Nearly 300 stores in the Gulf emirate of Dubai will ban the sale of cigarettes for 24 hours on Thursday to mark the World No Tobacco Day, local media reported.

"In Dubai, nearly 300 outlets including petrol stations and supermarkets will stop selling tobacco for 24 hours," reported English daily, The National.

A simple, cheap dose of zinc helps the recovery of newborns suffering from bacterial infections such as pneumonia and meningitis, according to an Indian study reported on Thursday in The Lancet.

Doctors gave 10-milligram daily supplements of zinc to 332 babies who were being given antibiotic treatment at hospitals in New Delhi, and compared the outcome against 323 infants who were given a placebo as well as antibiotics.

U.S. regulators Wednesday denied a request to change the name of high-fructose corn syrup to merely "corn sugar," in a high-profile dispute between two industries.

The effort to change the name comes amid controversy over the sweetener, which is at the epicenter of a dispute over a possible link to obesity.

One-year-old Katakane laughs and coos in the arms of her HIV-positive mother as a doctor tries to examine her at South Africa's largest public hospital, in Soweto township.

But it is only a routine check-up. The little girl is healthy thanks to a treatment that has saved thousands of babies born to mothers with the virus that causes AIDS.

U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama made her literary debut Tuesday with a book about the White House garden in her latest effort to promote healthy eating in a nation struggling with obesity.

"American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Gardens and Gardens Across America" features the smiling mother of two holding a bulging basket of fresh produce on its cover and includes a slew of healthy recipe, anecdotes and even some childhood memories.

Turkey's Islamist-rooted ruling party is preparing a bill to slash the time limit for abortions, party sources said, after the prime minister triggered outrage for likening abortion to murder.

Abortion has been legal in Turkey since 1983, allowing women to terminate a pregnancy in the first 10 weeks, but under the proposed bill the Justice and Development Party (AKP) wants to drastically reduce the time limit.

A simple urine test could soon reveal more about a person's bones than X-rays, U.S. researchers said Tuesday after publishing results of an early phase study funded by NASA.

The technique could help astronauts cope with the bone loss that can occur in weightless environments like space, but may also have broad implications for people who suffer from osteoporosis or cancers that may spread to the bones.

A young Georgia woman battling a flesh-eating disease could hardly believe it when she was able to speak Sunday for the first time since she was taken to an Augusta hospital more than three weeks ago, her father said Monday.

"Hello. Whoa. Wow, my mind is blown," were Aimee Copeland's first words Sunday morning to her sister and mother, her father said in a phone interview Monday with The Associated Press. Andy Copeland was in church at the time and had to wait until a later visitation time Sunday evening to hear his daughter's voice.

A 10-year-old Cambodian girl has died from bird flu, the World Health Organization said Monday, the country's third fatality from the virulent disease this year.

The child developed a fever and shortness of breath on May 20 and died on Sunday, the WHO said in a joint statement with the Cambodian health ministry.

Starved of funds and medicine during decades of military rule, doctors at a clinic in Yangon offer their usual advice to one of Myanmar's newest HIV patients -- come back when you're sicker.

In a country with one of Southeast Asia's biggest armies but a healthcare system in tatters, scarce antiretroviral drugs are given only to those with the advanced form of the illness.