hWater we gonna do?

hWater we gonna do?
TEMPLE, Texas -- Jessica Luna, 18 months, is held by her cousin Michael Ortiz as she tries to stop water shooting from a pipe at a park in Temple. They were out enjoying the weather Wednesday.
To protest decision on pill,FDA health chief resigns
WASHINGTON -- The highly regarded women's health chief at the Food and Drug Administration resigned Wednesday in protest of her agency's refusal to allow over-the-counter sales of emergency contraception. Assistant Commissioner Susan Wood charged that FDA's leader overruled his own scientists' determination that the morning-after pill could safely be sold without a prescription, and stunned his employees last week by instead postponing indefinitely a decision on whether to let that happen. "I have spent the last 15 years working to ensure that science informs good health-policy decisions," Wood, director of FDA's Office of Women's Health, wrote in an e-mail about her departure to agency colleagues. "I can no longer serve as staff when scientific and clinical evidence, fully evaluated and recommended by the professional staff here, has been overruled." It was an unprecedented public show of discord for the FDA, and prompted lawmakers to call for congressional hearings into whether the nation's leading public health agency allowed politics to trump science in determining the fate of the morning-after pill called Plan B.
Outbreak of encephalitishas killed more than 400
HANOI, Vietnam -- A Japanese encephalitis outbreak that has killed more than 400 children in northern India and neighboring Nepal could have been avoided with a one-shot vaccination that is routinely used to prevent the disease in China. The outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in India's most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, began last month and has left more than 1,000 hospitalized, while more children die each day. Indian health officials said Wednesday that 41 children had died in the previous 24 hours, raising the monthlong death toll to 308. In southern Nepal, the disease, which has no cure, has been spreading since April. But in nearby China, a vaccine that has been proven effective in preventing the disease has yet to reach some of the most afflicted areas in Asia -- delayed by a lack of money and competition from other diseases that are higher on priority lists, researchers said. The Chinese vaccine, based on a weakened form of the virus, has not yet been placed on a list of prequalified vaccines approved by the World Health Organization, which also could be a potential deterrent for some countries awaiting the U.N. health agency's approval.
Afghan, U.S. forces kill9 suspected militants
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan and U.S. ground troops, backed by attack helicopters, raided a Taliban camp in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, killing nine suspected militants, officials said Wednesday. The camp in Uruzgan province had been used as a base by about 80 insurgents from where they launched guerrilla-style assaults on Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces in the area, said provincial Gov. Jan Mohammed Khan. American helicopters pounded the site with rockets before ground forces moved in. Several AK-47 assault rifles, rockets, as well as tents, kettles and other camping equipment were scattered around the area, the governor said.
Seeking sanctions on Iran
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration renewed its insistence Wednesday that the United Nations Security Council take up the question of punitive censure or sanctions for Iran, saying Tehran must face international judgment over its disputed nuclear program. The United States wants the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to take the first step toward sanctions this month, Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Associated Press