GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Scorpions scamper in bowls, water snakes coil in tanks and cats whine in cramped cages, waiting to be slaughtered, skinned and served for dinner.

Speaking at the Millau Court of Justice in southern France, where his four-month jail sentence for trashing a GMO field in 2004 was commuted to a fine, Bove said he would start his unlimited strike on January 3, along with 10 to 15 other activists.

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's largest outdoor-goods chain has pulled water bottles and food containers made of polycarbonate plastic from its shelves over worries about the chemical bisphenol A, which has been linked to cancer and reproductive problems in animals.

Vancouver-based Mountain Equipment Co-op became the first major Canadian retailer to stop selling products that contain bisphenol A over fears the chemical can leach from plastic food and water containers.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese health authorities said on Monday they were hunting for the causal link between a son and his father both struck by bird flu, but have found no evidence that the virus has mutated into a new strain.

The 52-year old father was diagnosed with the H5N1 strain of bird flu late last week in the eastern province of Jiangsu, days after his 24-year old son died from the disease.

Sudan is the biggest focus of the U.N. appeal, issued to governments on Monday. It wants $930 million for humanitarian work in 2008 in the country where violence and upheaval continues in the Darfur region.

SIDON, Lebanon (Reuters) - Every day bulldozers pile more garbage on to a mountain of waste on the Sidon seafront in a symbol of Lebanon's environmental problems, aggravated, activists say, by politics, mismanagement and greed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One measure of the troubled state of U.S. health care is the hordes of idealistic young people lining up to fix it.

GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) - Scorpions scamper in bowls, water snakes coil in tanks and cats whine in cramped cages, waiting to be slaughtered, skinned and served for dinner.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Progress in expanding breast-feeding and fighting measles and malaria has improved the health of children worldwide, but many in developing nations still don't have enough to eat, UNICEF said on Sunday.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Mutations in the BRCA1 breast cancer gene appear to be linked with the loss of a protein important for putting the brakes on cell growth, a finding that could lead to new therapies, researchers said on Sunday.