New Zealand's Fonterra, the world's largest dairy exporter, said Monday that its milk was "100 percent" safe to drink despite tests finding trace elements of an agricultural chemical in milk powder.

Fonterra, which reported revenues of NZ$19.8 billion ($16.6 billion) in the 2012 financial year, said tests had revealed low levels of dicyandiamide (DCD) in some milk samples.

Millions of smokers could be priced out of health insurance because of tobacco penalties in President Barack Obama's health care law, according to experts who are just now teasing out the potential impact of a little-noted provision in the massive legislation.

The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" to its detractors — allows health insurers to charge smokers buying individual policies up to 50 percent higher premiums starting next Jan. 1.

A California jury heard opening statements Friday in a lawsuit that accuses Johnson & Johnson of knowingly marketing a faulty hip implant that lawyers say left thousands of people with crippling problems or in need of replacement surgeries.

The fraud and negligence suit is the first of thousands of similar cases to reach trial in the United States that involve an all-metal ball-and-socket hip joint that was pulled from the market two years ago.

More than a fifth of the world's population was infected by the H1N1 virus in the 2009-2010 flu pandemic, according to new estimates released on Friday.

The study confirms warnings that so-called swine flu was highly contagious. It also estimates that the flu's lethality -- as previously reported -- was low.

PepsiCo subsidiary Gatorade said Friday it was removing an ingredient from its popular citrus-flavored sports drink that has a second life as a fire retardant.

Brominated vegetable oil -- patented as a chemical to help prevent flames from spreading -- appears in a number of brands of soft drinks in the United States as an emulsifier.

Burger King has ditched an Irish supplier of beef that is at the centre of a food scare after horse meat was discovered in beefburgers sold in Britain and Ireland, where it is deemed to be a taboo.

The U.S. fast-food giant said Wednesday it has decided to replace all Silvercrest beef products in Britain and Ireland with those from another supplier.

The Dutch food and consumer watchdog issued a warning Thursday about a batch of herbal tea imported from Bulgaria which may have been contaminated by a highly toxic nightshade plant.

The tea, supplied by Dutch herbal tea supplier Jacob Hooy, "has probably been contaminated by deadly nightshade, a plant that's dangerous to peoples' health," the NVWA said in a statement.

It has been called the world's oldest recorded disease, an evil that humans have known for more than 3,500 years, as papyri from ancient Egypt testify.

Yet drugs to cure leprosy are cheap, plentiful and effective.

Scientists have discovered two new genetic mutations that occur together in 71 percent of malignant melanoma tumors, an aggressive and deadly cancer of the skin, a study published Thursday said.

The mutations, detected in a part of the cancer genome that controls genes but not in the genes themselves, could aid understanding and lead to treatment of one of the world's most lethal cancers or stop its progression.

From breast-slapping and gold thread face-lifts, to vaginal whitening soaps and olive-oil penis enlargements, image-obsessed Thais are going to ever increasing extremes in the quest for beauty.

The colorful self-proclaimed pioneer of breast-slapping says her unusual technique allows clients to boost their bust by at least one bra size without surgery.