A group of independent experts has slammed Britain's cosmetic surgery industry for not protecting patients adequately and is calling for stricter controls in the aftermath of a breast implant scandal in Europe last year that left tens of thousands of women with cheap silicone implants prone to ruptures. A top British health official, meanwhile, signaled support for their recommendations.

In a review of how cosmetic procedures are regulated, the group said all skin fillers should be available by prescription only and that all practitioners — from surgeons to aestheticians who inject Botox — must be properly qualified. The expert group, commissioned by the U.K. Department of Health, also called for the creation of a registry of implants and other medical devices and an ombudsman for private health care, among other suggestions.

A lethal new strain of bird flu that emerged in China over the past month appears to jump more easily from birds to humans than the one that started killing people a decade ago, World Health Organization officials said Wednesday.

Scientists are watching the virus closely to see if it could spark a global pandemic but say there is little evidence so far to show the virus can spread easily from human to human.

Ghana is recalling a shipment of 120 million Chinese-made condoms distributed to charities in the country after testing showed that they were riddled with holes and prone to breaking, an official said Tuesday.

Twenty million of the condoms have already been given out and Ghana's Food and Drug Authority is trying to get them back, said the agency's head of enforcement, Thomas Amedzro.

New York wants to become the first major U.S. city to raise the age for buying cigarettes from 18 to 21.

The city council is to vote on the proposal May 2. Backing it is its speaker, Christinne Quinn, who is running for mayor.

China on Tuesday said the H7N9 bird flu had spread to a new area as it confirmed the first case in the eastern province of Shandong in an outbreak which has so far killed 21 people.

Since China announced on March 31 that the virus had been discovered in humans for the first time, most cases have been confined to the commercial hub Shanghai and three nearby provinces, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui.

An experimental therapy that uses Listeria bacteria to infect pancreatic cancer cells and deliver tumor-killing drugs has shown promise in lab animal research, U.S. scientists said Monday.

While it remains unknown whether the method might work in people, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York said they are encouraged by its ability to halt cancer's spread, known as metastasis.

The U.S. Supreme Court wrestled Monday with the constitutional implications of a policy that forces private health organizations to denounce prostitution as a condition to get AIDS funding.

The court appeared divided, and not along ideological lines, in an argument over whether the anti-prostitution pledge violates the health groups' constitutional rights to free speech.

What if hospitals were run like a mix of Wal-Mart and a low-cost airline? The result might be something like the chain of "no-frills" Narayana Hrudayalaya clinics in southern India.

Using pre-fabricated buildings, stripping out air-conditioning and even training visitors to help with post-operative care, the group believes it can cut the cost of heart surgery to an astonishing 800 dollars.

Don't take the cinnamon challenge. That's the advice from doctors in a new report about a dangerous prank depicted in popular YouTube videos which has led to hospitalizations and a surge in calls to U.S. poison centers.

The fad involves daring someone to swallow a spoonful of ground cinnamon in 60 seconds without water. But the spice is caustic, and trying to gulp it down can cause choking, throat irritation, breathing trouble and even collapsed lungs, the report said.

Thousands of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, many wearing white lab coats, and their supporters marched in Madrid Sunday to protest against government spending cuts and plans to partly privatize medical services.

The demonstrators blew whistles and chanted "nothing for the private sector" as they marched from leading hospitals in Madrid to the landmark Plaza de Sol square in the center of the Spanish capital.