One of this year's Nobel medicine laureates, Chinese Tu Youyou, said Tuesday she was "not really surprised" to win, telling local press the award was an honor for all the country's scientists.

"We carried out this research over a number of decades, so to win this award was not a surprise," the 84-year-old told the Qianjiang Evening News from her home in Zhejiang. 

As volunteer doctors, they are accustomed to treating injuries and disease outbreaks in conflict zones -- but now duty calls on Greek soil.

In the mobile Medecins du Monde mobile unit on the island of Lesbos, attending to thousands of refugees and migrants landing from neighboring Turkey is a round-the-clock affair.

Jesus Aceves may never get used to people's stares, but after decades of alcoholism and a painful career as a circus freak, he has made a resolution: to stop burying his hair-covered face in his hands.

Aceves, a 41-year-old Mexican man, has an extremely rare condition called hypertrichosis, also known as "werewolf syndrome" -- an abnormal amount of hair growth on the face and body.

Research into brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and traumatic injury got a boost Thursday with a $100 million pledge from a U.S. foundation and seven universities.

The additional funds will add to a $300 million program led by the White House and known as the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, launched by President Barack Obama in April 2013.

Being tall is linked to a higher risk of cancer, especially for women, said research Thursday drawn from physical and health data for five million people in Sweden.

For every 10 centimeter (four inches) over one mete in height, the odds of developing cancer increased by 10 percent in men and 18 percent in women, the research team reported at a medical conference in Barcelona.

Flicking your cigarette butt in a Parisian street could from Thursday net you a stiff 68 euro ($75) fine as the city cracks down on "incivility" and pollution.

This is nearly double the current fine of 35 euros, which was rarely enforced in the City of Light where some 350 tonnes of cigarette butts are collected every year.

A new British law banning smoking in cars while children are present came into effect Thursday but police representatives said it will be "extremely challenging" to enforce.

Under the changes, which apply only in England and Wales, anyone found to be smoking with a passenger under 18 in the vehicle could be fined £50 (68 euros, $76), even if the windows are open.

Chinese authorities have charged 10 people over "selling inferior products" in the wake of a food scandal that erupted last year at a unit of U.S. food supplier OSI Group, which saw expired meat sold to global fast food chains.

A Chinese court charged the defendants connected to OSI food-processing companies in Shanghai and Hebei Province "on suspicions of producing, selling inferior products", according to a statement published by the Shanghai People’s Procuratorate on Wednesday.

In just three decades, the once monolithic approach to diagnosing and treating breast cancer has become more personalized and less intrusive -- a transformation that likely saved millions of lives, experts say.

From testing methods adapted to an individual's level of risk, better drugs and selective use of chemotherapy, treatment is no longer a one-size-fits-all for some 1.6 million people diagnosed with the disease every year.

The World Health Organization has revised its HIV guidelines to recommend that anyone who tests positive for the virus that causes AIDS should be treated immediately.

That guidance fits with what is already recommended in many developed nations, including the United States.