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.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Los Angeles politicians have struggled for more than five years to regulate medical marijuana, trying to balance the needs of the sick against neighborhood concerns that pot shops attract crime.

GENEVA (AP) -- The World Health Organization says a yellow fever booster vaccination given 10 years after the initial shot isn't necessary.

NEW DELHI (AP) -- The Indian government has announced the successful development of a low-cost vaccine proven effective in preventing the deadly diarrhea-causing rotavirus.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cancer patients could face high costs for medications under President Barack Obama's health care law, industry analysts and advocates warn.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The government is running out of time to try to halt implementation of a federal judge's ruling that would lift age restrictions for women and girls wanting to buy the morning-after pill.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Spending on prescription medicines in the U.S. fell for the first time in decades last year, slipping as cash-strapped consumers continued to cut back on use of health care services.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Two multinational drugmakers are teaming up with top global health groups to protect millions of girls in the world's poorest countries from deadly cervical cancer.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge in New York City has accused the government of playing politics with his order giving teenage girls broader access to morning-after birth control.

DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Baxter International Inc. says that a blood product it was testing failed to slow mental decline or to preserve physical function in a major study of 390 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. health regulators are warning doctors and women of child-bearing age that half-a-dozen medications used to treat migraine headaches can decrease children's intelligence if taken while their mothers are pregnant.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California cities and counties can ban pot shops, the state's highest court ruled Monday in a unanimous opinion likely to further diminish California's once-robust medical marijuana industry.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Men who are bashful about needing help in the bedroom no longer have to go to the drugstore to buy that little blue pill.

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- The Man Nyon Pharmacy is lined with rows of colorful packages containing everything from dried bear bile and deer antler elixir to tiger bone paste and ginseng. But the ancient "Koryo" medicine provided at this popular dispensary isn't just for minor aches and pains.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration's decision to appeal a court order lifting age limits on purchasers of the morning-after pill set off a storm of criticism from reproductive rights groups, who denounced it as politically motivated and a step backward for women's health.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a surprise twist to the decade-plus effort to ease access to morning-after pills, the government is lowering the age limit to 15 for one brand -- Plan B One-Step -- and will let it be sold over the counter.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The U.S. government sued Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. again on Friday, saying it paid kickbacks for a decade to doctors to steer patients toward its drugs, sometimes disguising fishing trips off the Florida coast and trips to Hooters restaurants as speaking engagements for the doctors.

FOSTER CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Gilead Sciences Inc. said Monday that the Food and Drug Administration rejected two marketing applications for HIV treatments, citing quality control problems at the company's manufacturing facilities.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Large specialty pharmacies like the one that triggered a deadly meningitis outbreak last year would be subject to federal safety inspections and manufacturing standards under a new Senate proposal introduced Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. health officials are making a high-tech screening device available in Africa to help spot counterfeit malaria pills in hopes that the technology may eventually be used to combat the fake drug trade worldwide.

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