Federal regulators are pressing the Supreme Court to stop big pharmaceutical corporations from paying generic drug competitors to delay releasing their cheaper versions of brand-name drugs. They argue these deals deny American consumers, usually for years, steep price declines that can top 90 percent.

The Obama administration, backed by consumer groups and the American Medical Association which represents doctors, says these so-called "pay for delay" deals profit the drug companies but harm consumers by adding $3.5 billion annually to their drug bills.

Sixty years after the first successful polio vaccine trial, the disease has been wiped out in much of the world, but violence, conspiracy theories and lack of cash keep it from disappearing.

"The world is closer than ever to eradicating polio," said Oliver Rosenbauer, spokesman for the World Health Organization's Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Shanghai said the end of an embarrassing pollution case which saw dead pigs floating down the city's main river was in sight, with the total number recovered now standing at more than 16,000.

"The city's water territory has already basically finished the work of fishing out the floating dead pigs," said a Shanghai government statement released late on Sunday.

Have a heart problem? If it's fixable, there's a good chance it can be done without surgery, using tiny tools and devices that are pushed through tubes into blood vessels.

Heart care is in the midst of a transformation. Many problems that once required sawing through the breastbone and opening up the chest for open heart surgery now can be treated with a nip, twist or patch through a tube.

Scientists said Sunday they had found mutations in 26 genes that may cause Esophageal cancer, a breakthrough they hope will lead to new drugs for the deadly and increasingly frequent disease.

A team of experts in the United States unraveled the genetic code of tumor cells from 149 patients, which they compared to healthy cells to identify a mutation signature for esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC).

Disease experts called Sunday for decisive leadership and more research funding to fend off the "very real" risk of an untreatable strain of tuberculosis (TB) emerging as more and more people develop resistance to existing drugs.

In a series of papers in the Lancet medical journal to mark World TB Day on Sunday, they warned that health systems risked being overwhelmed by increasing numbers of drug-resistant TB patients.

As much as 14 percent of chronic childhood asthma may be caused by people living near busy roads and exposed to traffic pollution, a study in 10 European cities found Friday.

The study, released by the European Respiratory Journal, matched local health data with exposure to traffic pollution in Barcelona, Bilbao, Brussels, Granada, Ljubljana, Rome, Seville, Stockholm, Valencia and Vienna.

On the sidewalks and the subways it's clear: Japan is becoming a sea of surgical masks. It's about pollen, about germs and even a little about China, its polluting rival across the sea.

Simple masks. High-tech masks. Scented masks. Masks in pink and purple. Yano Research Institute says it's a 26 billion yen ($274 million) market. The industry leader, Kowa Co., says it plans to quintuple production this year.

North Dakota legislators aimed to outlaw all abortions Friday by passing a law that asks voters to amend the state constitution to define life as beginning at conception.

If passed, the amendment would grant full legal protection to embryos and fetuses and could outlaw some forms of birth control, stem cell research and possibly in vitro fertilization.

One in five people ski having consumed alcohol, and 29 percent of these hurtle down the piste over the legal limit for driving, an Austrian survey showed Thursday.

"People skiing under the influence of alcohol pose an increased risk to themselves and to other people on the slopes," said Alexandra Kuehnelt-Leddihn from the Austrian Road Safety Board (KFV).