Scientists said Sunday they had unraveled the genome of the hookworm, paving the way for better remedies against the disease-causing parasite that infects about 700 million people.

An international team of researchers identified genes that help the hookworm invade its host, evade the body's immune defenses, and feed undisturbed on human blood for up to a decade.

Germany is relying more on foreign doctors to fix a crunch in its healthcare system but a notoriously daunting language barrier is complicating patient care, with potentially disastrous results.

State authorities and industry groups are pushing for stricter language tests for new arrivals to ensure that along with their medical credentials, doctors can adequately communicate with Germans in their care.

Thousands of doctors across Nepal have stayed away from work to support a colleague who has been on a hunger strike for days demanding reforms in medical education.

Tens of thousands of patients have been deprived of medical services because of the doctors' strike. Only emergency services are being provided.

President Barack Obama says smoking pot is no more dangerous than drinking but calls it a "bad idea," amid a push for legalization in several states.

In comments to The New Yorker magazine published Sunday, the U.S. leader also noted that poor minority youths are more likely to get prison time for using marijuana than their richer counterparts.

The EU food safety watchdog warned Friday that exposure levels to Bisphenol A (BPA), already implicated as a health concern for babies, should be cut by a factor of 10.

The European Food Safety Authority said a review of recent studies showed "exposure to BPA is likely to adversely affect the kidney and liver, as well as causing effects on the mammary gland."

Taiwan on Friday lifted a ban on imports of Canadian beef-on-the-bone as part of its efforts to promote investment talks with the country and its participation in regional trade blocs.

Under the new measure set to take effect in mid-February, imports from Canada of bone-in beef from cows under aged 30 months or younger will be allowed, the economic ministry said.

New cases of HIV and AIDS fell sharply in South Africa since ten years ago, a testimony to successful treatment, according to a report by the U.N. Aids body released Friday.

In 2004 around 540,000 South Africans contracted HIV, but the number dropped by a third to 370,000 in 2012, UNAIDS said.

South Africa's health minister accused multi-national drug companies of orchestrating a "satanic" and "genocidal" plot to rig patent laws, according to a newspaper interview published Friday.

Commenting on pharmaceutical firm's efforts to scupper patent reforms that would lower the cost of some medicine with generic versions, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told the Mail & Guardian newspaper it was a conspiracy of "satanic magnitude".

A long-term probe has found that South Africans with highly drug-resistant TB are "systematically" discharged from hospital without being cured, placing themselves and others at risk, its authors said Friday.

"Treatment failure and discharge of such patients into the wider community is occurring systematically on a country-wide level," said Keertan Dheda, a University of Cape Town professor of pulmonology who led the study.

The Google lab known for working on unusual projects like self-driving cars is crafting a contact lens that could help diabetics manage blood sugar levels.

"We're now testing a smart contact lens that's built to measure glucose levels in tears," project co-founders Brian Otis and Babak Parviz said Thursday in a blog post.