In an effort to reduce smog and as a run-up to the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, China scheduled a no car day in more than 100 cities. Vehicles were prohibited in Beijing's main streets, while car owners were encouraged to leave their automobiles at home.

The event was held amid high hopes and to avoid the threat of having some of next year's Olympic events postponed

A new study by University of Ohio researchers suggests that the bacteria that cause diseases ranging from bubonic plague to gastric illness have an ability to turn the genes that make them infectious on or off.

If scientists can discover how disease-causing bacteria do that then it they might be able to create drugs that could turn the genes off that make the bacteria infectious rendering

Some restaurants seem to be competing to make you fat, according to US watchdog Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The group found that US restaurants are promoting "X-treme eating," which can easily feed customers several thousand calories in one meal without them knowing

Intensive Care deaths have not always been linked to previous injuries. For years, doctors expected a certain amount of patients to pass away due to infections that developed when already admitted to hospital.

Now, the casualties once referred to as the "cost of doing business" have decreased from 7.7 percent to 1.4 percent in Michigan hospitals over an 18 month period. Doctors and hospital staff have followed simple procedures to ensure that infections from administering intravenous drugs are preventable

A pneumonic plague outbreak has killed 42 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past two months. The World Health Organization reports that more laboratory tests would be done.

Field tests studying more than 600 cases verified the disease was to be found near Wamba, at the northern Oriental province