Fish oil supplements rich in omega-3 fatty acids are not beneficial for patients at high risk of cardiovascular troubles and already being medicated, a study found Wednesday.

In the study, carried out in 2010 in Italy with 12,513 patients, half the group took an omega-3 supplement and the other half an olive oil placebo.

Scientists said Wednesday that flu infections were rising among pigs raised for slaughter on farms in south and southeastern China, also plagued by bird flu.

And the risk of spillover to humans was "constant or growing", according to one of the authors of a study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

France's health ministry on Wednesday reported the country's first case of a SARS-like virus that has killed 18 people so far, mostly in Saudi Arabia.

An unidentified person who came back to France from a trip to the United Arab Emirates was diagnosed with the deadly novel coronavirus, the ministry said.

A new genetic test to gauge the aggressiveness of prostate cancer may help tens of thousands of men each year decide whether they need to treat their cancer right away or can safely monitor it.

The new test, which goes on sale Wednesday, joins another one that recently came on the market. Both analyze multiple genes in a biopsy sample and give a score for aggressiveness, similar to tests used now for certain breast and colon cancers.

An experimental treatment designed to slow the mental impairment of people suffering from Alzheimer's disease has been unsuccessful, U.S. pharmaceutical giant Baxter announced Tuesday.

"The study missed its primary endpoints," Baxter's head of bioscience Ludwig Hantson said in a statement, adding that the company would continue to analyze data from subgroups which may yet prove beneficial.

Brazil said Monday it was negotiating with Havana potentially to hire and bring in around 6,000 Cuban doctors to work in areas where they are needed in the massive South American nation.

"Brazil is looking into the possibility of taking in a number of Cuban doctors" through talks that involve the Pan-American Health Organization, Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said after meeting with his Cuban counterpart Bruno Rodriguez.

The Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday displaced fellow African nation Niger to gain the unenviable distinction of being the worst place in the world to be a mother, according to the annual report of Save the Children.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa took up each of the bottom ten places for the first time first time in the 14 years that the report has been produced.

More than 300,000 babies die within 24 hours of being born in India each year from infections and other preventable causes, a report said Tuesday, blaming a lack of political will and funding for the crisis.

India accounts for 29 percent of all newborn deaths worldwide, according to the charity Save the Children which published the findings at the launch of its annual State of the World's Mothers report.

The death toll from the H7N9 bird flu outbreak in China has risen to 31, according to official figures, with four more people dying of the virus in China's eastern provinces.

The number of people infected also increased to 129, official statistics showed, up two since Thursday.

A new SARS-like virus has killed two more people in Saudi Arabia, taking the number of deaths from the coronavirus that the kingdom has announced to seven in one week, the health ministry said.

"The health ministry has announced that three infections by the new coronavirus have been registered during the past days in al-Ahsaa. Two of the victims have died while the third is in a stable condition," state news agency SPA said late Sunday.