After Powerful Hurricane, Rescuers Scour Ravaged Areas

HOUSTON - Emergency officials pursued their rescue efforts on Sunday after Hurricane Ike barreled across a wide swath of Texas, deluging the city of Galveston with a wall of water, flooding coastal towns and leaving extensive damage across metropolitan Houston.Across the Gulf Coast, rescue workers scoured waterlogged neighborhoods and struggled to race down streets that [...] continue reading world news

L.A. County sees an upward trend in West Nile infections

The year is shaping up to be the worst in Southern California since 2004.Jack Austin doesn’t remember a mosquito biting him. The 72-year-old Duarte resident also doesn’t remember the nine days he spent in the hospital in July or much of the 20 days he spent in rehab in August, recovering from West Nile neuroinvasive [...] continue reading world news

Chicago seeks aid after worst rain in at least 137 years

Chicago received more than 6 inches of rain Saturday, breaking a 1987 record.CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) — Chicago authorities asked Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to issue a disaster declaration after rainfall Saturday in the Windy City broke a single-day record that had stood for more than two decades.The deluge flooded streets and stranded residents in their [...] continue reading world news

Controlled drugs dumped uncontrolled into water

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - In a frustrating quirk in government policy, the most tightly controlled drugs - like painkilling narcotics prone to abuse - are the ones that most often elude environmental regulation when they become waste.Federal narcotics regulators impose strict rules meant to keep controlled pharmaceuticals out of the wrong hands. Yet those rules also [...] continue reading world news

FDA Criticized Over Plastic Chemical

Groups Raise Questions About the Safety of Bisphenol AReviewed by Louise Chang, MDSept. 16, 2008 — Researchers and environmental groups attacked the FDA for concluding that a widely used plastic ingredient is safe for humans, saying the agency ignored critical studies showing potential ill health effects.The comments came at a hearing called by the FDA [...] continue reading world news

Video shows shocking farm cruelty to pigs

UNDERCOVER animal activists have filmed horrific scenes of cruelty to farm pigs.The incidents include workers slamming piglets on floors and leaving them still wriggling to die, beating animals to death with metal rods and inserting rods into sows’ hindquarters.Activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) posed as workers between June and September [...] continue reading world news

FDA Considers Engineered Animals For Food

Agency Will Accept Industry Proposals To Sell The Public Animals With Mixed DNATwo featherless chickens peck around in some grass at the Hebrew University in Rehovot. Israeli scientists at the Agriculture department of the university have genetically engineered bare-skinned chickens as part of a research project to develop succulent, low fat poultry that is environmentally [...] continue reading world news