South African and South Korean researchers are working on making a smartphone capable of doing AIDS tests in rural parts of Africa that are the worst hit by the disease, a researcher said Friday.

The team has developed a microscope and an application that can photograph and analyze blood samples in areas far from laboratories to diagnose HIV and even measure the health of immune systems.

Covered in smog and cramped apartment towers, Hong Kong is not usually associated with a healthy lifestyle. But new figures show that Hong Kongers are the longest-living people in the world.

Hong Kong men have held the title for more than a decade and recent data show women in the southern Chinese city overtaking their Japanese counterparts for the first time, according to the governments in Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Thalidomide survivors on Saturday rebuffed an apology by the German company that manufactured the drug, saying it was an "insulting" response to the thousands born disabled as a result of its use.

In its first apology for the scandal in 50 years, Grunenthal said on Friday it was "very sorry" for its silence towards victims of the drug, which was sold to pregnant women in the 1950s and early 1960s to cure morning sickness.

At a time where the Parliamentary Committee for Administration and Justice is implementing the tobacco control law on September 3, “ABC, the leading retailer in Lebanon will, once again, be the pioneer in instigating the tobacco control legislation number 174 on the 1st of September,” ABC said in a press release.

“This decision reflects an awareness of health issues associated with smoking, and ABC considers this phase to be another important step towards making Lebanon a vibrant and healthy place to live,” ABC added.

Health officials and a consulting surgeon are reviewing a living-donor kidney transplant program that's been temporarily suspended by a northwest Ohio hospital, where a donated kidney apparently was put with medical waste instead of going to the intended recipient in what medical experts describe as a rare accident.

The University of Toledo Medical Center apologized and put two nurses and an administrator of surgical services on paid leave without public explanation following the Aug. 10 error. It also sent letters notifying 975 patients and potential organ donors and recipients that they may need to make other arrangements for services typically provided through the program under review.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. is recalling more than 31,000 units of a chemotherapy drug after discovering one vial was overfilled, putting patients at risk of an overdose.

The company's action affects 10 lots of BiCNU, an injection of the drug carmustine, used to treat brain tumors, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Six visitors to California's famous Yosemite National Park have now been infected with a rare rodent-born virus, two of whom have died, officials said Thursday, in an update on the outbreak.

Earlier this week Yosemite authorities closed down all tent cabins in part of Curry Village, a popular lodging area in Yosemite Valley, the tourist hub at the center of the scenic park visited by millions of people every year.

The West Nile virus, responsible for more than 60 deaths in the United States so far this year, has now claimed its first victim in the eastern state of Maryland, state health officials said Thursday.

"We reported 13 cases of West Nile virus that occurred since the 1st of July," a spokeswoman for the state health department, Dori Henry, told Agence France Presse.

Water-pipe smoking is as bad as deeply inhaling cigarette smoke when it comes to causing respiratory problems, according to a study published on Thursday.

Researchers led by Mohammad Hossein Boskabady at Masshad University of Medical Sciences in Iran monitored lung functions among 57 local water-pipe smokers, 30 deep-inhalation cigarette smokers and 51 normal-inhalation smokers.

Gripped by its worst cholera outbreak in nearly 15 years, which has already left 229 dead, Sierra Leone is likely to see cases triple in the next month as the rainy season hits its peak, estimates show.

In Freetown, the densely populated seaside capital, makeshift houses without toilets or running water crowd the muddy green hills surrounding the city. Slums cluster on the seafront, where rubbish chokes streams and children play in dirty water.