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Climate Change Poses Health Risks, Warn Experts
Doctors have said that climate change will imperil health through malaria, cholera, heatwaves and hunger, but many problems can be eased or avoided if countries make wise policy choices.
In a series of papers issued ahead of the UN climate conference in Copenhagen, experts challenged governments to factor in public health when conceiving a battle plan for global warming.
"In view of the trillions of dollars likely to be spent on greenhouse-gas mitigation in the coming dec... 
State media reported that Zimbabwe's ailing public health system will receive a 180 million US dollar boost to fight HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria from the Global Fund.
The government and the Global Fund signed for the release of the money in Geneva, Switzerland earlier this month.
"The first phase of the grant is expected to start in January next year and run until December," Rangarirai Chiteure, Global Fund country coordinating mechanism manager told the state-... 
Nepal's first international fast-food restaurants opened in the capital Kathmandu, reflecting the country's cautious attempts to attract more investment from Western companies.
Long queues formed outside Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and Pizza Hut, with KFC serving more than 500 people in the first two hours of business.
"It has been an exciting day after a long period of planning and preparation," Vishnu Reddy, country manager for the two brands said. "We are happy and sa... 
At the Kampany market on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, the rain is turning to snow as the livestock traders decide to call it a day and heave their animals back into their trucks.
Business is not too good, said Mohammad Sarwar, 25, a nomad who has just finished haggling over the price of a brown, woolly, fat-bottomed ram, coming down 500 afghanis (10 dollars) to seal the deal.
"The prices are certainly higher than they were last year, but so is the price of e... 
A straight British couple who do not want to get married but want to be bound together with a civil partnership were told Tuesday that it was not possible as civil partnership was meant for same-sex couples.
Tom Freeman and Katherine Doyle, both 25-year-old civil servants, were turned away from Islington Registry Office in north London because the law says civil partnerships brought in here in 2005 are only for same-sex couples.
Undeterred, the couple said they will take t... 
A clean up drive on Rio's beaches will do away with the popular coconuts.
The environment secretariat of the host city of the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games has decreed that the big green fruit beloved by thirsty residents and tourists alike is an unhygienic eye-sore and its sale by vendors will be banned from December 1.
"Go on Ipanema beach at the end of the day and you'll see a mountain of coconuts that people have left on the sand. What attracts r... 
For the residents of Mocajuba Island, dirt-poor folk who sleep in wooden shacks under the Amazon's vast canopy of green, the once-a-year visit by the hospital ship is an occasion similar to Christmas.
They greet the two-level white vessel and its team of volunteer medical staff with the enthusiasm and attire reserved for special occasions.
Once on board, they eagerly push forward, without exception, to be treated for the variety of ills accumulated in a part of the world ... 
France is to pass a law banning "psychological violence within the couple" and explore the idea of tagging violent partners to prevent them stalking their victims, the government said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Francois Fillon announced the measures in a speech to mark the United Nations' tenth International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, promising legislation in the first half of nest year.
"It's an important step forward: the creation of this offence ... 
Punlop Tongchai is awake and chatting during the entire two hours it takes to be turned into a woman on the operating table of a Bangkok sex change clinic, realising a childhood dream.
The 27-year-old Thai cabaret dancer chats to nurses throughout the ordeal under the surgeon's knife, numbed only by local anaesthetic.
Growing up in Thailand, a country with one of the largest transgender populations in the world and surgeons who have pioneered ever cheaper and quicker sex ... 
An unusual number of severe allergic reactions to swine flu vaccinations have been recorded in Canada, where a batch of the vaccine from GlaxoSmithKline has been recalled, the WHO said on Tuesday.
"An unusual number of severe allergies to the vaccine have been detected in Canada," World Health Organization spokesman Thomas Abraham told AFP.
"The Canadian authorities are conducting the appropriate investigations on the vaccines" and "recalled a batch of vaccine from GSK." ... 
A high-fat, high-sugar diet could have the same effect on brain chemistry as mood-altering drugs, giving scientific support to the craving for "comfort food", Australian researchers said on Tuesday.
A controlled study of rats that were traumatized in early life and went on to exhibit depressed or anxious behaviors found those that were fed lard-laced foods such as cake or pie reversed their stress levels.
"We asked the question, if you're stressed early in life and then y... 
Almost 60 million people have been infected by HIV and 25 million people killed by causes related to the virus since the epidemic started, according to new data published by UNAIDS on Tuesday.
While prevention programmes have helped to cut infection rates by 17 percent over the past eight years, the total number of people living with HIV continued to rise in 2008.
By the end of 2008, a total of 33.4 million people or 20 percent more people were living with the epidemic co... 
Reports say US retailers are taking desperate measures to spark holiday sales in the face of what promises to be another troubled year-end shopping season.
Merchants are furiously working to ramp up consumer interest ahead of "Black Friday," on November 27, the day after the Thanksgiving Day holiday that marks the traditional kickoff of the holiday gift season.
Some are promising price cuts of 50 percent or more on some hot electronics, and planning for big events to brin... 
