Federal health experts are taking a second look this week at the heart safety of pain medications used by millions of Americans to treat arthritis and other everyday aches and pains.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday began a two-day meeting to examine the latest research on anti-inflammatory medicines called NSAIDS, which serve as the backbone of U.S. pain treatment.

In low-income countries, people with cars, televisions and computers at home are far more likely to be obese than people with no such conveniences, researchers said Monday.

Eating more, sitting still and missing out on exercise by driving are all likely reasons why people with these modern-day luxuries could be gaining weight and putting themselves at risk for diabetes, researchers said.

British members of parliament voted overwhelmingly in support of a ban on smoking in cars carrying children.

Lawmakers in the House of Commons, the lower house of parliament, voted in favor of a ban by 376 to 107 on Monday.

Indian leaders are set later Tuesday to celebrate the eradication of polio, marking one of the country's biggest public health success stories which was once thought impossible to achieve.

President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well as the health minister and the head of the World Health Organisation are all due at a New Delhi stadium to celebrate "India's victory over polio", the information ministry says.

A total of 31 people died from H7N9 bird flu in mainland China in January, the government announced Monday, making it by far the worst month in the outbreak.

There were a total of 127 confirmed human H7N9 cases in January, according to a statement by the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC).

U.S. health officials have begun to predict the end of cigarette smoking in America.

They have long wished for a cigarette-free America, but shied away from calling for smoking rates to fall to zero or near zero by any particular year. The power of tobacco companies and popularity of their products made such a goal seem like a pipe dream.

Egypt's Health Ministry says the number of people killed by swine flu in the country since December has reached 38.

In a statement Sunday, the ministry said that more than 1,300 people have been hospitalized after being infected by the virus.

Nearly 3 out of 4 U.S. children and young adults consume at least some caffeine, mostly from soda, tea and coffee. The rate didn't budge much over a decade, although soda use declined and energy drinks became an increasingly common source, a government analysis finds.

Though even most preschoolers consume some caffeine-containing products, their average was the amount found in half a can of soda, and overall caffeine intake declined in children up to age 11 during the decade.

Some of the world's biggest drugmakers are playing a larger role in anti-doping efforts at this year's Winter Olympics: They're providing information on drugs that once would have been considered proprietary trade secrets.

GlaxoSmithKline, Amgen and Roche are among the drugmakers that have begun sharing "confidential research and data" with anti-doping officials about experimental drugs they are developing, as part of an effort to stay one step ahead of drug cheats.

This cluster of poor villages, long known for its colorful silk saris, now is known for something else: tuberculosis. Nearly half of Lohata's population has it — some 100,000 people — and the community's weaving tradition is part of the reason it is on the front line of a major Indian health crisis.

The area of Uttar Pradesh state is under unofficial quarantine because of the epidemic. Strangers rarely venture into these villages outside the ancient city of Varanasi. Even rickshaw drivers refuse to enter, turning away the few passengers looking for a lift.