This year, UNICEF launched an appeal for (Dollor) 1.28 billion (947 million euros) with a third of cash needed to feed children in the drought-stricken area of Africa, says agency.

The UN children’s fund said it was seeking nine percent less than in 2011, linked to lower needs in Pakistan and Haiti, but that its needs for fighting hunger had jumped by nearly 50 percent.

The East Africa and Southern Africa regions show the largest increase in funding needs, mainly due to the …

The German-American cancer research firm Micromet is being taken over by biotech giant Amgen, thus giving it access to Micromet’s promising leukemia therapy.

Amgen said it would pay (Dollor) 1.16 billion for Micromet, founded by a team of German scientists to tap the potential of T-cell therapies to fight cancer.

The company, based in Rockville, Maryland, has developed blinatumomab, a T-cell based treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia and possibly non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that…

At least 100 people belonging to the Pakistan’s Punjab province died after taking spurious heart drugs and more than 200 are in a critical condition in hospital, according to official reports.

“Nearly 100 patients have died due to a reaction to heart drugs,” said Shahbaz Sharif, the head of the government in central Punjab province.

The victims were mostly poor patients who received free drugs from the state run Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC), he said.

T…

A new gene-based test may help to predict the death risk in patients with lung cancer more accurately than the standard methods, according to researchers. The findings, from two independent clinical trials in the United States and China, published in the British medical journal The Lancet, should help doctors to make more accurate prognoses and better choices for treatment, the scientists said. Lung cancer is the most lethal type of the disease worldwide, claiming some 1....

A recent study reveals that oral human papillomavirus infections are more common among men than women.

About seven percent of the US population age 14-69 has oral HPV, said the research in the Journal of the American Medical Association, with a prevalence rate of 10.1 percent among men and 3.6 percent among women.

The findings shed more light on a growing epidemic of HPV-linked head and neck cancers which are expected to eclipse cervical cancer cases by 2020, and cou…

Increasing ranks of rich Asians and their voracious appetite for pricey fish are threatening stocks, potentially inducing wider environmental damage, said experts at a UN conference on Tuesday. As Asians became more prosperous, they prefer to eat more "high-value" species, forcing fishermen to catch more of them even if it means using environmentally harmful and illegal methods, they said. "Increased wealth, especially in Asia," had raised demand for more expensive fish li...

In the Democratic Republic of Congo Eighty-six percent of HIV-positive people do not have access to anti-retrovirals, said medical charity Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday. "The conditions of access to care for people living with HIV/AIDS in the Democratic Republic of Congo are catastrophic," the Belgian wing of Swiss-based Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors without Borders or MSF said in a statement. Of the former Belgian colony's 68 million people, more than one mill...

A “groundbreaking” injunction has been sought by US authorities against Indian pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy.

Officials say that the maker of the first generic version of a cholesterol-lowering drug has failed to meet US safety guidelines.

Citing manufacturing and data integrity shortcomings, the Justice Department said US food safety authorities want to block the company from doing business here because its actions made “many of Ranbaxy’s drugs adulterated, potentially un…

Short of a key brain protein was related to Alzheimer’s, a finding that cast a tempting target for drugs to fight the disease said French scientists on Tuesday.

“What we’ve found is a weapon for controlling and modifying tau,” said Etienne-Emile Baulieu of France’s National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm), referring to a culprit involved in Alzheimer’s.

Building on earlier work, researchers delved into a Paris “brain bank,” of organs donated for medical …

Risk factors can boost one's likelihood of having a heart attack or stroke, reveals US study. However, most studies to date have focused on how such risks play out over the short term, such as five to 10 years, giving an unrealistic picture of the longer term, said the study in the New England Journal of Medicine. "The risk factors - such as smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol we develop in younger and middle ages are going to determine o...

Spain's justice minister said on Wednesday that the country's conservative government plans to tighten abortion law to make it necessary for girls aged 16 and 17 seeking abortion to have their parents' consent. Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said he was drawing up a bill to change the former Socialist government's 2010 law which fully legalised abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy. "Some of the principles announced by our party such as the requirement of parental consent in the c...

Chile is searching for ways to protect its people from sun rays because a thinning ozone layer means 18-year-olds near the equator have been exposed to ultraviolet radiation equivalent to seniors elsewhere. The health risks have already led to the development of devices that measure ultraviolet (UV) radiation and issue warnings by illuminating color-coded warning lights. On a recent day in Santiago, a building site foreman sounded a whistle that made a dozen workers stop ...

The northwestern US state of Washington may soon permit gay marriage after a favourable vote was cast by a renowned lawmaker.

Mary Margaret Haugen, a Democrat, said she had thought long and hard before deciding which way to cast her vote, which should ensure passage of a bill granting equal marriage rights to gay couples.

“I have very strong Christian beliefs… For me personally, I have always believed in traditional marriage between a man and a woman. That is what I bel…

A genetic mutation linked to better survival rates in women who suffer from a common type of ovarian cancer has been identified by researchers.

The research appearing in the January 25 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed the mutations were found in six percent to 15 percent of women with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC).

Kelly Bolton of the National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland and colleagues found that five-year overall …

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS confirmed on Tuesday that its head Michel Kazatchkine will quit but denied media allegations that it was connected to his links with French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Kazatchkine, a French clinician and health advocate, said in a statement he had decided to step down as executive director in March following the organisation's decision to appoint a general manager. But the chairman of the fund's board denied a report by France's Liberatio...

