When John Jairo, a meticulous night watchman, lost his job for leaving all of his employer's doors open, his family knew they were hit by the "Yarumal curse."

Yarumal, a Colombian village perched in the Andes Mountains, has a high incidence of a genetic mutation that predisposes its population to Alzheimer's -- a bleak heritage that scientists now hope could help lead to a treatment to prevent the disease.

The plight of a Chinese boy with the HIV virus, reportedly pushed to leave his home by 200 villagers who signed a petition, sparked intense online soul-searching in the country on Thursday.

The case has highlighted the stigma attached to HIV in China, where many sufferers face widespread discrimination.

Following years of demands, the ministers of health and culture on Wednesday launched a long-awaited healthcare plan for artists.

In bed asleep, eating, in her underwear or even displaying her scars after weight loss surgery, photographer Jen Davis has always been as comfortable in front of the camera as she is behind it.

But when Davis, 36, set out on a "journey of self discovery" to explore her own weight problem through a series of self-portraits, she discovered a side to herself she didn't know existed.

A New Zealand government review on Wednesday recommended French-style measures banning alcohol sponsorship of sport in a bid to curb the South Pacific nation's binge drinking culture.

The ministerial review, headed by former national rugby league coach Graham Lowe, said it was concerned that alcohol firms used sports sponsorship to reach young people from an early age and shape their drinking habits.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will travel to Ebola-hit countries in West Africa this week to raise awareness about the health crisis, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

Ban is to make the announcement at a year-end press conference at the United Nations on Wednesday, U.N. official said.

More than 6,800 people have now died from the Ebola virus, almost all of them in west Africa, the World Health Organization said Monday.

The U.N. health agency reported that as of December 13, there had been 18,464 cases of infection from the deadly virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and 6,841 people had died.

A British government-commissioned review has found that resistance to antibiotics could account for 10 million deaths a year and hit global gross domestic product by 2.0 to 3.5 percent by 2050.

The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance said surgeries that have become widespread and low-risk thanks to antibiotics, such as caesarean sections, could become more dangerous without urgent action.

Japan on Tuesday ordered the slaughter of some 4,000 chickens after officials confirmed bird flu at a poultry farm in the southwest of the country.

DNA tests confirmed the H5 strain of the virus at a farm in Miyazaki after its owner reported more than 20 sudden deaths among his poultry on Sunday and Monday, the agriculture ministry said.

It's been something of a breakthrough year for marijuana, the once shunned intoxicant that is steadily gaining ground as a legal high in parts of the world.

In 2014, Uruguay may have been the only country to fully legalize pot, but growing number of U.S. states followed parts of Europe in moving in a similar direction.