An Indian court on Monday refused a mother's plea to abort a 26-week fetus with a serious heart defect, saying the law does not permit such late-term abortions.

The 31-year-old mother, Niketa Mehta, and her husband Haresh found out after 24 weeks that the fetus had a complete congenital heart blockage and malpositioned arteries that could, doctors told them, require a pacemaker implantation soon after birth

With the onset of the flu season, the first protection for seniors, who are considered among the most vulnerable, is the flu vaccine. However, a new study says the vaccine is less beneficial and may not protect older people from pneumonia after they have the disease.

Researchers collected data on 1,173 people between 65 and 94 who had pneumonia. These individuals were compared with 2,346 people who did not get pneumonia. Both groups had similar rates of flu vaccination over three seasons of studies, the researchers say

A medical disaster caused by a likely shortage of medical isotopes looms due to the shutdown of the Chalk River National Research Universal reactor.

Fifty percent of the global supplies of raw materials for medical isotopes are obtained from the Chalk River reactor, which was closed because it failed to meet licensing requirements that seven upgrades be fully operational by Dec. 31, 2005

Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama lead the nation in the percentage of obese adults, according to survey results released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that self-reported obesity rates in these states were over 30 percent. Mississippi respondents reported the highest rate of obesity, at 32 percent, and Tennessee had the third-highest rate at 30.1 percent. Colorado had the lowest rate of obesity at 18.7 percent

Researchers at the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that people who stop drinking may develop depression.

Findings from the study appear online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. Scientists have long known that moderate drinking offered some health benefits, including protection against heart disease, certain types of stroke and some forms of cancer. But now they say that people that stop drinking, even moderate drinking, run the risk of developing depression and a reduced capacity of the brain to produce new neurons, a process called neurogenesis