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.

The World Health Organization and campaigners launched a drive Friday to try to wipe out mercury in medical thermometers, a day after nations signed a U.N. treaty to control the toxic liquid metal.

"Mercury is one of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern and is a substance which disperses into and remains in ecosystems for generations, causing severe ill health and intellectual impairment to exposed populations," WHO head Margaret Chan said in a statement.

Saudi authorities have not yet recorded any cases of the deadly MERS virus ahead of the annual hajj that starts Sunday, with the kingdom hosting some two million Muslim pilgrims.

"So far, no case for any epidemic has been recorded among the pilgrims, especially the coronavirus," local media on Thursday quoted Health Minister Abdullah al-Rabia as saying.

Honey, touted as an effective germ-killer, offered no advantages over antibiotics in preventing wound infection in patients receiving peritoneal dialysis for kidney failure, a study said Wednesday.

Over the last decade, honey has gained a reputation as a cheap, safe and effective way of preventing wound infection by bacteria and fungi, even combating germs that are becoming resistant to antibiotics.

An indigenous woman squats in pain after giving birth, her newborn still bound by the umbilical cord and lying on the ground. It's a photograph that horrified Mexicans because of where it took place: the lawn outside a medical clinic where the woman had been denied help, and it struck a nerve in a country where inequity is still pervasive.

The government of the southern state of Oaxaca announced Wednesday that it has suspended the health center's director, Dr. Adrian Cruz, while officials conduct state and federal investigations into the Oct. 2 incident.

A salmonella outbreak in raw chicken has sickened nearly 300 people in the United States, officials said Wednesday as consumer advocates warned the federal shutdown was hampering a government response.

The 278 illnesses in 18 states were believed to be linked to raw chicken from three Foster Farms locations in California, according to the Food Safety and Inspection Service.