A leading association of clinicians accused an 'anti-vaccination movement' of breeding suspicion about the (A)H1N1 swine flu vaccine in Europe and declared public health and lives were at risk.
The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) said it was worried by the slow rate of vaccination in some European countries.
"ESCMID joins others concerned about the lack of uptake due to both public skepticism and deliberate misinformation being r... 
US authorities expanded a probe into health impacts of drywall imported from China, saying an initial study found a 'strong association' with indoor pollution in homes using the product.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission said it would be leading an investigation into the relationship between the drywall and the reported health symptoms, and electrical and fire safety issues reported by some home owners.
Some of the drywall linked to the problems was used in rebuildin... 
Bangladeshi twins Trishna and Krishna have left intensive care as they continue their remarkable recovery from surgery to separate their conjoined heads, the hospital said.
The two-year-old girls, rescued from a Dhaka orphanage, moved to a shared room on the normal ward on Monday, just a week after the 32-hour operation to disconnect their fused skulls, brains and blood vessels.
"They are sharing a room together and settling into their new environment," Melbourne's Royal ... 
A Belgian man who was thought to be in coma for more than 2 decades was infact conscious, according to Doctors.
Medical staff at a hospital in Liege, eastern Belgium, believed Rom Houben had been left in a vegetative state by a serious car accident in 1983, but he was simply paralysed and unable to communicate.
The former engineering student and martial arts enthusiast, now 46, told the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel that he meditated to pass the long years trapped in his... 
Cases of antibiotic-resistant staph infections usually acquired in the community are growing in the United States and rapidly spreading to hospitals, researchers said Tuesday.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), which can penetrate wounds and cause lethal bloodstream and lung infections, kills about 20,000 each year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
That is more deaths than the over 14,000 people who d... 
A new study found aggression in lab rats after they inhaled petol fumes which may also be a pointer to the deleterious effects of urban pollution on the population.
Cairo University researcher Amal Kinawy exposed three groups of rats to either clean air, vapour from leaded petrol or vapour from unleaded petrol.
Dissection of the rats showed that those exposed to petrol (US gasoline), had big fluctuations in a key group of neurotransmitters -- chemicals used for exchanging... 
Men who bottle up frustrations about unfair treatment at work are twice as likely to have a heart attack, a study published on Tuesday suggests.
Those who express their feelings openly, for example by getting angry, have no increased risk of heart problems, said the study which warned of the dangers of "covert coping."
"Covert coping is strongly related to increased risk of hard-endpoint cardiovascular disease," said the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and... 
Three-quarters of US women disagree with a high-level panel's recommendations to raise the age of breast cancer screening and even more plan to ignore the guidelines, a poll showed Tuesday.
Of 1,136 women aged 35 and 75 interviewed over three days last week, 76 percent disagreed with the findings of the United States Preventive Services Task Force, which said most women should have their first screening mammogram at 50, not 40, and have follow-up checks every two years instead of ann... 
The risks of taking anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx could have been detected nearly four years before the drug was pulled from the market, according to analysis of nearly 30 clinical trials.
The findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on Monday, analyzed 30 Vioxx trials involving around 20,000 individuals and fund evidence of the drug's risks from as early as 2000.
The Merck-made drug was pulled in 2004 after it was linked with serious cardiovascular problem... 
Ariel Shen, a school teacher in Taiwan has been a witness to the falling birth rate, evident in the decreasing numbers of children in each class.
Five years ago, each classroom at her middle school in downtown Taipei had 28 students, but now it is 20, and the trend shows no sign of abating. She is thinking about starting a business, just to stay secure financially.
"My colleagues and I are definitely very concerned," 37-year-old Shen said. "Some have already had to leave ... 
Be careful of what you post on your social networking page, for as a Canadian woman learned, Facebook can be a double-edged sword.
The woman's insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in bikini at the beach.
Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than a year ago for severe depression. She was receiving monthly benefits from her insurance company, Manulif... 
France may well be the world's fashion capital, but when it comes to suiting up pooches, America does it best.
At least so says young French designer Celine Boulud, who is bringing a canine enterprise from the United States to France.
"Canine fashion is all the rage in New York," she said in an interview. "There are boutiques for dogs on every street corner, and almost all the dogs wear outfits."
Boulud, now 24, happened on the trend during a summer internship... 
A first edition of Charles Darwin's seminal "On the Origin of Species" will be sold this week after it was found in a family's toilet in southern Britain, an auction house said Sunday.
The book, which was first printed in 1859, was bought by a family for just a few shillings in a shop about 40 years ago, Christie's auction house said.
The family has since kept the work on a bookcase in the guest lavatory at their home in the Oxford area, it said.
The book will... 
For Indian brides buying jewellery, the bigger the jewels the better, is the general rule. However, record gold prices during this year's wedding season are forcing many to compromise.
India is the world's biggest consumer of gold, so the rise of local prices to records above 1,000 dollars an ounce is keenly felt here - and nowhere more so than in the jewellery shops, an obligatory stop before any ceremony.
While few women are prepared to trade down on the size of their p... 
