Prosecutors say an ice cream van in New York’s Staten Island was used as the shopfront for a $1 million drug ring.

The Wall Street Journal reports 31 people have been arrested and charged by the police for helping distribute nearly 43,000 pills of oxycodone, an opiate-based prescription painkiller.

Questions have been raised about bribery in the province’s health care system, after Vivian Green from Quebec claimed to have paid $2,000 to a doctor for expediting surgery for her cancer-stricken mother.

According to Green, what she did was out of desperation to save the life of elderly mother diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, who was very sick having developed a pain in her side.

Two men convicted for the theft of the egg-shaped, 45-carat Marlborough Diamond and other gems, in a $3.6 million daylight robbery of a London jewellery store 30 years ago, have been arrested on charges of scheming to rob a suburban Chicago bank.

The two suspects are reputed Chicago mob figures i. e. Joseph ‘Jerry’ Scalise, 73, of Clarendon Hills and Arthur Rachel, 71, of Chicago, released from British prisons after serving 13 years i. e. 1984 to 1993 for robbing Graff Jewellers in central London in 1980.

In a horrific incident in Kansas City, six human heads and 12 tubs of body parts were found inside a truck at a medical waste company.

Wyandotte County Coroner Alan Hancock said, "It seems like a crime to me. They were sent though the mail". Police say that no crime was committed, so they are not investigating. Police in Albuquerque, N.M, where the body parts originated, also are not interested in starting an investigation.

In a recent move, the association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS), a group of conservative activist doctors, became the first physician group to file a lawsuit aimed at overturning the new healthcare reform law. With the president's ink barely dry on the health care overhaul's final fixes, a group of nearly 5,000 American physicians supported the move to stop the new law dead in its tracks.

The RSPCA has appealed for information after someone was found to have dumped a pony with a broken jaw in a lane in Flintshire.

The mare was found in considerable discomfort at Babell near Holywell on 17th March, with the vet confirming later that it had a fracture and an abscess.

The RSPCA is now looking after the poor creature left to fend for herself in the most abject of circumstances and in considerable discomfort, Inspector Chris Dunbar said. He would also like anyone who has any knowledge about the incident to come forward and help them.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is expected to recommend a ban be imposed on the so-called legal-high drug mephedrone, with the government advisers calling for the chemical, also known as Miaow Miaow and Bubbles to be labelled a B class drug. Anyone found using the drug will face a jail term of 5 years, whereas it will be 14 years for dealers.

The last two months have seen seven deaths linked to the drug, currently being marketed as plant food.

The growing police drug lab scandal could see San Francisco prosecutors dropping as many as 1,400 cases, as well as, hundreds which have place defendants in drug treatment programmes.

According to Brian Buckelew, a spokesman for District Attorney Kamala Harris, the cases that may be dropped include a 1,000 awaiting trial and 400 relating to defendants in drug rehabilitation programmes.

This week, three executives belonging to the Shanghai Panda Dairy Co. are to go on trial for selling melamine tainted dairy products. Melamine, is an industrial chemical that can cause organ failure and was added to the watered-down milk with the intention of fooling inspectors testing for protein content, as well as, for increasing profits.

The milk formula was produced at the San Lu dairy factory in which Fonterra holds a 43% stake.

A pharmaceutical firm's advertisement claiming its vaccine can prevent cervical cancer has triggered indignation in certain medical circles, leading to India's apex drug regulatory agency threatening legal action against the firm.

According to officials, a show cause notice has been sent to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) India, responsible for issuing the advertisement about its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix, by the regulatory body i.e. the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation.