NEW YORK (AP) — The American Beverage Association says efforts by the mayors of 18 cities to stop food stamps from being used to buy sugary drinks won't make the nation healthier.

By Rachelle Younglai WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation severely restricting abortions, a move that could alienate women from the conservative party. The bill would ban abortions 20 weeks after fertilization occurs, a time when a fetus begins to feel pain, Republicans said. The legislation makes exceptions for victims of rape and incest as long as they first report the crime to authorities. The bill has no chance of becoming law with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House threatening to veto it. ...

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 in what officials worry could be the deadliest outbreak in nearly a decade.

By Tony Maglio LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Melissa Etheridge believes Angelina Jolie jumped the gun with her double mastectomy. The singer, a breast cancer survivor, told The Washington Blade that she has the same BRCA gene mutation as Jolie. When asked about Jolie's choice to undergo a preventative double mastectomy, Etheridge called Jolie's decision "the most fearful choice you can make when confronting anything with cancer." "I wouldn't call it the brave choice," the singer said. ...

By P.J. Huffstutter CHICAGO (Reuters) - A swine virus deadly to young pigs, one never before seen in North America, is spreading rapidly across the United States and proving harder to control than previously believed. The virus now has spread to 13 states - with more than 100 positive cases to date - since it was first diagnosed in the United States last month, said Montserrat Torremorell, the Allen D. Leman Chair in Swine Health and Productivity at the University of Minnesota's College of Veterinary Medicine. ...

By Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical companies need to boost the benefits of drug research by working with regulators and healthcare providers to overhaul the way medicines are approved and paid for, a thinktank backed by investors says. After years of disappointing research and development (R&D) productivity, a new report backed by leading institutional investors sees "early indications of a recovery", with U.S. approvals of new drugs last year the highest since 1996. ...

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.

By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mississippi's attorney general said on Tuesday he would subpoena documents from Google Inc as part of a probe into allegations the Web search company facilitated the sale of drugs without a prescription and other illegal products. Google responded in a blog post that it had been vigorous in working to limit drug advertisements to legitimate companies that comply with the law and to combat what it called "rogue online pharmacies. ...

By David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Enroll America, a nonprofit group at the center of the political fight over President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law, launched a multi-state grassroots campaign on Tuesday to help sign up millions of uninsured Americans for health coverage in the coming months. The group, which has strong ties to the Obama administration and the healthcare industry, announced plans for more than 50 events in 18 states, including California, Florida and Texas, as part of its "Get Covered America" campaign. ...

By Ransdell Pierson (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating the cases of two individuals who died after injections with Eli Lilly and Co.'s long-acting treatment for schizophrenia, Zyprexa Relprevv. Both patients died three to four days after receiving "an appropriate dose" of the medicine, and both had very high levels of the drug in their bloodstreams, the FDA said in a bulletin released on its website on Tuesday. ...