People age 65 and older should get two separate vaccines to protect against pneumonia and other infections starting this fall, a change of decades-old advice, according to new health guidelines. An advisory panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently recommended that people get a second vaccine, …

SYDNEY – Freestyle swimmer Brittany Elmslie has withdrawn from the Australian team for the world championships after undergoing surgery to a remove a benign growth in her breast three weeks ago. Swimming Australia said in a statement Sunday that Elmslie was expected to compete in the 4×100 and 4×200 freestyle …

NEW YORK – The legal guardians for a 77-year-old woman in Rikers have sued New York City and a corrections officer, saying the inmate’s arms were broken when she was shoved to the ground after throwing a paper medicine cup. The civil rights lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks …

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – Puerto Rico’s governor has confirmed that his administration recently pursued a proposal to request that the U.S. Congress allow the island’s heavily indebted government to declare bankruptcy amid an economic crisis. Wednesday’s acknowledgement by Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla comes as the U.S. territory struggles with …

Libyan officials say 85 civilians, including 33 children, were “massacred” during NATO airstrikes Monday night in the frontline city of Zlitan. NATO reportedly contends the number, saying it “has no evidence of civilian casualties.” Meanwhile, Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman, says NATO bombed seven isolated farmhouses around 11p.m., wiping out …

A regional airline has relieved a flight crew involved in a landing at the wrong airport earlier this month in Louisiana, leading one lawmaker to demand answers. Continental Connection Flight 3222, which originated from Houston, was bound for Lake Charles, La., with 23 passengers and three Colgan Air crew members …

A massive, long-ago extinction was once thought to have been caused by a destructive wave of volcanic activity. Scientists now point their fingers at another culprit. A giant, deadly “Earth burp.” Micha Ruhl and researchers from the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark have …

A stunning new video of Iceland’s rumbling, smoking volcano Eyjafjallajokull shows rainbow-like shockwaves belching from the crater like snakes from a can of nuts. Nothing to fear, though, it’s merely the aftereffects of Plinian events. While rarely captured this well on film, they’re not uncommon, according to vulcanologist Jim Quick, …

Blam! Kapow! Smack! The bell has rung for the latest round of climate talks, but the battle continues among climate scientists too, making only one thing truly clear — the science of global warming simply isn’t settled. Climate science suffered a black eye over the past 12 months, following revelations …

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has slapped the new documentary “Bully” with an R rating, effectively making it difficult for tweens and teens – the ones who would benefit most from seeing a movie about the devastating effects of bullying – to see the award-winning film. The Weinstein …