France has moved to suspend sales of a vitamin D medication following the death of a 10-day-old baby in December who had being given the supplement, health officials said Wednesday.

The decision was taken as a precaution by France's ANSM agency that oversees the safety of medicines and health products, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said in a statement.

A Pakistani health official says a special five-day anti-polio drive is being launched in the capital of southwestern Baluchistan province after traces of polio virus were found in the sewer system.

Syed Faisal Ahmed, the coordinator for Emergency Operation Centre in Quetta, said Monday that some 400,000 children under age five will be immunized against the deadly virus.

The cholera outbreak that hit Haiti after Hurricane Matthew slammed the island has been contained but persists due to lack of funding, according to the United Nations.

Around 100 bags of "plastic rice" seized in Lagos have turned out to contain real but contaminated rice, authorities said Friday in Nigeria, where prices for the staple have rocketed.

Croatia on Friday announced the discovery of a highly contagious strain of bird flu in poultry at a small family farm on the country's northern border with Hungary.

One of Europe's worst offenders on food waste, Britain is beginning to get its act together thanks to a surge in volunteer initiatives that help the poor as well as creating a bit of seasonal cheer.

"That's what I come out for, to have a little chat... It's not only the food," said Bassia Hamech, 76, as she was served a bowl of hot soup in a kitchen in east London run by a charity called FoodCycle.

Pakistani police on Wednesday caught three men accused of preparing home-made liquor mixed with aftershave that killed 34 people including a fourth suspect after they consumed the toxic brew on Christmas Eve.

It powers everything we do, yet remains one of our biggest mysteries.

Japan began killing some 90,000 chickens on Tuesday to contain another outbreak of a highly contagious strain of avian flu, officials said.

The new drive means more than a million farm birds will have been killed in seven mass culls this season as officials work to prevent the spread of the virulent H5 strain, which has been detected at several farms across the country.

Iran has killed hundreds of thousands of birds in recent weeks as avian flu spreads across seven provinces of the country, officials have reported. 

More than 1,000 wild birds, mostly geese, have been found dead in the Mighan wetland in central Iran, the environmental protection organisation told state news agency IRNA on Monday.