Bonnie Martin has been a cigarette addict since the age of 12. A former registered nurse, the 49-year-old Vineland, N.J., woman worked with cancer patients and felt hypocritical when instructing them to quit smoking.

BOSTON, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Ready or not, U.S. retailers are pushing the Christmas shopping season earlier this year to make up for slow summer sales, a marketing expert said.

PHILADELPHIA, June 17 (UPI) -- A medical device-maker and four executives were indicted Wednesday on charges of conducting unauthorized clinical trials, the U.S. Justice Department said.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Thursday added 41 products to an alert about diet pills containing potentially dangerous undeclared drugs, officials said.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Same-sex couples in California were flocking to get married as a ballot initiative to overturn the unions' legality hung in the balance, officials said.

NEW YORK, May 8 (UPI) -- The NFL has received eight tapes of recorded play-calling signals by coaches of five New England opponents over six games from 2000-2002.

ROCHESTER, Minn., Feb. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. medical scientists have determined endoscopic ultrasound-guided therapy appears to be a safe, effective treatment for severe gastrointestinal bleeding.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- An 18-year-old man in Vancouver, British Columbia, began serving a 10-year sentence Wednesday for attacking another teenager with an ax at a party.

ATLANTA, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- A screening strategy could make the diagnosis and treatment of Chagas disease -- a single-cell parasite -- more feasible, a U.S. researcher said.