The three west African countries worst hit by the Ebola epidemic should be leading the response against the killer virus, the U.N.'s new mission chief on the disease said Wednesday, condemning "a problem of coordination" in the fightback.

"The governments of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea are the ones who are driving... this is about their people, this is about the fate of their countries, we should acknowledge that national leadership," said Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, the new head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER).

A Japanese firm said Thursday it was recalling tens of thousands of pouches of baby food after an insect was discovered in one package, the latest food scare to rock consumers.

Asahi Holdings said its subsidiary would be calling back an estimated 120,000 bags of the meat-and-potatoes mix after one was found to contain a cricket, a small grasshopper-like insect.

A new gadget aimed at preventing heat-related deaths of infants in parked cars is on show at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Voxx Electronics's alert system is aimed at preventing absent-minded parents from leaving children alone in sweltering temperatures.

Could the Sun be your lucky -- or unlucky -- star?

In an unusual study published Wednesday, Norwegian scientists said people born during periods of solar calm may live longer, as much as five years on average, than those who enter the world when the Sun is feisty.

Experts will gather in Geneva this week to review progress on possible vaccines against the deadly Ebola virus, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

The international health community is desperately trying to find a vaccine to fight the virus, which continues to rage in west Africa where it has killed more than 8,200 people.

U.S. pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday that it has started human trials on a possible vaccine against Ebola.

The Phase I testing is being carried out by the Oxford Vaccine Group at Britain's Oxford University. 

Syria is facing a "medical and humanitarian disaster" after nearly four years of war have gutted the country's healthcare system, leading to a return of eradicated diseases, a group of Syrian doctors said in Paris Monday.

A lack of doctors, supplies and drugs have plunged the country back into the medical dark ages, with polio and scabies back with a vengeance as many children are no longer vaccinated, while the majority of births take place at home.

People who eat more whole grains are more likely to live longer and avoid heart disease, but such a diet does not affect risk of dying from cancer, said a U.S. study released Monday. 

The findings by researchers at Harvard University appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine.

People who are obese may appear healthy for a while but their condition declines over time, said a study out Monday that followed more than 2,500 people for 20 years.

The research by scientists at University College London is the longest of its kind, and its findings support previous research that has shown people who are overweight face a higher risk of heart attack, stroke and some kinds of cancer than thin people as the years go on.

Schools in Ebola-ravaged Liberia will reopen in February, six months after they were closed in a bid to contain the spread of the killer virus, the education ministry said Monday.

"We ask all schools to take the necessary measures for the reopening of schools next semester, which is February," the ministry said in a statement read out on the radio.