The World Health Organization on Monday declared that a surge in serious birth defects in South America was "strongly suspected" of being caused by the Zika virus and constituted an international health emergency.

"We need to take action," WHO chief Margaret Chan told reporters in Geneva.

A Polish rapper-turned-politician on Monday presented a draft bill on legalizing medical marijuana in an EU nation where two-thirds of people back the idea. 

"This draft crowns everything I've said over the years, especially during the election campaign," said MP Piotr Liroy-Marzec, better known by his stage name Liroy, who pioneered Poland's rap scene in the 1990s.

Swiss doctors have separated eight-day-old conjoined twin sisters fused at the liver and chest -- the youngest ever successfully separated, a Swiss paper reported Sunday.

Five surgeons, assisted by two nurses and six anesthesiologists, carried out the successful, five-hour operation last month to separate the tiny identical twins, the Le Matin Dimanche weekly reported.

An Indonesian research institute said Sunday it had found one positive Zika case on Sumatra island, adding that the virus has been circulating in the country "for a while."

Indonesia's health ministry could not immediately comment on the report by the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology.

Down winding paths through dense jungles, Gerald Mukisa kicks up the dry leaves noisily with his feet to provide warning sounds, noting that the late afternoon heat is "snake time".

The forest is calm. Only the sound of insects, birdsong and the rustle of monkeys in the jungle canopy above disturb the air.

Colombia announced Saturday that more than 2,000 pregnant women in the South American country have been infected with the Zika virus, which is suspected of causing brain damage in newborns.

The National Health Institute reported that Colombia now has 20,297 cases of Zika infection, including 2,116 in pregnant women.

Yurman Torres is standing in line at the foot of Avila mountain, on the edge of Caracas, to fill a large jug with water, a rare commodity in crisis-hit Venezuela.

The scarcity of water is just one of a long list of headaches for the struggling South American oil giant, but it comes with a particularly nasty risk.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff vowed Friday to "win the war" against the Zika virus, but some experts criticized her government's response and warned the Olympics could fuel the disease's spread.

The tropical virus is blamed for cases of brain damage in babies as it sweeps through Latin America, and Rousseff, whose government is deploying 220,000 soldiers to help eradicate the mosquitoes that transmit it, likened the outbreak to a battle.

The Zika virus is "spreading explosively" in the Americas and the region may see up to four million cases of the disease strongly suspected of causing birth defects, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

As the number of suspected cases of microcephaly -- thought to be linked to the virus -- surged in Brazil, WHO head Margaret Chan said an emergency committee would meet on Monday to determine whether the Zika outbreak amounts to a global health emergency and how the world should respond. 

U.S. President Barack Obama on Thursday announced the establishment of a task force headed by his deputy Joe Biden, to propel the quest to treat and cure cancer.

In a presidential memorandum, Obama announced the establishment of the "White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force," which will issue findings about how to better detect, treat and cure the killer disease.