A court on has rejected South Korea's first lawsuits filed by cancer victims and relatives against a tobacco firm, saying there is no evidence their diseases were caused by smoking.

Dengue fever has killed at least 35 people and infected some 3,000 in Indonesia so far this year, according to health officials as they warned that the seasonal outbreak had not yet peaked.

An Indonesian clinic is keeping a baby until her impoverished parents pay the escalating bill for her delivery and care.

Hong Kong customs chiefs are considering legal action against a supermarket chain owned by Asia's richest man following revelations that 14 people fell ill after eating wrongly labelled fish.

Malaysia has issued its highest-level warning on the possibility of another bird flu outbreak in the country after the disease emerged in several regional nations.

Food aid should be "better timed and targetted" to reach those in need, the Food and Agricultural Organization said, urging "political will" to reform the ways in which it is provided.

An outbreak of Rift Valley fever has killed at least 114 people in Kenya over the past five weeks, officials said, as the disease spread to the country's central densely-populated region.

Research using lab mice suggests that types of cancer can be forced into retreat by restoring the functions of a key guardian gene, scientists report.

Indonesia is making a concerted effort to battle bird flu after five deaths already this year in a country where millions of people keep poultry in their backyards, health officials have said.

An unknown number of patients in China have contracted hepatitis C after a company distributed tainted blood in one of its immune system-boosting antibody products, the government has said.

The United States is putting fresh pressure on Japan to ease curbs on imports of US beef, a half year after Tokyo lifted a total ban.

A modest amount of mental activity can dramatically delay the progress of Alzheimer's disease in mice, according to a new study.

"Abominable crime", "variation of capital punishment", "attack on civilisation", "deliberate murder": these are the cries of the Portuguese Church as it calls its faithful to stand up against abortion.

Viagra, Cialis and Levitra, wildly popular erectile dysfunction drugs, can improve sexual function in men with diabetes, a study said.