Britain said Friday it was looking at banning smoking in prisons, despite fears of a backlash from prisoners who claim a cigarette is one of the few joys of life behind bars.

Smoking was banned in communal areas in British jails in 2007 as part of a national ban on smoking in public places.

Researchers in Britain and Saudi Arabia said on Friday that gene profiling of the MERS virus had provided insights, but no answer, as to how the mysterious microbe spreads.

Reporting online in The Lancet, the scientists said they had assembled a family tree of the coronavirus causing Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), using samples taken from 21 patients in Saudi Arabia.

Michelle Obama used the power of her bully pulpit Wednesday to push food companies and television broadcasters to do more to promote healthier foods to children — and to do it faster.

Research shows food marketing is a leading cause of childhood obesity because the ads and promotions lead impressionable kids to then pester their parents to eat what they saw on TV, consumer advocates say.

The top doctor for elite U.S. Army commandos has told troops to immediately stop taking mefloquine, an anti-malaria drug found to cause permanent brain damage in rare cases.

The ban among special operations forces is the latest development in a long-running controversy over mefloquine. The drug was developed by the Army in the 1970s and has been taken by millions of travelers and people in the military over the years. As alternatives were developed, it fell out of favor as the front-line defense against malaria, a mosquito-borne disease that international health officials say kills roughly 600,000 people a year.

Authorities in Pakistan's northwestern Swat Valley have declared a health emergency after nearly 5,000 cases of dengue fever were reported in a month.

The mosquito-borne virus has killed 12 people in the valley since August 19 and the number of patients is increasing every day, doctors said.

Two Saudis have died after contracting the MERS coronavirus, the health ministry said on Thursday, bringing the total number of fatalities from the SARS-like virus in the kingdom to 49.

A 75-year-old woman, who had suffered chronic illnesses, died in the western city of Medina, while a man, 83, who also had chronic diseases, died in the capital, the ministry website said.

Google announced Wednesday it was launching a new company focused on health and well-being, and hinted at cooperation with longtime rival Apple in the venture.

A Google statement said the company, Calico, would put a particular focus on "the challenge of aging and associated diseases."

British police chiefs proposed on Wednesday creating privately run "drunk tanks" to house revelers who drink so much they cannot look after themselves -- and they would be given a bill for their care the next day.

Adrian Lee, a chief constable who leads police policy on alcohol harm, argued that too much time is wasted by officers and health workers dealing with people who have consumed so much alcohol they require medical treatment.

Australians are known for a fondness for beer, but statistics released Wednesday put its consumption at a 66-year low and show it could soon be overtaken by wine.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics also found that Australians are drinking a little less alcohol overall.

Not only is Syrian father Motaz struggling to put food on the table, he must also pay astronomical prices to import insulin for his diabetic son because of drug shortages in the war-torn country.

Drug production in Syria has plunged ever since an uprising broke out against President Bashar Assad 30 months ago and degenerated into civil war.