The number of Americans with health insurance increased in 2007 by more than one million, the Census Bureau said Tuesday.

Total number of U.S. residents without health policies went down to 45.7 million, the first time in six years the number decreased. Census officials explained the increase in number of health policy holders was because of more government support for health insurance programs, with a focus on children

One person has died and dozens here are sick after being infected with what appears to be E. coli. At least 10 people were taken to a Tulsa hospital after eating at a restaurant.

Oklahoma State Health Department spokeswoman Leslea Bennett-Webb announced that 12 to 20 other people in Beggs, Pryor and Bixby were treated at various other hospitals. The Oklahoma Health Department says up to two dozen people have been treated and released at other hospitals in northeastern Oklahoma

Researchers think they have found a way to stop the bacteria that cause gastroenteritis, tularemia and severe diarrhea from making people sick.

"What we have here is a completely novel approach to combating illness," Dr. Vanessa Sperandio, associate professor of microbiology and biochemistry at the University of Texas Southwestern and senior author of a study, said in a statement released Thursday

A draft report from the federal inspector general belied a 2006 Medicare claim that it prevented the filing and payment of fraudulent billings, which it said saved the government billions of dollars.

To compute Medicare's rate of wrong payments, Medicare officials instructed auditors to set aside government policies that accurately measure fraud. One example was sales invoices for claims that were not compared against physicians' records

The Canadian Medical Association warned air pollution-related deaths in the country may total 800,000 by 2031.

A majority of the victims will be senior citizens who are more vulnerable to heart ailments, the CMA said. According to the CMA study released Wednesday, this year 21,000 Canadians will die from short- and long-term exposure to air pollution. By 2031 the annual death toll could rise by 83 percent to 39,000 fatalities. A majority of the elderly victims will expire from heat and lung conditions brought by decades of inhaling dirty air