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Photographer Turns Camera on Herself to Tackle Obesity

In bed asleep, eating, in her underwear or even displaying her scars after weight loss surgery, photographer Jen Davis has always been as comfortable in front of the camera as she is behind it.

But when Davis, 36, set out on a "journey of self discovery" to explore her own weight problem through a series of self-portraits, she discovered a side to herself she didn't know existed.

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New Zealand Mulls Alcohol Sponsorship Ban

A New Zealand government review on Wednesday recommended French-style measures banning alcohol sponsorship of sport in a bid to curb the South Pacific nation's binge drinking culture.

The ministerial review, headed by former national rugby league coach Graham Lowe, said it was concerned that alcohol firms used sports sponsorship to reach young people from an early age and shape their drinking habits.

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Sources: U.N. Chief to Travel to Ebola-Hit Countries

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will travel to Ebola-hit countries in West Africa this week to raise awareness about the health crisis, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

Ban is to make the announcement at a year-end press conference at the United Nations on Wednesday, U.N. official said.

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WHO: Ebola Toll Rises to More Than 6,800

More than 6,800 people have now died from the Ebola virus, almost all of them in west Africa, the World Health Organization said Monday.

The U.N. health agency reported that as of December 13, there had been 18,464 cases of infection from the deadly virus in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and 6,841 people had died.

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Antibiotics Resistance Could Kill 10m a Year by 2050

A British government-commissioned review has found that resistance to antibiotics could account for 10 million deaths a year and hit global gross domestic product by 2.0 to 3.5 percent by 2050.

The Review on Antimicrobial Resistance said surgeries that have become widespread and low-risk thanks to antibiotics, such as caesarean sections, could become more dangerous without urgent action.

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Japan Orders Chicken Cull after Bird Flu Outbreak

Japan on Tuesday ordered the slaughter of some 4,000 chickens after officials confirmed bird flu at a poultry farm in the southwest of the country.

DNA tests confirmed the H5 strain of the virus at a farm in Miyazaki after its owner reported more than 20 sudden deaths among his poultry on Sunday and Monday, the agriculture ministry said.

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Cannabis on a High in 2014

It's been something of a breakthrough year for marijuana, the once shunned intoxicant that is steadily gaining ground as a legal high in parts of the world.

In 2014, Uruguay may have been the only country to fully legalize pot, but growing number of U.S. states followed parts of Europe in moving in a similar direction.

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Liberia Postpones Elections again Because of Ebola

Officials in Ebola-stricken Liberia have postponed senatorial elections elections until the end of the week, while some urged calling off the vote for fear the results would not be credible.

Ebola has killed nearly 3,200 people this year in Liberia, and many question whether elections can be held at all under such circumstances.

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Ebola in 2015 - End of the Line for a Killer?

After decades making brief, murderous forays from central Africa's forests, Ebola erupted into a global emergency in 2014, yet its success could spell its downfall as scientists scramble to relegate it to a footnote of medical history.

From a single infection in impoverished west Africa, the epidemic swept into bustling cities, killed thousands and unleashed a wave of fear in far-off Europe and America.

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Cancer Patients Testing Drugs on Mouse 'Avatars'

Scientists often test drugs in mice. Now some cancer patients are doing the same — with the hope of curing their own disease.

They are paying a private lab to breed mice that carry bits of their own tumors so treatments can be tried first on the customized rodents. The idea is to see which drugs might work best on a specific person's specific cancer.

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