Hospital budget cuts and new charges for medicine are blocking healthcare access to hundreds of thousands of people in Spain, including the seriously ill, a top health charity warned Tuesday.

Despite the government's recent claims that the economic crisis is easing, Medicos del Mundo said last year's spending cuts were hitting the most vulnerable people and raising health risks.

A international aid organization has said that millions of children in Syria are at risk of malnutrition as the conflict rages well into its third year and food production is collapsing across the country.

Save the Children aid group said four million Syrians — more than half of them children — are unable to produce or buy enough food.

A large-scale new Scottish study finds that being at a healthy body mass index (BMI) during pregnancy is best when it comes to avoiding complications.

Findings showed that women with a BMI that was too high or too low were at increased risk for complications. Published last week online in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, the study involved data from nearly 110,000 pregnant women in Scotland.

If you love basking in the sun, a new study finds that while your risk of skin cancer increases, sun worshipers may enjoy a few surprising health benefits.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen analyzed data from 4.4 million people living in Denmark (the country's entire population) over a 23-year period, including 130,000 with non-melanoma skin cancer, all aged over 40 years.

Burger King wants people to feel less guilty about gobbling up its french fries.

The world's No. 2 hamburger chain is launching a new crinkle-cut french fry on Tuesday that it says has 20 percent fewer calories than its regular french fries.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they will begin regulating a new wave of applications and gadgets that work with smartphones to take medical readings and help users monitor their health.

With the rise of the iPhone, Android and other mobile devices has come a flood of applications designed to help people stay healthy. Industry analysts estimate there are already more than 17,000 medical applications available, ranging from calorie counters to high-tech heart monitors.

World leaders are holding their first-ever U.N. meeting Monday to explore how the more than 1 billion disabled people in countries rich and poor can contribute to the global economy instead of being a drain on society.

The World Health Organization says a huge increase in hearing aids, glasses and wheelchairs could improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people — and help them participate in the development of their countries. But the disabled have other hurdles to overcome, including discrimination and stigmas.

New HIV infections have plummeted by a third overall since 2001 and more than halved among children, the United Nations said Monday.

Globally, 2.3 million people contracted the AIDS virus last year -- down 33 percent from 2001, while 260,000 children became infected -- over a third fewer than in 2009 and 52 percent down from 2001.

World leaders are holding their first-ever U.N. meeting Monday to explore how the more than 1 billion disabled people in countries rich and poor can contribute to the global economy instead of being a drain on society.

The World Health Organization says a huge increase in hearing aids, glasses and wheelchairs could improve the lives of hundreds of millions of people — and help them participate in the development of their countries. But the disabled have other hurdles to overcome as well, including discrimination and stigmas.

Reducing fossil-fuel emissions to safer levels would save millions of lives annually by the end of the century, a study said on Sunday.

The estimate is based on a simulation of levels of two big pollutants, fine particulate matter and ozone, from coal, oil and gas.