Scientists suggest cocaine consumption is much higher than previously thought after finding large amounts of cocaine by-product in a Northern Italian river. The River Po is found to contain the equivalent of nearly 8. 8 pounds of cocaine, daily.

A brain-dead, pregnant, woman has been kept on life support for nearly three months, has given birth to a healthy baby girl. According to an e-mail from the father, there were no complications during delivery and the baby "is doing well. "

An employee at the National Institute of Health is arrested Monday on charges of spreading false information and reporting a hoax under the Terrorism Prevention Act, after she threatened Florida tax assessors with anthrax following a lost claim for tax relief. According to her arrest warrant, Michelle Ledgister, 43, a quality control and assurance officer at the agency's Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, left a threatening voicemail message last month at the Broward County Property Appraiser's Office after she lost a claim for tax relief on property she owns in Parkland, Florida.

China's official news agency Xinhua reports a mysterious disease has killed 17 farmers in southwestern China. 41 more are been hospitalized. Preliminary investigations reveal the victims became infected after butchering sick pigs or sheep. Xinhua also says those affected have developed symptoms like high fever, fatigue, nausea and vomiting.

A rare, endangered turtle is saved from likely boiling in a Chinese soup pot after wildlife officers and a microchip worked to save it from an ugly fate. Poachers nabbed the animal, belonging to a species known as "royal turtle" in Cambodia; its name inherited from the practice of feeding its eggs to kings, from a Cambodian river two months ago, and smuggled it across Vietnam's border on a motorbike, along with a horde of other common turtles.