Singapore registered its worst level of air pollution for the year on Friday as smoke from forest fires in Indonesia blew over the city-state, triggering a health warning.

As of 8am (0000 GMT) Singapore's Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) ranged from 65-75 after a night of thick, choking haze over the island. The air began to clear later in the morning thanks to favourable winds.

One of the world's most body-conscious countries, Brazil is now threatened by growing obesity rates, with half of the population already overweight.

As a result of an unbalanced diet and a rise in more sedentary lifestyles, Brazil, which moved 30 million people out of poverty and into the middle class over the past decade, is paying a heavy price for its frenetic growth.

Around a third of young children in southern Afghanistan are acutely malnourished, according to a U.N.-backed government survey.

The figures show there has been little improvement in tackling malnutrition, despite the billions of dollars of aid money pumped into the war-torn country since a 2001 U.S.-led invasion brought down the Taliban.

A massive DNA database has generated a map of the genetic switches which impact everything from hair loss to cancer and opened the door to revolutionary treatments for a host of deadly diseases, researchers said Wednesday.

"This is a major step toward understanding the wiring diagram of a human being," said lead researcher Michael Snyder of Stanford University.

Infections and fatalities from West Nile virus have risen to new record levels in the United States in the first week of September, the Centers for Disease Control said Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, deaths were up 32 percent compared to the previous week. The total now stands at 87 since the beginning of the year, the CDC said.

South Korea has drafted a new law aimed at restricting alcohol advertising amid mounting concerns over binge drinking and alcohol-related crimes, a government official said Thursday.

The draft legislation prohibits TV programs targeting teenagers from carrying any alcohol commercials, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said.

Bar and restaurant workers in Sweden run a higher risk of alcoholism than the rest of the population, with young women at greatest risk, a study published Tuesday showed.

The research, which appeared in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health and surveyed 1,000 people aged 18 to 59, concluded that "restaurant workers comprise a high-risk group with respect to drinking."

Taking vitamin D supplements does nothing to lower cholesterol levels, at least in the short term, according to a study published on Tuesday in an American Heart Association journal.

Medical researchers led by Manish Ponda of the Rockefeller University in New York studied 151 people with vitamin D deficiency who received either a huge dose of vitamin D3 or a placebo orally every week for eight weeks.

Adding a few minutes to attempts to resuscitate patients who suffer a heart attack in hospital can significantly boost their chances of survival, a study published in The Lancet medical journal on Wednesday said.

Researchers led by Zachary Goldberger at the University of Washington looked at a database where U.S. hospitals record details of revival efforts after a cardiac arrest.

An Australian doctor has been severely reprimanded and banned from working as a general practitioner after prescribing a drug to a boy who came to him for help to "cure" his homosexuality.

A Health Care Complaints Commission committee found Mark Craddock guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct over his treatment of the 18-year-old at a 10-minute consultation at his home in early 2008.