Doctors Friday discharged a one-year-old Indian baby who underwent multiple surgery to correct a rare disorder that caused her head to nearly double in size, a neurosurgeon told Agence France Presse.

Roona Begum endured several surgical procedures which saw doctors at a hospital near New Delhi drain fluid from her head in a life-saving operation and dramatically reduce the size of her skull.

About a dozen children in eastern India fell ill and were taken to hospital on Thursday after drinking suspected contaminated water at their school, a hospital official said.

The children became sick after drinking water from a hand pump in the dirt-poor state of Bihar, in the same district where 23 children died last month after eating a poisoned lunch provided by their school.

Uruguay's unprecedented plan to put the government at the center of a legal marijuana industry has made it halfway through congress, giving President Jose Mujica a long-sought victory in his effort to explore alternatives to the global war on drugs.

All 50 members of the governing Broad Front coalition approved the proposal in a party line vote just before midnight Wednesday, keeping a narrow majority of the 96 lawmakers present after more than 13 hours of passionate debate.

Taiwan has ordered tens of thousands of vaccine doses to protect people against the island's first rabies outbreak in more than 50 years.

Health officials have struggled to contain the Taiwan outbreak since July 17, when a ferret badger in the southern part of the island was confirmed as rabid. Since then, 17 more ferret badger cases have been confirmed, and the case of a rabid Asian house shrew reported Wednesday indicates the disease is jumping species. No humans or dogs have yet been involved in the outbreak.

A Nepalese official says the government has banned the sale and transport of chicken and all poultry products in the capital city to prevent the spread of the H5N1 bird flu virus.

Agriculture Ministry spokesman Prabhakar Pathak said Thursday that the virus has been detected in several poultry farms in Katmandu and surrounding areas.

Mother-of-three Lilavati Devi stands perfectly still in the hot sun in Old Delhi as a practitioner and his assistants check the veins in her hands.

Then, armed with razor blades, the practitioner slices neatly into her skin and lets the "impure blood" drain out.

New York's bid to ban giant, sugary sodas on public health grounds suffered a new setback on Tuesday when an appeals court upheld a ruling striking down the proposed legislation.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has championed the measure as part of the fight against an obesity epidemic and rampant diabetes, immediately announced that he would take the fight to a higher court.

Honduras' government has declared a state of emergency due to a dengue fever outbreak that has killed 16 people and sickened 12,000.

Health Minister Salvador Pineda says Tuesday's decree means the government is making it a priority to prevent and control the disease and fight the mosquitoes that spread it.

Reduced donor funding has forced the Namibian government to shrink the supply of free condoms, a government report said Tuesday, threatening the country's fight against sexually transmitted diseases.

A ministry of health and social services study seen by Agence France Presse shows free condom distribution has fallen from 25 million condoms five years ago to 15 million in 2011-2012.

Abortion became legal in Ireland on Tuesday in limited cases where the mother's life is at risk, after President Michael D. Higgins signed a law that has exposed deep divisions in the Catholic-majority nation.

Irish lawmakers had overwhelmingly voted through the abortion bill earlier this month, prompted by an outcry over the death last year of an Indian woman who had been refused an abortion in an Irish hospital.