill tens of thousands of people each year, and many institutions fight back by screening new patients to see if they carry a dangerous germ, and isolating those who do. But a big study suggests a far more effective approach: Decontaminating every patient in intensive care.

RIYADH (Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)) -- Three more people have died in Saudi Arabia from a SARS-like coronavirus, health authorities said Thursday, bringing to 21 the number of deaths from the disease in the kingdom.

(Associated Press) -- Is there a doctor on board? Surprisingly often, there is -- in half of in-flight medical emergencies -- and sick airline passengers almost always survive, a new study finds.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- A Utah woman gave birth to a healthy set of quintuplets over the weekend with help from a team of eight doctors, one anesthesiologist and dozens of nurses ensuring the mother and the tiny babies survived.

BERLIN (AP) -- German doctors say a man spent 15 years with a pencil in his head following a childhood accident.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Obese mothers tend to have kids who become obese. Now provocative research suggests weight-loss surgery may help break that unhealthy cycle in an unexpected way -- by affecting how their children's genes behave.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- A surgeon who operated on Poland's first face transplant patient says the man is already practicing swallowing and making sounds.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Increased use of medical marijuana may lead to more young children getting sick from accidentally eating food made with the drug, a Colorado study suggests.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Research in teens adds fresh evidence that the 1980s "crack baby" scare was overblown, finding little proof of any major long-term ill effects in children whose mothers used cocaine during pregnancy.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistani authorities suspended a four-day polio vaccination program Tuesday after gunmen shot dead a female polio worker and wounded another, officials said, in a blow to the U.N.-backed campaign aimed at eradicating the crippling disease from this violence-torn country.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Government health officials are investigating several complications reported with potentially contaminated medications made by a Tennessee specialty pharmacy.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Health officials investigating a cluster of mysterious illnesses in Alabama closed their investigation Thursday after determining the illnesses were unrelated and no new bacteria or viruses were involved.

EAST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- An 11-year study of the incidence of brain cancer at jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney in the state ended Thursday with university researchers saying they found no statistically significant elevations in the rate of cancer among workers.

GENEVA (AP) -- World Health Organization officials said Thursday that their probe into the deadly new coronavirus that has now claimed 22 lives is being delayed because of a dispute over the ownership rights to a sample - a claim disputed by the researcher at the center of the issue.

(Associated Press) -- The U.S. teen birth rate fell 25 percent over five years to a record low of 31 births per 1,000 teens ages 15 to 19, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) -- The eastern New Mexico peanut butter plant shuttered eight months ago after a salmonella outbreak is back in production, and company officials say their coveted natural and organic butters could be back on store shelves within a month.

(Associated Press) -- In a medical first, doctors used plastic particles and a 3-D laser printer to create an airway splint to save the life of a baby boy who used to stop breathing nearly every day.

DENVER (AP) -- In the most prominent challenge of its kind, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. is asking a federal appeals court Thursday for an exemption from part of the federal health care law that requires it to offer employees health coverage that includes access to the morning-after pill.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration says more doctors and hospitals are embracing technology as adoption of computerized medical records reaches a "tipping point" in America.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The mayor of Portland, Ore., has conceded defeat in an effort to add fluoride to the city's drinking water.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) -- Doctors in Poland say they have performed an urgent total face transplant on a 33-year-old man whose face was torn off in an accident which also crushed his jaws.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The American Cancer Society -- one of the nation's best known and influential health advocacy groups -- is 100 years old this week.

NANTERRE, France (AP) -- The makers of a diabetes and weight loss drug suspected in the deaths of hundreds of people went on trial Tuesday, facing charges they misled the public about the product's safety.

WAGENINGEN, Netherlands (Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)) -- Mosquitoes infected with the malaria parasite are much more attracted to human odours than uninfected ones, according to a study by a team of scientists.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The decade-old law that transformed the battle against HIV and AIDS in developing countries is at a crossroads. The dream of future generations freed from epidemic is running up against an era of economic recovery and harsh budget cuts.

(Associated Press) -- A deadly tornado hit suburban Oklahoma City on Monday. A quick look at some basic facts:

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. (AP) -- Federal investigators probing the hantavirus outbreak blamed for three deaths at Yosemite National Park recommended on Monday that design changes to tent cabins and other privately run lodging first be reviewed by National Park Service officials.

BEIJING (AP) -- Authorities are investigating rice mills in southern China following tests that found almost half of the staple grain in one of the country's largest cities was contaminated with a toxic metal.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- New research is challenging medical guidelines that say people with a heart-zapping device in their chests should avoid intense sports like basketball and soccer in favor of golf or bowling.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Three researchers are charged with taking bribes from a Chinese government-supported institution in exchange for access to restricted research from a New York University lab.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- With American troops at war for more than a decade, an unprecedented number of studies are looking into war zone psychology.

LONDON (AP) -- Three horse carcasses that tested positive for the equine drug bute may have entered the human food chain in France, the British government said Thursday.

DALLAS - Downsize Fitness is an exclusive health club, evocative of the nation's trendiest gyms. But there's a strict requirement to join: You must be 50 pounds or more overweight.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Kinky sex has been admitted to Harvard.

Researchers reported this week that brain-disease deaths are three times average for former pro football players. Another study looked at the use of ginkgo biloba in older adults. It found that ginkgo did not help prevent Alzheimer's disease in the study group. Results were released this week for a major project related to human DNA. Researchers found that so-called "junk" DNA actually has important roles in the body. Another study found no increase in health benefits for organic compared with conventional foods.

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Two more Yosemite National Park visitors have been found with a mouse-borne virus blamed for the deaths of two people, bringing the total number of infections to six, state health officials said.

(The New York Times News Service) -- (Moving in the "l" lifestyle news file)