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.

France's government said Saturday it has recalled a batch of nutrient bags used by a hospital in the Alps to feed babies intravenously after three infants died because of a bacterial contamination.

The parents of the three newborns, who died on different days in early December, have filed criminal complaints for manslaughter against the hospital, located in the town of Chambery in southeast France.

A cardinal and bishops in Italy's so-called "Triangle of Death" have called for urgent action to tackle toxic mafia dumps blamed for rising cancer rates near Naples.

"Act quickly. We urge the authorities to intervene and be decisive, to stop the spread of worry, fears and ills," Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Archbishop of Naples, wrote in an open appeal to Italian President Giorgio Napolitano, along with bishops from the affected areas.

The Obama administration proposed two new federal gun control rules Friday to ensure more information about the mentally ill reaches background check databases, after a series of high-profile U.S. shootings.

The rules come on top of a series of executive actions President Barack Obama announced after the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting that left 20 young children and six staff dead in December 2012.

An H1N1 flu outbreak in Alberta has sickened nearly 1,000 people and killed five, the Canadian province's health minister said Friday, urging everyone to get vaccinated.

"Over the past few weeks, we have seen a surge in the number of influenza cases across Alberta. Many of those affected are healthy young adults," Health Minister Fred Horne said in a statement.