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NEW YORK (AP) — The American Cancer Society — one of the nation's best known and influential health advocacy groups — is 100 years old this week.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mayor of Portland, Ore., has conceded defeat in an effort to add fluoride to the city's drinking water.

(Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc said it has entered into a $5 billion share repurchase agreement with Goldman Sachs Group Inc, as the drug giant looks to prop up shareholder value in face of stiff competition from makers of less-costly generics. Under the accelerated share repurchase agreement (ASR), Merck has agreed to repurchase about 99.5 million shares from Goldman Sachs based on current market prices. ...

When facing a lot of choice it is best to decide on one option and then physically shut off all others. Christie Nicholson reports

(Reuters) - Vivian Cheruiyot is not defending her world 5,000 and 10,000 meters gold medals in Moscow in August because she is expecting her first child, the Kenyan said in a statement. The 29-year-old, who won both races at the 2011 world athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea, took silver and bronze in the 5,000 and 10,000 at last year's London Olympics. In a statement released by her agent Ricky Simms on Wednesday, Cheruiyot said she would resume her career next year. She had first revealed her decision not to compete in Moscow on Tuesday but gave no reason for her absence. ...

May 22 (Reuters) - Vivian Cheruiyot is not defending her world 5,000 and 10,000 metres gold medals in Moscow in August because she is expecting her first child, the Kenyan said in a statement. The 29-year-old, who won both races at the 2011 world athletics championships in Daegu, South Korea, took silver and bronze in the 5,000 and 10,000 at last year's London Olympics. In a statement released by her agent Ricky Simms on Wednesday, Cheruiyot said she would resume her career next year. She had first revealed her decision not to compete in Moscow on Tuesday but gave no reason for her absence. ...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oral health and politics collided Tuesday as Portlanders — proudly nonconformist and environmentally minded — decided whether their city remains the largest in the U.S. without public fluoridation.

By Ronnie Cohen SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Thousands of healthcare workers walked off the job at the University of California's five medical centers on Tuesday, delaying emergency care, surgeries, diagnostic procedures and other medical treatment throughout the state. The union representing nearly 13,000 vocational nurses, respiratory therapists and radiology technicians said it called the two-day strike to draw attention to staff shortages they said undermine patient care at the hospitals in San Francisco, Davis, Los Angeles, San Diego and Irvine. ...

(Reuters) - Amag Pharmaceuticals Inc said its marketing partner in Switzerland, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, is recalling a batch of Amag's anemia drug, Rienso, because of a death and several cases of hypersensitivity. Amag shares were down about 5 percent at $23.75 in after-market trading on Tuesday. "The batch was only distributed to and sold in Switzerland and the recall is limited to the specific batch and specifically Switzerland," Lexington, Massachusetts-based Amag said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. (http://r.reuters. ...

Patients, Staff at Moore Medical Center Uninjured in Tornado

The atmosphere never gets a moment’s privacy. It can barely stir enough to move a leaf without some piece of high-tech equipment—often many, many pieces—knowing about it. The U.S. alone has up to 30 satellites at any one moment that devote at least part of their time to monitoring global and national weather patterns; 122 Doppler radar systems scattered across the country looking up from the ground; and a web of computers that just got a massive upgrade—increasing their data-crunching capacity 30-fold—to process the information that all that other hardware gathers.

By Dan Whitcomb (Reuters) - A federal appeals court struck down an Arizona law on Tuesday that bans abortions from 20 weeks gestation, saying it violated "unalterably clear" U.S. Supreme Court rulings that women have a right to terminate pregnancies until a fetus is viable. The decision by a three-member panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of appeals in San Francisco, which overturned the ruling of a federal district court judge, was hailed by abortion rights groups as a "huge victory" in a state they say has taken one of the nation's toughest stances on the issue. ...

Right now the death toll from the massive tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma on May 20 seems—thankfully—to be less than first thought. City officials now say that 24 people have been confirmed dead, down from 51 people last night, due to double counting of some bodies in the confusion. But the new number still includes 9 children, and the toll could rise as rescuers search through the rubble.

(Reuters) - Amag Pharmaceuticals Inc said its marketing partner in Switzerland, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, is recalling a batch of Amag's anemia drug, Rienso, because of a death and several cases of hypersensitivity. Amag shares were down about 5 percent at $23.75 in after-market trading on Tuesday. "The batch was only distributed to and sold in Switzerland and the recall is limited to the specific batch and specifically Switzerland," Lexington, Massachusetts-based Amag said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday. (http://r.reuters. ...

By Corrie MacLaggan AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Texas House passed a measure on Tuesday that would prevent the state from expanding its Medicaid program as outlined by President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law. Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, notified the Obama administration last summer that his state would not expand Medicaid, and he reiterated his opposition at an April press conference at which he called expansion "foolish. ...

Frown lines, forehead creases and crow's-feet, oh my! If the rise in Botox procedures is any indication, the fountain of youth might be found in a syringe, even for 20-somethings whose signs of aging are invisible to the naked eye.        

Shooting the Wheeze: Whooping Cough Vaccine Falls Short of Previous Shot s Protection

A deadly tornado hit suburban Oklahoma City on Monday. A quick look at some basic facts:

By Stephanie Nebehay GENEVA (Reuters) - The H7N9 virus appears to have been brought under control in China largely due to restrictions at bird markets, but caused some $6.5 billion in losses to the economy, U.N. experts said on Tuesday. Health authorities worldwide must be on the lookout to detect the virus, the experts said, which could still develop the ability to spread easily among humans and cause a deadly influenza pandemic. ...

Dissecting the controversy about early psychological response to disasters and trauma