PALOCH, South Sudan (AP) — The oil industry in South Sudan has left a landscape pocked with hundreds of open waste pits, the water and soil contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals,...

PALOCH, South Sudan (AP) — The oil industry in South Sudan has left a landscape pocked with hundreds of open waste pits, the water and soil contaminated with toxic chemicals and heavy metals...

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — What better way to celebrate American Heart Month and Valentine's Day than receiving a gift from the heart?

Rather, for the heart.

The Little Hats, Big Hearts program, sponsored by the American Heart Association, distributes little, red, handmade hats to babies born in February. The effort aims to spark conversations about congenital heart defects in newborn babies.

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials are looking into a possible link between prescription opioids and a horrific birth defect.

When a baby is born with its intestines hanging outside the stomach, due to a hole in the abdominal wall, it's called gastroschisis. Most are repaired through surgery.

Roughly 1,800 such cases are seen in the U.S. each year, but the number has been rising and officials don't know why.

WACO, Texas (AP) — Baylor coach Kim Mulkey is preparing to become a grandmother for the first time, exciting news for her that is tempered by word that the unborn child is dealing with two major birth defects.

Makenzie Fuller, in her third season on her mother's staff at Baylor after being a four-year letterwinner for the Lady Bears, is 18 weeks pregnant with a due date in April.

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Thousands of women marched through the streets of Rio de Janeiro on Monday to protest a recent congressional committee vote to make abortion illegal without exception in Brazil.

Many protesters carried their children in their arms or on their shoulders, shouting: "Our bodies are ours!" Some scuffles broke out between protesters and police when the march reached the Rio state legislature. Police fired tear gas, but calm soon returned.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Zika virus may not seem as big a threat as last summer but don't let your guard down — especially if you're pregnant or trying to be.

While cases of the birth defect-causing virus have dropped sharply from last year's peak in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean, Zika hasn't disappeared from the region and remains a potential threat.

NEW YORK (AP) — A report released Thursday shows Zika had about the same impact on birth defects in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories as it did in other places hit by the epidemic.

About 1 in 20 women infected with Zika had babies with birth defects in U.S. territories, according to the report. That's similar to what was seen in the rest of the United States and in Latin America and the Caribbean in the last two years.

The hole-in-the-heart problem that plagues comedian Jimmy Kimmel's newborn son is one of the most common heart-related birth defects, and it usually can be fixed with surgery.

Some people even live with it for several years before it's detected although the Kimmel baby's is the most severe form and was noticed just a few hours after his birth in Los Angeles on April 21.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials have begun enrolling volunteers for critical next-stage testing of an experimental vaccine to protect against Zika, the mosquito-borne virus that can cause devastating birth defects in pregnant women.

BALTIMORE (AP) — The 4-month-old on the operating table has a shocking birth defect, nearly half his heart too small or even missing. To save him, surgeons will have to totally reroute how his blood flows, a drastic treatment that doesn't always work.

So this time they are going a step further. In a bold experiment, doctors injected donated stem cells directly into the healthy side of Josue Salinas Salgado's little heart, aiming to boost its pumping power as it compensates for what's missing.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Michelle Flandez had just given birth to her first son, but doctors in this U.S. territory whisked him away before she could see him.

Perplexed, she demanded him back and then slowly unwrapped the blanket that covered him.

"My husband and I looked at each other," she recalled. "No one had warned us. No one had given us the opportunity to decide what to do."

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. study of Zika-infected pregnancies found that 6 percent of them ended in birth defects. The rate was nearly twice as high for women infected early in pregnancy.

It's the first published research on outcomes in the United States, and the authors say the findings echo what's been reported in Brazil and other countries with Zika outbreaks.

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers say a severe birth defect caused by Zika infection may not be apparent at birth but develop months afterward, further confirmation that the virus can cause unseen damage to developing babies.

The findings come from a study of 13 Brazilian babies whose heads all appeared normal at birth but then grew much more slowly than normal.

BANGKOK (AP) — Authorities in Thailand have confirmed that two cases of babies with microcephaly, or abnormally small heads, were caused by the Zika virus, the first such cases found in Southeast Asia.

Dr. Prasert Thongcharoen, a senior Health Ministry official, said in a statement Friday that the linkage to Zika was confirmed by laboratory tests in two of three cases of babies afflicted with microcephaly. The results were inconclusive in the third case.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the Zika virus in Florida (all times local):

2:20 p.m.

Puerto Rico health officials are reporting a total of 7,296 Zika cases in the U.S. territory that include 788 pregnant women.

Friday's announcement comes as Puerto Rico prepares to use the organic larvicide Bti to fight the mosquito-borne virus that can cause birth defects.

Health Secretary Ana Rius said 74 people have been hospitalized including 23 diagnosed...

CHICAGO (AP) — Parents of newborns with rare genetic conditions used to hear the grim words that the severe birth defects were "incompatible with life." Support groups and social media showing the exceptions have changed the landscape. So has mounting research suggesting that not all such babies are doomed to die.

The latest study focuses on trisomy 13 and trisomy 18 — genetic conditions that typically cause mental impairment, facial and organ abnormalities, breathing...