Virologists are casting a worried eye on this year's Islamic hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia as they struggle with the enigmatic, deadly virus known as MERS which is striking hardest in the kingdom.

Little is known about the new pathogen, beyond the fact that it can be lethal by causing respiratory problems, pneumonia and kidney failure. It can be transmitted between humans, but unlike its cousin, the SARS virus, which sparked a scare a decade ago, it does not seem very contagious.

Mothers and fathers aren't the only ones urging adult children to visit their parents. China's lawbooks are now issuing the same imperative.

New wording in the law requiring people to visit or keep in touch with their elderly parents or risk being sued came into force Monday, as China faces increasing difficulty in caring for its aging population.

U.N. health officials are urging Asian governments to get rid of what they say are punitive laws that hinder the battle against HIV and AIDS by discriminating against high-risk groups and deterring them from seeking treatment.

Steven Kraus, the UNAIDS director for Asia and the Pacific, said laws that punish same-sex activities and impose harsh drug sentences have prompted a rise in new transmissions in parts of Asia.

Despite economic crises and dwindling aid, the U.N. said Monday huge progress had been made towards meeting the so-called Millennium Development Goals, including its bid to slash world hunger in half between 1990 and 2015.

"Given reinvigorated efforts, the target of halving the percentage of people suffering from hunger by 2015 appears within reach," said a U.N. progress report on its eight Millennium goals.

Two genes that are resistant to fungal wheat disease may help ward off a growing epidemic of stem rust that threatens crops in Africa, the Middle East and beyond, researchers said Friday.

International scientists have spent years trying to pin down the sections of the wheat genome that are resistant to Ug99, a pathogen that was first found to be killing wheat crops in Uganda in the late 1990s and has since appeared in Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen and Iran.

Britain took a step closer on Friday to becoming the first country to allow radical treatment that uses DNA from three parents to create an embryo.

The government backed an IVF-based technique designed to avoid serious mitochondrial diseases inherited on the maternal side, such as muscular dystrophy and cardiac problems.

Malawi is distributing free AIDS drugs to half a million people after years of nationwide HIV tests by the poor southern African nation, President Joyce Banda said Friday.

"Half of the population has so far been tested for HIV and half a million people are now on free drugs," Banda was quoted by state television as telling the first meeting of the UNAIDS and Lancet Commission in the administrative capital Lilongwe.

A U.S. girl whose public appeal for an adult lung donation thrust her into the media spotlight nearly died after her body rejected the organs and she has since had a rare second transplant, her mother said Friday.

Sarah Murnaghan, 10, suffers from cystic fibrosis and was said to have very little time left when her parents sued to change the rules and let her be on the list for adult lung donations, usually restricted to those 12 and over.

Virologists are casting a worried eye on this year's Islamic hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia as they struggle with the enigmatic, deadly virus known as MERS which is striking hardest in the kingdom.

Little is known about the new pathogen, beyond the fact that it can be lethal by causing respiratory problems, pneumonia and kidney failure. It can be transmitted between humans, but unlike its cousin, the SARS virus, which sparked a scare a decade ago, it does not seem very contagious.

The mood-stabilizing drug lithium reduces suicide risk by more than 60 percent among people with depression, a study said Thursday.

Lithium has long been prescribed to treat uni-polar disorder (also called clinical depression) and bipolar disorder (manic depression) -- but its use has been declining in many countries, according to Andrea Cipriani, who co-wrote the paper in the online journal bmj.com