WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Canadian Press) -- There are smoke-free bars, smoke-free parks, even smoke-free college campuses. But a smoke-free country?

CHICAGO (Chicago Tribune) -- In New York state, lawmakers are moving to ban a cancer-causing flame retardant from children's products.

AUSTIN, Texas (The New York Times News Service) -- The Texas Department of State Health Services has prohibited the use of a controversial treatment at its public psychiatric hospitals after officials say they learned that a doctor performed unauthorized research on aggressive patients with serious mental disabilities.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration is asking a presidential commission to help decide an ethical quandary: Should the anthrax vaccine and other treatments being stockpiled in case of a bioterror attack be tested in children?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Researchers say the U.S. approved more new medicines in less time than Europe and Canada in the last decade, challenging long-standing criticisms that the Food and Drug Administration lags behind its peers in clearing important new drugs.

ATLANTA (AP) - For the first time in 20 years, U.S. health officials have lowered the threshold for lead poisoning in young children.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The government is taking steps to help ensure that children who need CT scans and other X-ray-based tests don't get an adult-sized dose of radiation.

OTTAWA (Canadian Press) -- The Mental Health Commission of Canada has outlined the first-ever national mental-health strategy, looking to the fight against cancer for inspiration.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A federal appeals court reversed its demand that the Veterans Affairs Department dramatically overhaul its mental health care system.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Three pharmaceutical giants are unlocking their freezers to see if government-funded scientists can reinvent some of their old drugs.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Obama administration is buying into an ambitious health care initiative in Oregon, announcing Thursday it has tentatively agreed to chip in $1.9 billion over five years to help get the program off the ground.

MERIDIAN, Idaho (AP) -- Midwives and doctors are longtime rivals in the politics governing where women should give birth: Home or hospital.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Less than a month old, Savannah Dannelley scrunches her tiny face into a scowl as a nurse gently squirts a dose of methadone into her mouth.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Eight Planned Parenthood organizations sued Texas on Wednesday for excluding them from participating in a program that provides contraception and check-ups to women, saying the new rule violates their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and association.