Memory problems that are often dismissed as a normal part of aging may not be so harmless after all.

Noticing you have had a decline beyond the occasional misplaced car keys or forgotten name could be the very earliest sign of Alzheimer's, several research teams are reporting.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday held off from calling for travel restrictions related to the MERS virus striking Saudi Arabia as the kingdom braces for the Muslim hajj pilgrimage.

In a statement following a session of the U.N. health agency's emergency committee -- whose rarity underlined global concerns about MERS -- the WHO said there was currently no reason to step up its level of alert.

Three years ago Mr and Ms Lee fulfilled their dream of parenthood with the help of a surrogate mother.

But like many Taiwanese couples in their position, they were forced to seek surrogacy abroad because the procedure is illegal at home.

Twenty children have died after eating a free lunch at a primary school in eastern India, with initial tests showing the food may have contained poisonous chemicals, officials said Wednesday.

Thirty more children remain ill in hospital after consuming lunch cooked at the village school, said the education minister of Bihar state, P. K.Shahi.

Sweden's food safety watchdog said on Tuesday it had found "extremely high" levels of arsenic in a Chinese herbal remedy, posing a "very serious health hazard."

The toxic substance was found in a product called Niu-Huang Chieh-tu-pien, which is claimed by online vendors of traditional Chinese medicine to cure numerous conditions, including toothache, skin infections, anorexia and fever in infants.

Saudi Arabia will not issue visas to the elderly, pregnant women or children for the hajj and umrah pilgrimages to help combat the spread of MERS coronavirus, the French health ministry said on Tuesday.

In an urgent circular to doctors, it said the Saudi health ministry "has taken the decision to restrict the issuing of visas" for the annual hajj and for the umrah, a pilgrimage which can be undertaken at any time.

Four months after a Florida man was found unconscious in a Palm Springs, California, motel, doctors are looking into the mystery of his identity after he awoke with no memory of his past and speaking only Swedish.

Michael Boatwright, 61, woke up with amnesia, calling himself Johan Ek, The Desert Sun newspaper reported. Boatwright was found unconscious in a Motel 6 room in February. After police arrived, he was transported to the Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs where he woke up.

A DNA flaw may explain why people with Type 2 diabetes are more prone to blood cancers than the rest of the population, a study said Sunday.

Doctors have long known that Type 2 diabetes is associated with leukaemia and lymphoma, but the reasons for this have been unclear.

The Texas senate late Friday approved a bill setting some of the strictest limits on abortion in the United States, just weeks after a filibuster by opposition Democrats dramatically thwarted the measure.

The bill -- similar to the one that state Senator Wendy Davis helped block in a 13-hour filibuster on June 25 -- was approved 19-11, with one Democrat joining the Republican majority, local media reported.

Saudi Arabia Saturday urged elderly and chronically ill Muslims not to perform the hajj pilgrimage, to curb the spread of the MERS coronavirus which has killed 38 in the kingdom.

The health ministry issued a set of conditions for people wanting to perform the annual hajj, which this year falls in October, or the year-round omra or minor pilgrimage.