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.

Poland's first face transplant patient was discharged from the hospital Tuesday, speaking with some effort at a press conference just 11 weeks after the extensive surgery that saved his life.

The 33-year-old man said he owes his doctor "everything" following a skin-and-bone transplant on May 15, three weeks after losing his nose, upper jaw and cheeks in an accident at the brick factory where he worked. Doctors say it was the world's fastest time frame for such an operation.

Japan said Tuesday that it would resume imports of some U.S. wheat later this week, ending a two-month suspension that came after genetically engineered crops were found on an Oregon farm.

Farm Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told a news conference that the ban would be lifted on Thursday but with a condition that all incoming U.S. wheat be tested.

Many heart specialists aren't comfortable with discussing sex with their patients. But new guidance says they should, early and often, to let survivors know intimacy is often possible after a heart attack.

Discussions should involve everything from when and how to resume sex, to what position might be best for some conditions or not advised for others, according to a consensus statement released Monday by the American Heart Association and the European Society of Cardiology.

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has agreed to provide hundreds of millions of doses of its lucrative vaccine against pneumonia and meningitis at a fraction of the usual price for young children in poor countries.

The deal to provide 260 million shots of its Prevnar 13 vaccine for a few dollars each is Pfizer's third agreement under an innovative program through which pharmaceutical companies, governments, health groups and charities collaborate to bring poor countries a long-term supply of affordable vaccines against deadly diseases.