A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) panel of outside medical experts Wednesday said the agency should urge pharmaceutical companies to conduct stricter safety tests before marketing new diabetes drugs.

FDA advisers voted 14-2 that the FDA should require drug makers to show that experimental diabetes drugs don't increase cardiovascular risks. Many diabetes drugs lower blood sugar but they still pose risks for the heart

A nationwide ban on smoking tobacco in enclosed places began here Tuesday, but Dutch cafes and restaurants will permit patrons to smoke marijuana inside their premises.

Some 200 inspectors of the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority will ensure compliance to the ban by cafes across the country. The inspectors have been trained to detect tobacco and marijuana, which is allowed in licensed coffee shops

Approval of GlaxoSmithKline PLC's cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix is expected to be delayed further after the drug maker decided to submit additional data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Glaxo decided that it will add results from an ongoing phase III study called HPV-008 to its original application in the first half of 2009 and a decision by the FDA is expected six months later. The 2007 application now under consideration included only data from an earlier trial

The Defense Department and the Environmental Protection Agency are in a turf war over the clean up of toxic substances at Fort Meade and two other military bases.

The Pentagon has refused to sign an agreement, required by law, which includes 12 other military areas on the Superfund list of most polluted parts of the U.S. An agreement would have required a remediation plan, schedules and permit the EPA to supervise the work and impose penalties if the Defense Department misses deadlines

The spate of construction accidents which has claimed 20 lives in New York City since January prompted federal building officials to be stricter in implementing building inspection regulations in the Big Apple.

According to Richard Mendelson, regional director of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, special teams of building inspectors will check tower cranes, high-rise concrete and steel construction sites, mobile cranes and edifices undergoing demolition and rehabilitation to ensure they comply with building regulations