The deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) remains a significant threat to Saudi Arabia, the health ministry said on Tuesday after a series of cases in the western city of Taif.

The virus, believed to be transmitted from camels to humans, has infected at least 17 people in Taif since September 5, a ministry statement said.

Drink lots of milk to strengthen your bones and boost your health, doctors say.

But a study in The BMJ medical journal Wednesday said Swedes with a high intake of cow's milk died younger -- and women suffered more fractures.

U.S. President Barack Obama and the Red Cross have offered hope that the battle against the deadly West African Ebola outbreak is being won, amid a dramatic drop in bodies collected in Liberia's capital.

Obama on Tuesday hailed progress in the fight against the disease, which has already killed almost 5,000 people, but said Washington would remain "vigilant," and stressed that science, not fear, should guide the response to the virus.

The Red Cross said Tuesday the weekly total of Ebola victims collected by its body disposal teams around the Liberian capital is falling dramatically, indicating a sharp drop in the spread of the epidemic.

The announcement appears at odds with an assessment by the World Health Organization (WHO), which said last week transmission "remains intense" in the capitals of Liberia and neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Is a violent criminal born that way, or shaped by childhood experiences and circumstances?

Delving into one of oldest questions in psychology, some scientists have suggested genes may contribute to roughly half of the influence -- by affecting complex brain chemistry, for instance.

Niger has seen more than 1,300 cases of cholera since the beginning of the year, with 51 people dying of the disease, the United Nations said Monday.

In September alone there were 38 reported deaths from cholera, said the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the capital Niamey on its website.

Straining to hear the radio held to his ear, Wesley Wudea gestures for his grandchildren to be silent as he picks up rare tips on Ebola prevention in his own language.

In Liberia, at the center of the west African outbreak, the airwaves are often the best way to disseminate information on the epidemic, yet swathes of the ethnically diverse country do not speak the lingua franca.

Australia said Monday it was suspending migration from Ebola-hit West African nations to try to prevent the virus from crossing its borders, as a teenager who arrived from Guinea tested negative for the disease.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison told parliament the government had stopped issuing visas to people from those countries hit by the disease, which has claimed close to 5,000 lives in its worst outbreak.

Fujifilm said Monday it would buy a U.S. vaccine maker as the Japanese firm boosts its supply of an experimental Ebola drug to help stem the spread of the virus.

The deal would see Fujifilm take a 49 percent stake in Kalon Biotherapeutics, with plans to buy the whole company "in the future", the company said, without supplying financial details.

Bioactive ingredients found in cocoa sharply reversed age-related memory decline in a group of volunteers, scientists reported on Sunday.

The compounds, called flavanols, were taken in a specially-prepared cocoa drink, according to an experiment published by the journal Nature Neuroscience.