The rate of suicide among active duty service members has increased significantly over the past five years, according to a Pentagon report released on Thursday.The report comes after three U.S. sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush died by apparent suicide last week, incidents the Navy has said …

Hundreds more Americans have been reported to have a vaping-related breathing illness, and the death toll has risen to 12, health officials said Thursday.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 805 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, up 52% from the 530 reported a week ago. At this …

The flu forecast is cloudy and it’s too soon to know if the U.S. is in for a third miserable season in a row, but health officials said Thursday not to delay vaccination.While the vaccine didn’t offer much protection the past two years, specialists have fine-tuned the recipe in hopes …

It’s been a bad year for dengue fever, a painful, debilitating virus that is surging in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Vietnam and other nations.  There is no cure for dengue, which is spread by mosquitos. However, scientists are enlisting a bacteria in the fight against dengue because they think will make …

The attorneys general from 17 U.S. states have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over rule changes that weakened the Endangered Species Act.Led by California, Maryland, and Massachusetts, the coalition of states filed the suit Wednesday in a federal court in San Francisco.  It follows a lawsuit filed last …

The nation’s largest e-cigarette maker will stop advertising its devices in the U.S. and replace its chief executive as mysterious breathing illnesses and an explosion in teen vaping have triggered efforts to crack down on the largely unregulated industry.Juul Labs and other e-cigarette makers are fighting to survive as they …

Due to climate change, the world’s oceans are getting warmer, rising higher, losing oxygen and becoming more acidic at an ever-faster pace and melting even more ice and snow, a grim international science assessment concludes.But that’s nothing compared to what Wednesday’s special United Nations-affiliated oceans and ice report says is …

A United Nations special report warns much of humanity is threatened by global warming’s devastating impact on oceans and frozen regions of Earth.The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that climate change is accelerating ocean warming, rising sea levels, melting ice sheets and glaciers and causing other …

Tempers flared on Tuesday as more than 2 million residents of Zimbabwe’s capital and surrounding towns found themselves without water after authorities shut down the main treatment plant, raising new fears about disease after a cholera outbreak while the economy crumbles even more.Officials in Harare have struggled to raise foreign …

Americans’ diets are a little less sweet and a little crunchier but there’s still too much sugar, white bread and artery-clogging fat, a study suggests.Overall, the authors estimated there was a modest improvement over 16 years on the government’s healthy eating index, from estimated scores of 56 to 58. That’s …

Everton Simpson squints at the Caribbean from his motorboat, scanning the dazzling bands of color for hints of what lies beneath. Emerald green indicates sandy bottoms. Sapphire blue lies above seagrass meadows. And deep indigo marks coral reefs. That’s where he’s headed.He steers the boat to an unmarked spot that …

Editor’s note: Heroic efforts to revive ecosystems and save species are being waged worldwide, aimed at reversing some of humankind’s most destructive effects on the planet. “What Can Be Saved?,”  a weekly AP series, chronicles the ordinary people and scientists fighting for change against enormous odds — and forging paths …

A public health official says the number of vaping-related illnesses in the U.S. could soon climb much higher.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Tuesday she believes “hundreds more” cases have been reported to health authorities since last week. The CDC then put the tally at 530 confirmed …

The World Health Organization is expressing concern about Tanzanian authorities’ reluctance to share detailed information about suspected cases of Ebola, and is calling for full transparency.Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization received what it calls unofficial reports regarding the death of a person in the Tanzanian capital Dar es …

Plastic pollution continues in Lake Malawi despite a recent ban on the use of plastics. Conservationists say the plastic is putting a strain on aquatic life in the lake. Studies have warned that the fish stock in the lake could be depleted by 2050 unless the pollution stops. Lameck Masina …

World leaders who are gathering in New York for the United Nations General Assembly this week first met for a Climate Action Summit aimed at discussing ways to reduce carbon emissions. Saqib Ul Islam reports from the meeting where President Donald Trump briefly joined leaders from some 60 countries, despite …

The United Nations unveiled plans to plant urban forests over an area four times the size of Hong Kong, seeking to make Africa and Asia’s rapidly growing cities greener.The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the pace of urbanization on both continents was contributing to climate change and planting …

French researchers are developing what they say is the most powerful Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner in the world which will use a supermagnet the weight of a blue whale and should allow earlier diagnosis of diseases such as Parkinson’s.”We can potentially detect the disease in its earlier stages and, …

International donors agreed on Monday to free up more than $500 million in aid to protect tropical rainforests, including the Amazon where wildfires are raging, France’s president said on Monday at a U.N. meeting shunned by Brazil.The Brazilian Amazon is facing its worst spate of forest fires since 2010, prompting …

The World Health Organization is “rationing” Ebola vaccines in Democratic Republic of Congo, with access controls meaning too few people at risk are being protected in an outbreak of the deadly disease, the aid group MSF said Monday.The medical charity Medicins Sans Frontiers (MSF) accused the WHO of using a …

Young people around the world have been organizing protests to demand action on climate change. Millions walked out of their schools and workplaces last Friday as part of demonstrations leading up to the Youth Climate Summit at United Nations headquarters in New York.  Swedish teenage activist Greta Thunberg helped inspire …

Malawi is trying to find ways to contain overfishing in its largest body of water, Lake Malawi. The third largest lake in Africa has long been the economic hub for thousands of fishing communities along the lakefront areas. However, locals say unsustainable fishing practices and climate change have led to …

Hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday to commemorate the loss of yet another European glacier.Dressed in mourning clothes, they hiked for hours in the Glarus Alps in eastern Switzerland to reach the remnants of the Pizol glacier at 2,600 meters above sea level.The glacier has lost more than 80% of its …

Dozens of people dressed in black went on a “funeral march” up a steep Swiss mountainside on Sunday to mark the disappearance of an Alpine glacier amid growing global alarm over climate change.The Pizol “has lost so much substance that from a scientific perspective it is no longer a glacier,” …

Amir Khasru of the VOA Bangla Service contributed to this report.KRAYEA COMMUNE, KAMPONG THOM PROVINCE, CAMBODIA — The babies are crying, coughing as they vomit.Each parent holds one of the 8-month-old twins. Their daughters tested positive for the potentially lethal and almost always painful dengue fever.Lang Chanthoeun says she doesn’t have …