A bill that would prohibit genetic discrimination against people won overwhelming approval in the U.S. House of Representatives. It would ban group health plans and health insurers from denying coverage to a healthy person or charging higher premiums based solely on a genetic predisposition to a disease. It also would prohibit employers from using genetic information in hiring, firing, job placement or promotion decisions. Reuters

The White House threatened on Tuesday to veto a new bid to lift U.S. President George W. Bush's restrictions on federal funding of stem cell research as the Senate began considering the bipartisan bill. While the Democratic-led Senate seemed certain to pass the legislation as early as Wednesday, it was unclear if backers would have the needed two-thirds majority to override a veto. The bill, a 2006 Democratic campaign promise, would expand federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research, lifting restrictions Bush imposed in 2001. Reuters