The UN's health agency warned Monday of the potential for a "marked increase" in Zika infections, and the spread of the virus to new parts of the world, even as the outbreak declines in Brazil.

Six countries in Africa, the continent where malaria is most widespread, could be free of the disease by 2020, according to a WHO report published Monday to mark World Malaria Day.

Some 600 disease experts from 43 nations will gather in Paris on Monday to pore over scant but increasingly worrisome data emerging about the Zika virus sweeping Latin America and threatening the world.

Mats rolled tightly under their arms, a group of women walk to a secluded Tripoli beach for a seaside yoga session to escape tensions in conflict-stricken Libya.

The suicide rate in the United States has jumped 24 percent in the past 15 years, including a troublesome spike among girls aged 10-14, according to US government statistics out Friday.

No new cases of malaria originated in Europe, Central Asia or the Caucasus in 2015, the first year without a transmission for almost 30 years, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

Between 1995 and 2015, the number of "indigenous" -- or locally transmitted -- malaria cases, fell from 90,712 to zero in countries located in the WHO's European region.

South Africa plans a new "fat tax" on sugary drinks to combat an obesity epidemic -- but sweet-toothed consumers say its chances are slim of making them cut down.

Ranked as one of the most obese nations on the continent, South Africa is joining a growing list of countries around the world, such as Britain and Mexico, trying to put a cap on fizzy drinks.

Peru has suffered its first case of sexually transmitted, locally contracted Zika virus, authorities said Saturday.

Health Minister Anibal Velasquez said that after a woman tested positive for Zika officials went to see if she could have been bitten by a transmitter mosquito at her home.

Three Canadian families are suing a sperm bank and its distributor alleging they were given sperm from a convicted felon diagnosed with multiple mental disorders -- but told he was a genius.

At least 36 women in Britain, Canada and the United States are believed to have been inseminated with the donor's sperm over the past decade, resulting in pregnancies.

Around 450 Vietnamese drug addicts have escaped from a rehabilitation center where many were held for compulsory treatment, an official said Thursday.

The detainees attacked guards, climbed walls, and broke down the main gate at the center in the Vietnam's southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau late Wednesday.