Doctors in China kept a man's severed hand alive for a month by attaching it to his leg, before restoring it to its usual position, a report said Tuesday.

The 25-year-old, identified by his nickname Xiao Wei, had his right hand sawn off by a drilling machine at work last month in Changde, in the central province of Hunan, the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald said.

After more than 40 years of study, the U.S. government said Monday it has no evidence that the anti-bacterial chemicals used in countless common soaps and washes help prevent the spread of germs, and it is reviewing research suggesting they may pose health risks.

Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration said they are revisiting the safety of chemicals such as triclosan in light of recent studies that suggest the substances can interfere with hormone levels and spur the growth of drug-resistant bacteria.

There's more disappointing news about multivitamins: Two major studies found popping the pills did not protect aging men's brains or help heart attack survivors.

Millions of people spend billions of dollars on vitamin combinations, presumably to boost their health and fill gaps in their diets. But while people who don't eat enough of certain nutrients may be urged to get them in pill form, the government doesn't recommend routine vitamin supplementation as a way to prevent chronic diseases.

A panel set up at the request of President Francois Hollande on Monday recommended legalizing assisted suicide in France, where the debate on euthanasia has been revived after several tragic end-of-life stories.

The suicides of two elderly couples in November and the heart wrenching testimony of a politician who watched her terminally-ill mother die after taking pills have shocked and moved France, where euthanasia is illegal.

French police made 21 arrests Monday as part of an investigation into claims that meat from horses used for drugs testing found its way into the food chain.

The arrests were made at various locations in the south of France following a tip-off that hundreds of horses, including some that had been owned by pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, were sold to abattoirs after their veterinary papers were falsified, a police source told Agence France Presse.

A novel way to speed the testing of cancer drugs and quickly separate winners from duds has yielded its first big result: an experimental medicine that shows promise against a hard-to-treat form of breast cancer.

The method involves studying drugs in small groups of people and using advanced statistical techniques to analyze the results as they come in, instead of waiting for all the data to arrive.

Having previously lost two babies to diarrhoea and dysentery, 25-year-old Suman Chandel lies on a bed in a clinic in remote northern India and smiles with relief.

Hours earlier, Chandel gave birth to her fourth child, a seemingly healthy baby boy weighing three kilograms (six pounds 10 ounces), and is optimistic that this time the chances of survival are good.

A 26-year-old woman disfigured by a tumor has received a new face in Poland's second such transplant.

The woman, identified only as Joanna, had great difficulty chewing, swallowing and talking. Dr. Adam Maciejewski, who led the 23-hour surgery last week, said Thursday he hopes the transplant of some 80 percent of the skin on the woman's face will give her back those functions.

Scientists have long believed that DNA tells the cells how to make proteins. But the discovery of a new, second DNA code Thursday suggests the body speaks two different languages.

The findings in the journal Science may have big implications for how medical experts use the genomes of patients to interpret and diagnose diseases, researchers said.

The number of new cancer cases around the globe jumped by 11 percent in a five-year period, reaching 14.1 million in 2012, with breast cancer increasing by one-fifth, the U.N. health agency said Thursday.

The World Health Organization also reported that cancer deaths had risen by 8.4 percent from 2008 to 2012, hitting 8.2 million.