The number of abortions performed in the United States has dropped to the lowest level in 40 years, a study said Monday, pointing to more contraception use rather than increased restrictions on access to the procedure.

In 2011, an estimated 16.9 abortions were carried out per 1,000 women aged between 15 and 44 -- 1.1 million in absolute terms.

Gay and bisexual teen boys use illicit steroids at a rate almost six times higher than do straight kids, a "dramatic disparity" that points up a need to reach out to this group, researchers say.

Reasons for the differences are unclear. The study authors said it's possible gay and bi boys feel more pressure to achieve a bulked-up "ideal" male physique, or that they think muscle-building steroids will help them fend off bullies.

Top British chef Heston Blumenthal has shut his London restaurant Dinner, which has two Michelin stars, for a week after 24 guests fell ill with the vomiting bug norovirus, officials said Sunday.

The closure comes five years after an outbreak of norovirus caused by contaminated shellfish forced Blumenthal to close The Fat Duck, his three-starred restaurant in Bray, west of the capital, for ten days.

U.S. health regulators on Friday approved the first drug to treat a sleep disorder that mainly afflicts the blind.

The Food and Drug Administration cleared Vanda Pharmaceuticals' Hetlioz capsules for patients who have problems sleeping because they can't detect light. The condition, called non-24-hour disorder, is estimated to affect up to 100,000 Americans, most of whom are totally blind. These people can find their sleep patterns reversed — sleeping during the day and being awake at night.

Dutch cities called Friday for the government to decriminalize cannabis cultivation and wholesale, which remain illegal despite easy access to the drug in hundreds of licensed coffee shops.

Eight of the Netherlands' 10 biggest cities, including Amsterdam and Rotterdam, signed a manifesto in central city Utrecht calling for "creating a national system of certified and regulated cannabis cultivation," they said in a statement.

Vodka was a key contributor to the high death rate of Russian men under 55, according to researchers who highlighted the near-immediate, life-extending benefits of cutting back.

The findings published in The Lancet medical journal add to the already vast body of evidence on the dangers of binge drinking.

U.S. federal regulators said Friday they were investigating products containing testosterone after recent studies suggested a higher risk of strokes and heart attacks in men being treated with the hormone.

The Food and Drug Administration stressed, however, that it has "not concluded that FDA-approved testosterone treatment increases the risk of stroke, heart attack or death."

French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi has said it is suing U.S. rival Eli Lilly in an American court for infringing four patents relating to its diabetes treatments.

The lawsuit, lodged in the state of Delaware, was triggered by Eli Lilly's notification last month that it plans to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for permission to put a new diabetes treatment on the market.

Uganda's government is planning to double expenditure on anti-retroviral drugs in an effort to reverse a worsening trend in HIV infections, a senior health official said Thursday.

The doctor in charge of the health ministry's AIDS control program, Alex Ario, told AFP that over the next year some 1.3 million people will have free access to ARVs, compared to the 600,000 currently being treated.

A new study finds that people in nations where the population is aging less swiftly, such as the U.S, are less likely to be worried about their old-age futures than those in parts of Europe and East Asia that are grappling with swiftly shrinking workforces and increasing pension costs.

The survey by the Pew Research Center covers 21 nations.