Tobacco giants have lost a legal challenge in London against imposing new rules for standardized packaging due to come into force on Friday, meaning Britain will join a growing list of countries to do so.

Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco International had challenged the legality of the new regulations, which mean all new cigarette packs sold in Britain will have to be olive green.

The World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting Thursday on the yellow fever outbreak that has hit hardest in Angola but risks spreading further if vaccinations are not ramped up.

A leading Congolese surgeon who treats women sexually abused during conflict warned Tuesday of "unbearable atrocities" being committed in the country's east including the mutilation of babies and the disemboweling of pregnant women.

As a young woman in the roaring 1920s, the world's oldest living person loved to go singing and dancing.

Now 116-year-old Italian Emma Morano's next challenge is to see in the 2020s and become the oldest human being on record.

Fed up with drug-related violence, a growing number of Mexican politicians see one potential cure: legalizing the cultivation of opium poppies for the production of medicine.

The debate has emerged in recent weeks after President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed legislation in April to loosen marijuana laws by legalizing medical cannabis and easing restrictions on its recreational use.

It is final exams season at Masuba midwifery school in rural Sierra Leone, and 70 more students are about to begin working life at the sharp end of the country's maternal health crisis.

Established in 2010, the school is only the second dedicated midwife training unit for a country of seven million people, located at the end of a bone-shaking series of dirt tracks several hours from the capital by car.

Republicans clinched a victory Thursday against President Barack Obama's signature health care law, when a federal judge ruled that two of its central provisions violate the U.S. Constitution.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer in Washington agreed with the Republican-led House of Representatives, which said the law illegally uses public funds to pay for tax credits to make insurance premiums more affordable, or to reduce deductibles, co-pays and other insurer "cost-sharing" measures for lower-income individuals.

Over 80 percent of the world's city dwellers breathe poor quality air, increasing their risk of lung cancer and other life-threatening diseases, a new World Health Organization (WHO) report warned Thursday.

Dizzy and sweating, 15-year-old Isatu Koroma sits with her eyes closed in the maternity ward in Sierra Leone where she has spent the last 10 days, as her tiny little daughter begins to cry.

Koroma badly needs blood after a complicated delivery -- relatives are expected to donate here but none has visited, also leaving the nurses to pay for her to eat.

Bars and restaurants in New York are not allowed to refuse alcohol to pregnant women since that would violate their basic rights, the mayor's office said.

Pregnancy discrimination under New York City Human Rights Law "is discrimination based on gender," according to new guidelines released last week.