Liraglutide, an injectable diabetes drug that U.S. regulators approved last year for weight loss, helped obese people lose an average of 18 pounds (eight kilograms), a yearlong study said.

Most patients were able to keep the weight off for the duration of the 56-week study on the drug marketed as Saxenda by Novo Nordisk, according to the findings published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A French appeals court on Thursday found German safety standards body TUV had "fulfilled its obligations" in certifying breast implants that were found to be faulty and sparked a worldwide scare.

The ruling overturns a decision by a lower French court in 2013 which had found the body liable and ordered the company to pay millions of euros in compensation to distributors and victims.

Nearly 200 Cambodian garment workers have been hospitalized after a new spate of mass fainting at factories this week, officials said Wednesday, renewing concerns about conditions in the kingdom's crucial textile industry.

At least 61 workers at a factory in southern Takeo province fainted on Wednesday Cheav Bunrith, a spokesman for the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), told AFP. 

Chinese people are growing taller as the country becomes richer but they are getting fatter even faster, the government and state media said.

The proportion of Chinese over-18s who were overweight stood at 30.1 percent in 2012, up 7.3 percentage points over a decade, Wang Guoqiang, a vice director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, told a press conference.

Cuba on Tuesday became the first country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, the World Health Organization said.

"Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the greatest public health achievements possible," said WHO Director-General Margaret Chan.

The U.N. urged countries Wednesday to create preparedness systems to counter the health risks of heatwaves, as they become ever more frequent and intense, and dangerous, due to climate change.

For the first time, the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO) and its World Meteorological Organization (WMO) have joined forces to create guidelines for experts and authorities for how to lower the health risks of heatwaves like the ones currently scorching Asia and Europe.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam hailed on Tuesday the efforts of the health and labor ministries for the launch of the unified medical prescription form, which he said would “ease the burden on citizens.”

During a ceremony held at the Grand Serail for the occasion, Salam said: “We hereby meet after the strenuous efforts of the health and labor ministries, the syndicates and the National Social Security Fund to reach a national achievement.”

Liberia announced the return of the deadly Ebola epidemic on Tuesday, more than six weeks after the country was said to have eradicated the virus.

"A new case of Ebola has been reported in Margibi County. The person has died and was confirmed positive before death. He has been buried," said deputy health minister Tolbert Nyensuah.

South Korea said Tuesday it had gone three days without any new cases of the deadly MERS virus, in a welcome boost to efforts to tackle the largest outbreak outside Saudi Arabia.

The news came as the health ministry said an 81-year-old woman who contracted Middle East Respiratory Syndrome in late May had become the 33rd fatality from the current outbreak.

Sodas and other sugary drinks may cause up to 184,000 deaths a year worldwide, according to a study published Monday in the journal Circulation.

Billed as a first, the report analyzed the global risks of death due to diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancers linked to the consumption of sugary drinks.