Health - AFP

TOKYO (AFP) - Japan's parliament has passed a law ending a ban on child organ donations, paving the way for patients aged under 15 to receive life-saving transplants.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will commit one billion dollars toward the purchase of ingredients for a swine flu vaccine, Washington's top health official said Sunday as US deaths from the virus continued to mount.

HONG KONG (AFP) - A Filipino maid in Hong Kong was in a critical condition on Sunday in the city's most severe human swine flu case to date, a hospital spokeswoman said.

OTTAWA (AFP) - Pregnant women are at a greater risk than the rest of the population of suffering serious complications from swine flu, Canadian health authorities warned.

HANOI (AFP) - Vietnamese doctors who reveal the sex of a foetus to parents could lose their licences, according to state media.

PARIS (AFP) - A third of women diagnosed with breast cancer in public screening programmes are treated needlessly because their tumour will not be life-threatening, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported Friday.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The iconic image of the US soldier, muddy and tired, with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, could become a thing of the past if the Pentagon accepts new calls for a ban on tobacco products in the military.

OTTAWA (AFP) - The Canadian Health Ministry announced a review into whether diabetes drug Lantus, one of the most widely sold drugs worldwide by pharmaceutical giant Sanofi-Aventis, increases the risk of cancer.

BETHESDA, Maryland (AFP) - US President Barack Obama and other top officials urged Americans to ramp up preparedness against swine flu, warning that the virus could return with a vengeance in the fall.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A nutritious but calorie-restricted diet can increase life expectancy and reduce the risk of age-related diseases, including cancer, according to research published in the journal Science Thursday.