Chemical compounds widely used in fast-food packaging, waterproof clothing were associated with lower vaccine immune response in young children, says study. The study, in Tuesday's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), is the first to show how perfluorinated compounds can negatively affect the response to vaccines. PFCs can be transferred to children before birth via the mother, or after birth from exposure in the environment, according to the report. ...

An ordinance requiring porn actors to use condoms was signed into law by Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday, a measure welcomed by AIDS campaigners. City lawmakers voted in favor of the law earlier this month, in the latest move in a battle between AIDS activists and the California-based US adult film industry. The measure notably forces film production companies pay a fee for a film permit to finance inspections. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation,...

Traumatised, depressed and anxious, Mohammad Qasim, a 58-year-old butcher, is just like 50 percent of his fellow Afghans after 30 years of war, according to government figures. Qasim saw his wife, daughter-in-law and two grandsons aged five and six die in a horrific suicide bombing in Kabul last month. More than 70 other people were also killed in the attack on a crowd of worshippers at a shrine during the Shiite holy day of Ashura on December 6. "We are destr...

Following the scandal over French-made PIP breast implants, experts in Britain called for all cosmetic surgery advertising to be banned.

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) said there was a “cowboy” system in the cosmetic procedure market and proposed tightening up regulation with a six-point plan.

The government ordered a review into the industry after a health scare over the PIP implants possibly rupturing. Some 40,000 women in Britain have PIP…

Understaffed, underfunded Romania’s health system requires intensive care, express analysts, cautioning that recent mass street protests ought not to derail a drive for reform.

A draft law aimed at giving private operators a central role in the sector earlier this month sparked outspoken criticism from physicians and patients, who feared that health care would become unaffordable to average Romanians.

The bill also drove the founder of the emergency medical services unit …

California law against slaughtering and selling the meat of sick and injured animals has been struck down by US Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court said California’s law ran afoul of the Federal Meat Inspection Act.

The California law forbids a slaughterhouse to “buy, sell, or receive a nonambulatory animal,” butcher it or sell its meat, or hold it without immediately euthanizing it.

Federal law has no requirement of immediately euthanizing the animals. …

Embryonic stem cell therapy has eased a degenerative form of blindness in two patients and showed no signs of any adverse effects, reveals study published by The Lancet.

Publication in the peer-reviewed journal marks an important step for embryonic stem cells, which were hailed as a miracle cure after they were discovered in 1998 but then ran into technical and political hurdles.

The results of the cautious first-stage test, designed to evaluate whether the treatmen…

On Sunday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he ‘fervently’ hoped Singaporeans would enhance the city-state’s obstinate low birth rates in the coming Year of the Dragon.

In his Lunar New Year message sent to the media, Lee — a father of four — said growing Singaporean families was an “important priority” and that more local born babies were needed to maintain Singapore’s national identity

“I fervently hope that this year will be a big Dragon year for babies… This is …

While Asia's ethnic Chinese are seated for sumptuous banquets to usher in the Lunar New Year, a delicacy long regarded a necessity at celebratory meals is fast vanishing from menus and dinner tables. A growing number of shops, restaurants and hotels have in the past few months given up selling shark fin, which in Asia is usually eaten in soup, throwing a lifeline to the marine predator that activists say is long overdue. "Yes, we do see an increasing number of locals and ...

In the technologically advanced world of MP3 players, compact discs are becoming extinct; cassettes are a distant memory and traditional vinyl records are back from the times of yore. It might seem that nothing short of a wind-up gramophone could be more out of place today than the nostalgia-laden, crackly-sounding 33 and 45 RPM disc. Yet in his Brooklyn, New York, factory, 40-year-old Thomas Bernich churns them out by the tens of thousands, feeding a vinyl revival that h...

A cacophony of fireworks was set off to welcome the Year of the Dragon in Asia on Monday with the continent hoping the mightiest sign in the Chinese zodiac will usher in the wealth and power it represents. From Malaysia to South Korea, millions of people travelled huge distances to reunite with their families for Lunar New Year -- the most important holiday of the year for many in Asia -- indulging in feasts or watching dragon dances. As the clock hit midnight, Beijing's ...

China’s feng shui masters tackle the big issues with their predictions for the Year of the Dragon.

As Chinese communities around the world prepare to ring in the new year on Monday, astrologers and geomancers are predicting the dragon will bring natural disasters and financial volatility, especially to crisis-hit Europe.

“The world economy will be unstable in the Year of the Dragon, because the economies in Europe and the US are still suffering from the effects of th…

Apple is targeting the textbook market.

The California-based gadget-maker unveiled a free application for the iPad called iBooks 2 on Thursday that brings interactive textbooks to the popular tablet computer.

“Education is deep in Apple’s DNA,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of marketing. “With iBooks 2 for iPad, students have a more dynamic, engaging and truly interactive way to read and learn.”

He said the iPad is “rapidly being adopted…

'Silimed' of Brazil, the third most popular producer of silicone breast implants in the world, has suddenly landed itself in the eye of a global firestorm. In this body-obsessed nation, where more than 1.5 million women have silicone breast implants, the once reclusive company now plays host to national and international journalists. The Brazilian health ministry is courting senior company executives to help reassure a public perturbed by horror stories from the other sid...

Wrecked luxury liner Costa Concordia could have been larger than life to accommodate swimming pools and restaurants. However it’s very size may have complicated evacuation and rescue efforts, said industry experts.

“What jumps out at me, is the size of this liner,” said Jacques Loiseau, chairman of the French Association of Ship Captains (AFCAN).

The association had regularly tried to draw attention to the dangers posed by the tendency towards ships on such a massive scal…