● CHICAGO. Sickened pork workers have new nerve disorder . Eighteen pork plant workers in Minnesota, at least five in Indiana and one in Nebraska have come down with a mysterious neurological condition they appear to have contracted while removing brains from slaughtered pigs, US researchers and health officials said on the day before. They said the illness is a new disorder that causes a range of symptoms, from inflammation of the spinal cord to mild weakness, fatigue, numbness and tingling in the arms and legs.

● CHICAGO. People become happier with age, survey finds. Happiness increases along with age, according to findings from a three-decade-long US survey released on the day before.

Between 15 % and 33 % of Americans were likely to say they were very happy, with women happier than men, based on findings from the survey conducted between 1972 and 2004.

● WASHINGTON. Flu comes fresh from Asia each year, study finds. Flu viruses evolve freshly somewhere in east or southeast Asia every year, spreading around the world over the next nine months before dying out, researchers reported recently. Genetic analysis by two teams of international researchers show that there are just a few initial sources of annual, seasonal influenza epidemics. The viruses spread around the world from these before dying.

● HONG KONG. Experts target blood vessel growth in cancer battle. Scientists in Australia have identified a gene that appears to be linked to blood vessel growth in tumors in mice and they hope the discovery can pave the way for improved treatment of cancer in people one day. Current cancer therapies aim to kill blood vessels in tumors, which experts believe feed cancer cells, allowing them to multiply and stopping the immune system from attacking them.

● Washington. 13-year-old inflates 213 balloons with his nose A 13-year-old US boy hopes to win a balloon-blowing record by a nose. Blowing through one nostril at a time, Andrew Dahl inflated 213 balloons within an hour rcently, a feat that has been submitted for review by Guinness World Records. His father, Doug Dahl, measured the balloons to make sure each was at least 20 centimetres, the minimum diameter, and his mother, Wendy Dahl, kept the tally. At one point he asked, ?Does this count as practicing my trumpet?? His mother replied, ?Only if you can play that with your nose.? Andrew?s first attempt, 184 balloons in February, was rejected because his father tied the balloons. This time he tied them off himself?