With a near-flawless docking on Friday, start-up rocket company SpaceX achieved what only big governments have to date: It launched a mission to the international space station . The moment marked a pivot point in U.S. space ambitions, away from total NASA control and toward creative private enterprise. While NASA furnished seed money and technical advice, SpaceX engineers designed, built, launched and drove the white gumdrop-shaped Dragon capsule until the final moments. Read full article > >

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SpaceX’s Dragon capsule docks with international space station

The juice maker Pom poked a big stick in the eye of the Federal Trade Commission this week. The FTC and the marketer of pomegranate juice have been locked in a legal battle since the agency accused the company of over-hyping the health benefits of its juice and related products. Earlier this week, an administrative court judge slammed Pom for failing to back up claims in some of its advertisements, specifically about the products’ ability to treat or prevent heart disease, prostate cancer and erectile dysfunction. Read full article > >

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Pom tests limits of FTC power with ad campaign

It may be possible to develop a new form of male contraceptive after researchers in Edinburgh identified a critical gene for the production of healthy sperm.

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Male ‘contraceptive gene’ found

Radiation levels in most of Japan are below cancer-causing levels a year after the Fukushima plant accident, a World Health Organisation report says.

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Japan radiation levels are ‘low’

A London patient is confirmed as having rabies after being bitten by a dog in South Asia, the Health Protection Agency says.

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Rabies case confirmed in London

Many patients with advanced cancer and other debilitating conditions are being “under-treated” for their pain, new guidance from the health watchdog NICE says.

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VIDEO: Many ‘under-treated’ for pain

Religious groups go after Obama health-care law.

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Church Organizations Sue Over Birth Control

Forty-three groups are challenging the Obama administration’s rule that employees receive health insurance coverage for contraception.

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Catholics File Suits on Contraceptive Coverage

The federal lawsuits filed Monday by Catholic institutions against the contraception mandate under the health care law are not surprising, but they are unfortunate. The Bishops’ Conference and many — though not all — Catholic organizations are acting as if the Obama Administration had never backed down from its original, broad mandate and had never offered to negotiate. Read full article > >

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E.J. Dionne Jr.: Did the Catholic organizations have to sue over the health care mandate?

Men should no longer receive a routine blood test to check for prostate cancer because the test does more harm than good, a top-level government task force has concluded . The recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force runs counter to some two decades of medical practice in which many primary care physicians routinely gave the prostate specific-antigen, or PSA, test to healthy middle-age men. Read full article > >

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Government task force discourages routine testing for prostate cancer

In Southeast.

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Third Case of Flesh-Eating Bacteria Reported

Now, yet more evidence that children’s health is in dire need of attention: A new study released today shows that almost a quarter of teens have diabetes or prediabetes. Almost a quarter. That’s up from 9 percent a decade ago, according to a study in the June 2012 issue of Pediatrics, published online today. Read full article > >

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Nearly a quarter of teens diabetic or prediabetic, report says

Mental health charities say they have seen a surge in calls to their helplines since the start of the recession.

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Calls to mental health lines rise

US baby boomers are advised to get tested for the liver-destroying virus hepatitis C, in a move health officials say could save 120,000 lives.

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US baby boomers in Hep C warning

As Kathleen Sebelius addressed Georgetown University graduates Friday morning, the secretary of health and human services felt the wrath of antiabortion activists when someone shouted “murderer!” in an otherwise quiet ballroom. Read full article > >

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Georgetown U., GWU draw commencement controversies