Japan closer to approving the pill TOKYO (AP) - Nine years after taking up the question - and five weeks after an uproar over the speedy approval of Viagra - a government committee has finally dropped its resistance to the sale of birth control pills, Japanese health officials confirmed Thursday. The Health Ministry committee studying the safety of the pill concluded Wednesday that there was no reason to withhold approval any longer, although it stopped short of actually approving the sale, ministry official Yasuhide Furusawa said. The committee, expected to give its OK in June, first wants to write up guidelines for doctors and women, including plans to encourage the use of condoms to prevent the spread of the AIDS virus, Furusawa said. The Health Ministry still must give final approval. That is widely expected but not guaranteed. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558676024-5ff> Fishermen sue to protect steelhead GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) - Sport fishermen and environmentalists have sued federal officials in a bid to list southern Oregon and Northern California steelhead as a threatened species. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against the National Marine Fisheries Service closely parallels one in Portland that forced the agency to list coho salmon in coastal Oregon as a threatened species last year. The Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund filed the lawsuit. Just as they had with coho salmon, the fisheries service initially recommended steelhead in the Klamath Mountains Province and the Northern California unit merited protection under the Endangered Species Act. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558669466-7c0> India elephant treatment protested WASHINGTON (AP) - Treatment of a once-rogue elephant blamed by some for killing three dozen people in southern India is bringing protests from Capitol Hill, Hollywood and animal protection groups. American animal lovers are adding their voices to those of Indian schoolchildren who marched in protest last month into an elephant camp in the Mudumalai forest in Tamil Nadu state, 1,200 miles south of New Delhi, to demonstrate concern for Loki, the elephant. The protesters claim Loki is being tortured and starved in an effort to force him into allowing tourists to ride on him. Animal rescue advocates say the techniques are likely to kill the elephant. See full story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2558670601-aaa>
