Eleven-year-old Alvaro Pineda has played chess at home since he was five. Now he plays it in the classroom too.

In an effort to boost their pupils' low maths and reading marks, more and more Spanish schools are holding chess clubs -- and some could even make it a compulsory class.

Malawi President Peter Mutharika said Thursday the country had received a grant of $332 million (292 million euros) to fight AIDS and other diseases, bringing much-needed support to a nation wrestling with public health problems.

Malawi has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, straining the impoverished country's healthcare system and economy.

Obesity and diabetes threaten Gulf states' economic health as well as human wellbeing, Saudi Arabia's health minister has said, as the region struggles with the growing cost of the conditions.

The Gulf has a mounting problem with obesity, which is associated with diabetes.

An unlicensed Cambodian doctor who allegedly infected more than 200 people with HIV, including  some who later died, went on trial for murder Tuesday.

The case has shone a spotlight on the chronically underfunded health care system in an impoverished nation where many have to rely on self-taught or unlicensed medics to receive treatment.

A former Fukushima nuclear plant worker has been diagnosed with radiation-linked cancer, Japanese authorities said Tuesday, in the first such confirmation more than four years after the worst atomic accident in a generation.

An official with the health ministry said the ex-employee, who was in his thirties while working at the plant following the 2011 crisis, has developed leukaemia. 

Counting the number of moles on a person's right arm could indicate vulnerability to skin cancer, with 11 or more moles being a "strong predictor" of melanoma, research published Monday suggested.

The study in the British Journal of Dermatology found that the number of moles on the right arm was the closest predictor of the number on the entire body.

Australia Saturday announced plans to legalize the growing of cannabis for medicinal purposes, saying those suffering debilitating illnesses deserved access to the most effective treatments.

Research, most recently findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in June, showed marijuana has some effectiveness in helping treat chronic pain.

Nestle said Friday that laboratory tests ordered by an Indian court had found its popular Maggi noodles were safe to eat, paving the way for their return following a government ban.

India's food safety watchdog banned the noodles in June, saying lead levels exceeded statutory limits.

Spreading antibiotic resistance could have disastrous consequences for patients undergoing surgery or chemotherapy, a study said Thursday.

In the United States, up to half of infections after surgery and over a quarter of infections after chemotherapy are caused by organisms resistant to standard antibiotics, researchers found.

Over the counter supplements, including vitamins, sexual enhancements and weight loss aids, are being blamed for 23,000 visits to U.S. emergency rooms each year, according to a decade-long study this week.

The findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine are based on reports from a nationally representative sample of 63 emergency departments from 2004 through 2013.