New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that he will authorize the medical use of marijuana, making his the 21st U.S. state to do so and one of the biggest.

Cuomo, a Democrat who has in the past opposed such a measure, announced a limited pilot program to serve the state of 19.5 million people.

Poland's government on Tuesday unveiled a plan to fight driving under the influence, after a drunk driver killed six pedestrians on New Year's Day.

Poland has one of the worst road safety ratings in the 28-member European Union, and reckless and drunk driving are part of the problem.

More people smoke worldwide today than in 1980, as population growth surges and cigarettes gain popularity in countries such as China, India and Russia, researchers said Tuesday.

For instance, China boasted nearly 100 million more smokers in 2012 than it had three decades ago, even though its smoking rate fell from 30 to 24 percent in that span, said the findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Japan's health ministry will Wednesday file a criminal complaint against the local arm of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis over alleged exaggerated advertising for a popular blood-pressure drug, Kyodo News agency reported.

Novartis Pharma KK has been under fire since a university said the data in clinical studies might have been skewed to promote Valsartan.

China has reported its first death from the H7N9 bird flu virus in 2014 after a significant drop-off in fatalities following an outbreak last year.

A patient in the southern province of Guangdong died of the disease on Monday, the provincial health authority said on its website Tuesday.

France's Pasteur Institut said Tuesday a new type of bacteria had been found in nutrient bags used by a hospital in the Alps to feed babies intravenously and thought to be responsible for three deaths.

The findings came after the parents of the three newborns, who died on separate days in early December, filed criminal complaints for manslaughter against the hospital in the town of Chambery in southeast France.

The risk of dying from cancer has declined 20 percent over the past two decades, according to the American Cancer Society's annual report out Tuesday.

However, cancer, a complex disease that has largely eluded attempts at a cure, will remain a top killer in 2014, taking some 1,600 U.S. lives per day, it warned.

Meditation may help ease anxiety and depression in certain patients, and in some cases the practice may be as effective as taking anti-depressant medications, said a study Monday.

However, a review of scientific literature on mindfulness meditation published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the effects of meditation are limited.

More than 300 people across Japan have fallen ill after eating frozen food products contaminated with pesticide, reports said Tuesday.

Shoppers have reported vomiting, diarrhea and other symptoms of food poisoning after eating food produced at a plant in Gunma, north of Tokyo, according to surveys carried out by the Asahi Shimbun and other local media.

Fifty years ago, ashtrays seemed to be on every table and desk. Athletes and even Fred Flintstone endorsed cigarettes in TV commercials. Smoke hung in the air in restaurants, offices and airplane cabins. More than 42 percent of U.S. adults smoked, and many doctors were among them.

The turning point came on Jan. 11, 1964. It was on that Saturday morning that U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released an emphatic and authoritative report that said smoking causes illness and death — and the government should do something about it.