ORLANDO, Fla. A CT scan - a kind of super X-ray - provides a faster, cheaper way to diagnose a heart attack when someone goes to the emergency room with chest pains, a new study suggests.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. First Lady Michelle Obama received a few gardening tips from students Wednesday as she toured a Virginia elementary school's vegetable garden.

LONDON The battle against global warming could be helped if the world slowed population growth by making free condoms and family planning advice more widely available, the U.N. Population Fund said Wednesday.

SPRING LAKE, N.J. Former Kiss drummer Peter Criss is speaking out about his recent bout with breast cancer.

SPRING LAKE, N.J. Lying in bed one night in 2007, Peter Criss felt something strange: a small lump on his left breast.

BANGKOK Conservationists searching for one of the world's most endangered crocodile species say they have found dozens of the reptiles lounging in plain sight - at a wildlife rescue center in Cambodia.

NEW DELHI Thousands of stargazers across Asia stayed awake overnight to catch a glimpse of what was advertised as an intense Leonid meteor shower, but the show fizzled rather than sizzled for many because of cloudy conditions.

MELBOURNE, Australia A Bangladeshi toddler separated this week from her conjoined twin sister was talking and behaving normally Thursday after waking from a medically induced coma, the head of the surgery team said.

ORLANDO, Fla. You can't blame this one on McDonald's: Researchers have found signs of heart disease in 3,500-year-old mummies.

MARIETTA, Pa. Malaria. Tuberculosis. Alzheimer's disease. AIDS. Pandemic flu. Genital herpes. Urinary tract infections. Grass allergies. Traveler's diarrhea. You name it, the pharmaceutical industry is working on a vaccine to prevent it.

WASHINGTON Pollution typically declines during a recession. Not this time. Despite a global economic slump, worldwide carbon dioxide pollution jumped 2 percent last year, most of the increase coming from China, according to a study published online Tuesday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Space shuttle Atlantis arrived at the International Space Station on Wednesday for a weeklong stay, delivering a load of spare parts needed to keep the outpost running for another decade.

The Sept. 19, 2008, failure of the Large Hadron Collider is costing 40 million Swiss francs ($40 million) to fix and it set back experiments for more than a year. But the world's largest atom smasher has lesser hiccups to contend with:

WASHINGTON Federal health officials said Tuesday a popular variety of heartburn medications can interfere with the blood thinner Plavix, a drug taken by millions of Americans to reduce risks of heart attack and stroke.

GENEVA Scientists have repaired the world's largest atom smasher and plan by this weekend to restart the machine that was launched with great fanfare last year before its spectacular failure from a bad electrical connection, a spokesman said Tuesday.

ORLANDO, Fla. For the first time, a miniature heart pump shows the potential to become a widely used, permanent treatment for many older people with severe heart failure. But can we afford it?

BEIJING President Barack Obama, with China's leader at his side, lifted his sights Tuesday for a broad interim accord at next month's climate conference that he said will lead to immediate action and "rally the world" toward a solution on global warming.

MELBOURNE, Australia Formerly conjoined Bangladeshi twins spent their first night in separate beds and were in serious but stable condition Wednesday following a marathon surgery to separate the toddlers, who were born joined at their heads.

NEW YORK For many women, getting a mammogram is already one of life's more stressful experiences.

CHICAGO Uninsured patients with traumatic injuries, such as car crashes, falls and gunshot wounds, were almost twice as likely to die in the hospital as similarly injured patients with health insurance, according to a troubling new study.

WASHINGTON Tom Dougherty jokes that he takes "get-lost walks." To his wife, Cleo, it's a constant fear: When will his Alzheimer's get bad enough that she has to end his 4-mile daily strolls?

WASHINGTON Federal health officials on Monday questioned whether to approve an updated version of Pfizer's best-selling anti-infection vaccine for children, despite company studies that failed to meet certain goals.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Space shuttle Atlantis' astronauts scoured their ship Tuesday for any signs of launch damage while pursuing the International Space Station.

ATLANTA Sexually spread diseases continue to rise, with reported chlamydia cases setting yet another record in 2008, government health officials said Monday.

MELBOURNE, Australia A team of Australian surgeons were working Monday on a delicate and complicated surgery to separate twin sisters who are joined at the top of the head.

BRUSSELS Environmentalists on Monday said an international deal to reduce catches of Atlantic bluefin tuna didn't go far enough to protect the species from extinction.

MELBOURNE, Australia Twin Bangladeshi girls joined at the top of their heads were in good condition Tuesday but were not yet separated after 24 hours of complicated surgery, hospital officials said.

ORLANDO, Fla. A new study raises fresh concerns about Zetia and its cousin, Vytorin - drugs still taken by millions of Americans to lower cholesterol, despite questions raised last year about how well they work.

KOKONOGI, Japan A blood-orange blob the size of a small refrigerator emerged from the dark waters, its venomous tentacles trapped in a fishing net. Within minutes, hundreds more were being hauled up, a pulsating mass crowding out the catch of mackerel and sea bass.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA fueled space shuttle Atlantis on Monday for an afternoon liftoff to the space station, despite increasingly cloudy skies.