Bacteria may protect children from developing asthma

Children ages 3 to 13 who were infected with Helicobacter pylori were 59% less likely to have asthma than those who were not infected, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Researchers used data on more than 7,000 U.S. children from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted from 1999 to 2000 by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Dead penguins wash up in Brazil

Hundreds of baby penguins swept from the icy shores of Antarctica and Patagonia are washing up dead on Rio de Janeiro's tropical beaches, rescuers and penguin experts said Friday.

More than 400 penguins, most of them young, have been found dead on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro state in the last two months, said Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent of the state coastal protection and environment agency in the resort city of Cabo Frio.

While it is common here to find some penguins -- dead and alive -- swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, Pimenta said there have been more this year than at any time in recent memory. Scientists are uncertain of the cause.

Panama fossils geologically key

Scientists in Panama have unearthed hundreds of animal fossils dating back 20 million years, which could shed more light on how and when the American continent became connected.

Geologists from the Smithsonian Institution, which has a permanent base in Panama, said engineers digging to widen the Panama Canal have uncovered more than 500 fossils, including teeth and bones of rodents and crocodiles that lived before a land bridge linked North and South America.

Scientists believe the South American and Caribbean tectonic plates collided about 15 million years ago, causing volcanic activity that eventually formed a thin strip of land linking the Americas and separating the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Mexico unearths U.S. war dead

Mexican archaeologists have found the remains of what appear to be four U.S. soldiers who died in 1846 during the Mexican-American War, Mexico's government announced Thursday.

Experts said skull and bone measurements, as well as two half-dollar coins and other artifacts found at the site of the Battle of Monterrey in northern Mexico, indicate that the bodies belong to U.S. war dead.

"There are plans on paper to perform DNA tests" on the remains, said Rogelio Caballero of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. "Attempts are being made at identifying the soldiers' families and descendants."

From Times Staff and Wire Reports