Every year, tens of thousands of people are injured in animal attacks. Although most victims are not seriously hurt, some are, and a number are even killed. The following information will answer some of the more frequently asked questions about such injuries.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a safety alert on Avandia, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes. Several clinical trials have shown that there is a significant increase in the risk of heart attack and heart-related deaths in patients taking Avandia.

If you are injured by an animal, who pays?

Although most people now know the dangers posed by asbestos, this was not always the case. Because cancers and other diseases caused by asbestos can take decades to appear, new asbestos lawsuits are still being filed, years after asbestos was no longer being used in consumer and industrial products.

Twelve crew members who worked for the Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) were awarded $437,500 each for reporting illegal dumping by OSG oil tankers. OSG is one of the largest oil tanker firms in the world. The company pleaded guilty to dumping thousands of gallons of waste oil and sludge into the ocean and systematically altering logs to hide the activity.

You have responded to a work-at-home offer in which you will be an account manager for a foreign company, depositing checks from its U.S. customers. It seems simple: You deposit the checks, take your pay out of them, and send the remainder to the foreign company. Or . . . you have reason to believe you have won a sweepstakes or lottery prize. You receive a check for your winnings, with instructions to cash it, then return a portion of the money to cover taxes or other fees. Or . . . having sold something through a newspaper ad or online, you receive a check for much more than the purchase price. Calling it an accounting error, the buyer apologizes for the mistake and asks that you return the excess amount.