The number of people aged 100 or older in rapidly greying Japan has hit a record high for the 44th straight year, the government said Friday.

The country's centenarian population jumped by 4,423 from a year earlier to a record 58,820 as of September 1, the health ministry said, adding that 87.1 percent of them were women.

Health Minister Wael Abu Faour issued an order on Thursday closing al-Sanawbra charity infirmary in Baabda and calling off its license after pharmacy inspections found expired medical products.

Furthermore, the inspectors found medical products for chronic diseases stamped with names of patients. The products which are usually given to patients for free are being traded commercially at the said clinic.

South Korea on Thursday proposed a steep 80 percent hike in cigarette prices to cut consumption in a nation with one of the world's highest male smoking rates.

The decision requires parliamentary approval, but Health Minister Moon Hyung-Pyo said it was necessary to counter what has become the "biggest threat to national health".

A Guinean student who was Senegal's only confirmed case in the deadly Ebola epidemic has recovered, the health ministry said on Wednesday. 

Puerto Rico's governor says the island's largest public university is partnering with federal agencies to oversee a U.S.-funded project aimed at trying to develop a prophylactic vaccine for the HIV virus that causes AIDS.

Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said Tuesday the University of Puerto Rico will work with the National Institutes of Health and other public and private agencies. Officials said 30 scientists and students will participate in the five-year project that will take place in three stages, starting with molecular research and development.

Long-term use of a drug commonly prescribed for anxiety and sleeplessness is linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer's, a study said on Wednesday.

Nine in 10 American children eat too much salt, greatly raising their risk of high blood pressure and heart disease as they grow older, experts said Tuesday.

More than 40 percent of the sodium children consume comes from what are typically their favorite foods, including pizza, sandwich meats, cheese, chicken nuggets and pasta dishes, said the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Ebola is threatening the very existence of Liberia as the killer virus spreads like "wild fire", the defense minister warned Tuesday, following a grim World Health Organization assessment that the worst is yet to come.

After predicting an "exponential increase" in infections across West Africa, the WHO warned that Liberia, which has accounted for half of all fatalities, could initially only hope to slow the contagion, not stop it.

Clusters of severe respiratory illness across a dozen U.S. states have raised concern about the spread of an unusual virus that is striking children but not adults, health officials said Monday.

Britain is to set up a medical center to treat victims of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, the international development secretary said on Monday.