A young Argentinian boy broke free of his mother's clutches to play with Pope Francis during a Vatican audience Wednesday, much to the pontiff's delight.

China's agriculture ministry on Friday confirmed the first cases of African swine fever in Beijing, a disease that has spread across the country despite efforts to contain it.

The World Health Organization on Monday said global efforts to fight malaria have hit a plateau as it reported there were more cases of the killer disease in 2017 than the previous year.

The latest WHO report showed that the number of malaria cases climbed to 219 million last year, two million higher than 2016, while international funding has declined.

The World Health Organization warned Monday that antibiotics consumption is dangerously high in some countries while a shortage in others is spurring risky misuse, driving the emergence of deadly superbug infections. 

Chinese vaccine manufacturers who falsify test results or break other rules could be fined up to $720,000 under a new law proposed after a scandal that fulled public fears over domestically made medicine.

Thirty-five Yemeni and international NGOs called Wednesday for an "immediate cessation of hostilities" in Yemen, where they warned 14 million people were now "on the brink of famine."

Millions of people in Europe, North America and Australia will die from superbug infections unless countries prioritise fighting the growing threat posed by bacteria immune to most known drugs, experts predicted Wednesday. 

Drug-resistant bacteria killed more than 33,000 people in the European Union in 2015, according to new research published this week warning that superbugs were "threatening modern healthcare."

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed 180 lives, according to the health ministry, with 10 more reported deaths in recent days.

More than 100 groups urged the International Labor Organization to stop taking money from tobacco companies as the U.N. body prepared Wednesday to once again debate the controversial issue.