Women who eat peanuts while pregnant are less likely to have children with peanut allergies than women who avoid them, said a U.S. study out Monday.

The findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics were based on a study of more than 8,200 U.S. children.

The flu vaccine is generally less effective for men than for women, scientists said in a study Monday, tracing the effect to higher levels of testosterone that curb the immune response.

It has long been known that men are more vulnerable than women to bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, but scientists have never been able to clearly explain why.

U.S. President Barack Obama has symbolically signed up for health insurance to promote his own controversial health care reform legislation, a White House official said Monday.

The official said Obama -- on vacation with his family in Hawaii for the holidays -- signed up over the weekend for "a health care plan made available by the Affordable Care Act on the DC marketplace."

Taiwan police said Sunday they had seized about 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of ketamine worth millions of U.S. dollars and smuggled from China, in the second such drugs bust this year.

The haul was discovered in a shipment of shoes in three containers sent from the Chinese mainland, said officers at Taoyuan airport in the north.

Sweet tropical smells drift through Shinkichi Tawada's laboratory as he stirs an amber liquid that he believes could be the secret behind the historic longevity of people in southern Japan.

The elixir is an extract from a plant known locally as "getto", and he says experiments show it can prolong life by as much as a fifth.

New Yorkers who turned to electronic cigarettes to keep smoking in restaurants, offices or even libraries are down to their last few puffs in such places.

The City Council's voted 43-8 Thursday to include e-cigarettes in the ban on smoking in public indoor places. Outgoing Mayor Michael Bloomberg is expected to sign the measure. The ban would then take effect in four months.

Spain's government agreed Friday to ban women from opting freely for abortions, outraging pro-choice campaigners who say the move will take the country back to the 1980s.

Launched by Spain's conservative government after pressure from the Catholic Church, the draft bill rolls back a 2010 law which brought Spain into line with much of Europe by letting women opt freely for abortion up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

Ariad Pharmaceuticals has received approval to relaunch its leukemia drug Iclusig after addressing safety concerns raised by U.S. regulators in October.

Company shares jumped more than 20 percent.

The Saudi health ministry announced Saturday a new MERS death, raising to 56 the number of people killed by the coronavirus in the country with the most fatalities.

The victim was a 73-year-old Saudi man, who suffered from chronic illnesses, the ministry said on its website.

French biomedical firm Carmat said on Friday it had begun the first human trial of its prototype artificial heart, which aims at overcoming shortages of organs available for transplant.

The implant operation, which took place on Wednesday at the Georges Pompidou Hospital in Paris, "went satisfactorily," it said in a statement.