A French study has found heavy imbalances in the number of newborn girls and boys in the Caucasus and west Balkans, indicating parts of the region are rife with selective abortions.

Often associated with China and India, sex-selective abortions have been growing in these regions since the early 1990s, according to the study from the National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED).

The Gulf state of Qatar on Tuesday launched a genetic code mapping project for its small population to help in treating diseases.

The "Qatar Genome" project is a "road map for future treatment," said Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the wife of the former emir, at the opening of the World Innovation Summit for Health in Doha.

Uruguay is pushing ahead to create a legal marijuana market despite warnings from educators, psychiatrists and pharmacists of dangerous side effects.

The Senate planned to debate the pot plan Tuesday, with approval by the ruling coalition widely expected before the night is over. Because senators turned away all requests for amendments after it passed the lower chamber, their vote will be final.

A provocative study found that nearly 1 in 5 lung tumors detected on CT scans are probably so slow-growing that they would never cause problems.

These were not false-positives — suspicious results that turn out upon further testing not to be lung cancer, the world's No. 1 cause of cancer deaths. These were indeed cancerous tumors, but ones that caused no symptoms and were unlikely ever to become deadly, the researchers said.

A French court on Tuesday convicted the ex-managers of firm PIP of fraud and sentenced the company's founder to four years after its faulty breast implants sparked a global health scare.

The now-defunct firm, Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), was at the centre of worldwide concern two years ago after it was revealed to have used industrial-grade silicone in thousands of breast implants sold worldwide.

Saudi Arabia has launched a genetic code mapping project aimed at identifying the basis of chronic diseases prevalent in the desert kingdom.

The Saudi Human Genome Program will be run by Saudi researchers, in cooperation with the U.S. Life Technologies Corporation, at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).

The World Health Organisation and UNICEF have launched a polio vaccination campaign for 23 million children in the Middle East after 17 cases were discovered in Syria, they announced Monday.

The campaign will be largest-ever immunization response in the region, WHO and the U.N. children's fund said in a joint statement.

Europeans with long-term exposure to particulate pollution from road traffic or industry run a higher risk of premature death, even if air quality meets EU standards, a study said on Monday.

Published in The Lancet, the paper pointed the finger at fine particles of soot and dust, emissions of which are also stirring a health scare in parts of Asia, especially China.

Access to affordable drugs for the world's poor will be hampered if a US plan to impose stricter pharmaceutical patents is adopted at talks on a Pacific trade pact, activists say.

Trade ministers from 12 countries entered a third day of talks in Singapore on Monday in an attempt to meet a US deadline to reach a deal on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) before the year ends.

A former Qantas steward who believes he developed Parkinson's disease after repeated exposure to government-mandated pesticides sprayed in the cabin plans to sue Canberra, his lawyer said Monday.

Brett Vollus, 52, worked for Australia's national carrier for 27 years as a flight attendant until his early-onset Parkinson's forced him to take redundancy in May this year.