GLENDALE, Calif. (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. said Tuesday that it has agreed on an exclusive deal to build attractions based on James Cameron’s “Avatar” at its theme parks, starting with Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Fla.

The first “Avatar” land, which begins construction in 2013 and is expected to open about three years later, is to be an immersive experience in a land spanning several acres. It will cost around $400 million.

Tom Staggs, Disney’s chairman of parks and resorts, said the land would be similar in scope to Cars Land, a 12-acre area based on the town of Radiator Springs in Disney/Pixar’s “Cars” movies. Cars Land is to open next summer at California Adventure Park in Anaheim.

Cameron said the attractions based on the top-grossing film

Read more from: http://www.aarp.org/travel/destinations/news-09-2011/us--disney-avatar.html

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Space tourism is closer to reality after the completion of an $8 million Mojave Desert production plant where the world’s first fleet of passenger-ready spaceships will be built.

Hundreds of public officials and reporters were invited Monday to tour the giant hangar where the White Knight and SpaceShipTwo craft will be built. Up to 200 people will work at the assembly plant and it will be used primarily for the final assembly, integration and testing before the aircraft are delivered to customers.

The Spaceship Co. facility is a joint venture of Mojave-based Scaled Composites and British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.

“Today marks another important step along the road to opening space for everyone,” Branson said. “From this hangar, the talented team at The

Read more from: http://www.aarp.org/travel/destinations/news-09-2011/us--space-tourism.html

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A severe shortage of drugs for chemotherapy, infections and other serious ailments is endangering patients and forcing hospitals to buy life-saving medications from secondary suppliers at huge markups because they can’t get them any other way.

An Associated Press review of industry reports and interviews with nearly two dozen experts found at least 15 deaths in the past 15 months blamed on the shortages, either because the right drug wasn’t available or because of dosing errors or other problems in administering or preparing alternative medications.

The shortages, mainly involving widely-used generic injected drugs that ordinarily are cheap, have been delaying surgeries and cancer treatments, leaving patients in unnecessary pain and forcing hospitals to give less effective treatments. That’s resulted in complications and longer

Read more from: http://www.aarp.org/health/doctors-hospitals/news-09-2011/us--hospitals-drug-shortages.html