Emissions of dangerous particulate pollution have fallen in Europe, but a hefty 88 percent of urban dwellers are still exposed to levels that breach U.N. standards, an official report said on Tuesday.

In its annual report on European air quality, the European Environment Agency (EAA) voiced concern over particulate matter -- microscopic specks of dust and soot, caused by burning fossil fuels.

Taiwan is scheduled to roll out its first vaccine against the H7N9 strain of avian flu in late 2014, after the island confirmed the first outbreak of the deadly virus earlier this year, researchers said Monday.

Health authorities in Taiwan confirmed in April that a 53-year-old Taiwanese man, who had been working in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou, showed symptoms three days after returning home via Shanghai.

China plans to ban HIV-positive people from spas, hot springs and public bathhouses, provoking condemnation Monday from the United Nations' AIDS agency and outrage from campaign groups.

The proposed Ministry of Commerce rule is the latest instance of enduring discrimination against HIV carriers in the world's most populous country.

Cancer cost the then 27 countries of the European Union 126 billion euros ($170.1 billion) in 2009, according to a study published on Monday.

The bill mainly comprised 51 billion euros in costs for health-scare systems, including drugs; 23 billion euros in unpaid care provided by friends and relatives of people with cancer; and 52 billion euros in lost productivity due to premature deaths and illness.

Plans for a Paris illegal drug injection site that raised the ire of local residents have been put off after a state body ruled it would be illegal.

The State Council, France's top administrative court, ruled this week that the project -- known in French as a "salle de shoot" -- could not go ahead without changes to the law.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Friday rejected a French request to tighten prescription guidelines on types of birth-control pills linked with a relatively higher risk of blood clots.

A panel reviewed the evidence and concluded that the "benefits of all combined hormonal contraceptives (CHCs) continue to outweigh risks," the EU watchdog said, using the medical term for contraceptive pills.

The U.N. Security Council is expressing alarm at the imminent threat of the spread of polio through Sudan's violence-wracked South Kordofan and Blue Nile states and the continuing outbreak of polio in the Horn of Africa.

The U.N. humanitarian office has reported that the threat affects more than 165,000 children in the two Sudanese states "due to a lack of immunization in the border area in more than two years," the Security Council said in a statement Friday.

Genetic tests on dozens of herbal products sold in Canada found most contained contaminants or fillers and cheaper substitutions not listed on labels, a study said Friday.

Out of a dozen companies studied for testing on 44 herbal products, only two provided entirely authentic products, the researchers found.

Three Costa Rican doctors and a Greek citizen have been detained under suspicion they are part of ring that trafficked kidneys to foreigners, authorities said Thursday.

Attorney General Carlos Jimenez said the doctors worked at the public Calderon Guardia Hospital in the capital, San Jose, but performed transplants of illegally purchased kidneys at two private clinics in other parts of the country.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday voted to reduce the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Haiti which is battling a mounting controversy over a cholera epidemic.

One day after a lawsuit against the United Nations was filed in a New York court on behalf of victims, the Security Council urged the U.N. to support government efforts to battle the epidemic.