A panel of experts on Thursday urged U.S. regulators to approve what could be the first new anti-obesity drug on the market in more than a decade -- Lorcaserin, made by Arena Pharmaceuticals.

The committee voted 18-4 in favor of the drug, which works to control the appetite through receptors in the brain, after trial data showed it helped nearly half of patients studied lose up to five percent of their body weight.

U.S. health advisers on Thursday urged regulators to approve Truvada, made by Gilead Sciences, as the first preventive pill against HIV/AIDS instead of just a treatment for infected people.

The favorable vote came after clinical trials showed Truvada could lower the risk of HIV in gay men by 44 to 73 percent, and was hailed by some AIDS advocates as a potent new tool against human immunodeficiency virus.

The government is taking steps to help ensure that children who need CT scans and other X-ray-based tests don't get an adult-sized dose of radiation.

Too much radiation from medical testing is a growing concern, especially for children, because it may increase the risk of cancer later in life.

Obese older men with low testosterone levels can lose weight by taking supplements of the male hormone, according to the findings of a study released Wednesday.

In a test group of 115 testosterone-deficient men with a mean age of 61, hormone injections over five years yielded an average weight loss of 16 kilograms (35 pounds), said the study presented to the European Congress on Ovesity in Lyon, France.

An advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday urged U.S. regulators to approve a new treatment for rheumatoid arthritis made by the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.

Tofacitinib, tsaken orally, could serve as an alternative approach to treating moderate to severe patients who did not respond to one or more traditional therapies, said the advisory committee.

The African nation of Niger has ousted Afghanistan as the worst place in the world to be a mother, largely due to hunger, according to an annual report out Tuesday by Save the Children.

In contrast, Norway is the best according to the group's "Best and Worst Places to Be a Mom" ranking which compares 165 countries in terms of maternal health, education, economic status and children's health and nutrition.

Canadian researchers have found more clues that may help lead to the creation of a universal vaccine against the seasonal flu, according to a study published on Tuesday.

Researchers discovered that the vaccine given against "swine flu," or the 2009 H1N1 variety, triggered a series of antibodies that protect against many other types of flu, including the highly lethal H5N1 bird flu strain.

Largely preventable or treatable infections with viruses, bacteria and parasites cause about two million new cancer cases and 1.5 million cancer deaths each year, said a study published Wednesday.

This amounted to about one in six of the 12.7 million new cancer cases reported in 2008, said the report in The Lancet Oncology journal.

Women in stilettos and ostriches have unwittingly contributed to scientific advancement by showing researchers how to design a prosthetic leg better adapted for walking, said a study published Wednesday.

The best prosthesis for above-knee amputees, and for humanoid robots, would work nothing like the human leg, scientists found, -- but like that of an ostrich or the synthetic limbs used by South African amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius.

Forty-two percent of the U.S. population could be obese by 2030, up from about one-third currently, and the associated rise in health woes would likely cost $550 billion over two decades, said a study on Monday.

In real numbers, the increase would mean about 32 million more obese people, said the forecast led by researchers at Duke University in North Carolina and published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.