WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration says it approved a genetic test from Roche to help doctors identify patients who can benefit from a lung cancer drug made by Genentech. The diagnostic test is the first approved to detect genetic mutations found in roughly 10 per cent of patients with the most prevalent form of lung cancer, known as non-small cell lung cancer.

PORTLAND, Ore. - An ethanol plant on the Columbia River that was built with the help of $36 million in Oregon state loans and tax credits is now being used to store and ship crude oil from North Dakota. The Oregonian reports (http://bit.ly/12xgC1M ) the plant's switch came with little public notice. It was built at a cost of $200 million for Cascade Grain at the Port of St. Helens' Port Westward Industrial park near Clatskanie. The owner filed for bankruptcy in 2009, less than a year after startup. It produced little ethanol and is mothballed except for the storage tanks.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Every time Los Angeles exhales, odd-looking gadgets anchored in the mountains above the city trace the invisible puffs of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases that waft skyward. Halfway around the globe, similar contraptions atop the Eiffel Tower and elsewhere around Paris keep a pulse on emissions from smokestacks and automobile tailpipes. And there is talk of outfitting Sao Paulo, Brazil, with sensors that sniff the byproducts of burning fossil fuels.

A Bolivian brewer has come up with an innovative solution for quenching thirst and coping with altitude sickness: coca beer, based on the same leaf used to make cocaine. Coca has only recently acquired its nefarious reputation: for millennia, people living along the Andes mountains have chewed coca leaves. The juice from the leaves has a mild stimulant effect, easing stomach pain and helping people from the lowlands cope with altitude sickness, known locally as soroche.