Despite six decades of free medical care and widespread health campaigns, Britons are among the unhealthiest people in Western Europe, a new study says.

International researchers analyzed the country's rates of sickness and death from 1990 to 2010 in comparison to those of 15 other Western European countries in addition to Australia, Canada and the U.S. Experts described the U.K. results as "startling" and said Britain was failing to address underlying health risks in its population, including rising rates of high blood pressure, obesity and drug and alcohol abuse.

Being HIV-positive raises a person's heart attack risk by about 50 percent, said a study released Monday that confirms earlier findings.

The study looked at 82,459 U.S. veterans, the vast majority of them men. It was published in Archives of Internal Medicine, a publication of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Daily doses of drugs or vaginal gels have proven ineffective at preventing HIV infections in southern Africa, a study out Monday revealed, saying most of the women failed to use them as directed.

"Although there may be other explanations for why these products don't always work to prevent HIV, it's hard to ignore the fact that that so few women in our study used them," said Jeanne Marrazzo, who reported the results from more than 5,000 women in 15 trial sites in Uganda, South Africa and Zimbabwe at a conference in Atlanta.

India's patent appeals office has rejected Bayer AG's plea to stop the production of a cheaper generic version of a patented cancer drug in a ruling that health groups say is an important precedent for getting inexpensive lifesaving medicines to the poor.

Last year, India's patent office allowed local drug manufacturer Natco Pharma Ltd. to produce a generic version of Bayer's kidney and liver cancer drug Nexavar on the grounds it would make the drug available to the public at a reasonably affordable price. It was the first use of compulsory licensing under Indian patent laws passed in 2005.

Soaring cabin temperatures meant 50 passengers and crew had to be treated for heat stress Monday on a Qantas domestic flight in Australia, after a problem with the air-conditioning.

The flight was heading from Sydney to the Australian island of Lord Howe, a journey of around two hours, but was forced to turn back.

Health watchdogs monitoring the risk of malaria in India should keep a close eye on what's happening thousands of kilometres (miles) away in the Atlantic, an unusual study published on Sunday suggests.

The temperature of the sea surface in the tropical South Atlantic is a big determinant for levels of monsoon rain, which in turn is the big factor for malarial mosquitoes, it says.

A flawed gene implicated in Parkinson's disease lets proteins build up dangerously in key brain cells, according to a study on Sunday that throws open new paths for tackling the tragic disorder.

Parkinson's patients suffer from progressive stiffness, slowing of movement and problems in coordination resulting from the loss of nerve cells that make a muscle-controlling chemical, dopamine.

A baby born with the virus that causes AIDS appears to have been cured, scientists said, describing the case of a child from Mississippi who's now 2½ and has been off medication for about a year with no signs of infection

There's no guarantee the child will remain healthy, although sophisticated testing uncovered just traces of the virus' genetic material still lingering. If so, it would mark only the world's second reported cure.

A Hong Kong regulation came into force Friday barring people from crossing into mainland China with large quantities of baby formula following chronic shortages which have fueled anti-Beijing sentiment.

Formula is popular with mainland Chinese because of concerns about the safety of food processed in China after a series of scandals, notably in 2008 when six babies died from drinking milk tainted with the chemical melamine.

Horsemeat has been found in ground beef supplied to Taco Bell's three restaurants in Britain after tests sparked by Europe's sprawling food scandal, the U.S. fast food giant said Friday.

Taco Bell said it was "disappointed" by the discovery and had immediately withdrawn ground beef from the restaurants, two of which are in shopping centres in Essex, east of London, and one of which is in Manchester, northwest England.